Berthold & Kotthoff Associates successfully completed the investment structuring and implementation of the strategic merger between Sri Lanka’s most exclusive and premium destination management companies Red Dot Tours (RDT), Sri Lanka In Style (SLIS) and The Fabulous Getaway (TFG) to ink a new roadmap for the merged entity to establish itself as the No 1 Destination Management Company in Sri Lanka.
Red Dot Tours, which originated in the UK and Sri Lanka and which is now based principally in Colombo was established as a leading destination management company for Sri Lanka long before the island became one of the hottest holiday destinations in the world. Founded in 2000, Red Dot had quietly built a reputation for possessing an intimate, in-depth knowledge of Sri Lanka and the company seeks to satisfy all tastes and budgets by marketing the top 400 properties – ranging from the traditional beach or colonial-style hotel to luxury villas and quirky, independent backpacker-oriented guesthouses – for their excellence in their own price bracket.
Sri Lanka In Style was born in 2004 as a loose association for small luxury hotels, villas and service operators in Sri Lanka. Its aim was to provide a central platform from which we could all share resources, information and ideas, and market ourselves together as luxury travel specialists. In 2005 they set up a travel arm to handle incoming travellers to Sri Lanka. Today, Sri Lanka In Style is firmly established as one of the leading travel companies in Sri Lanka. SLIS is the local partner for some of the world’s top travel specialists and private travel designers and proud to be the exclusive Virtuoso On-Site for Sri Lanka.
Berthold & Kotthoff Associates is a hospitality specific investment advisory, property brokerage and project development consultancy with offices in Male’/Maldives, Colombo/Sri Lanka and Yangon/Myanmar. Our executive leadership and senior managers are armed with decades of experience in hospitality management, hotel development, finance and investment advisory and develop client relationships based on quality service, reliability, transparency and trust.
Colombo Fort Hotels made a strategic investment in the leisure sector by taking control of the award-wining boutique hotel Galle Fort Hotel with an investment of USD 7 Million it said in a stock exchange filing. GFH is an award winning boutique hotel in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Galle Fort in Southern Sri Lanka.
GFH is the winner of ‘Sri Lanka's Leading Boutique Hotel’ Award in the 2010 World Travel Awards and the 2007 UNESCO Asia Pacific Award of Distinction for Heritage Conservation, the highest award ever given to the country. It has an international reputation for its minimalist and heritage inspired design, boutique service and its food. Designed by Channa Daswatte, it is featured in numerous design books and magazines as an iconic Sri Lankan hotel and is the benchmark for the conservation and adaptation of Galle Fort buildings.
Also a source close to the Lankem Group said its already building a new wing with luxury suites at the Galle Fort Hotel in order to expand the room count and general facilities of the hotel and is in the process of acquiring more properties within the Galle Fort for further expansion of facilities in view of the anticipated growth in the tourism industry.
Galle Fort became a major tourist attraction after being declared a World Heritage Site in 1988. The Portuguese, the Dutch and the English all made Galle their main administrative centre to rule Sri Lanka. Even today, one can identify buildings bearing the architectural styles of these three nations. Due to this reason and the unique state of preservation of the fort it draws a large number of European tourists. Plans have already been initiated to make Galle Fort a Centre for Cultural Tourism. The National Heritage and Cultural Affairs Ministry is undertaking a major renovation plan in the ancient Galle Fort to attract both local and foreign tourists, with the restoration, landscaping and paving the streets of Galle Fort to make it attractive to tourists, the improvement of infrastructure and minimize traffic congestion within Galle Fort to develop it as a centre for cultural tourism.
Colombo Fort Hotels is an associate company of Lankem Ceylon PLC, a diversified conglomerate with business interests in paints, agro chemicals, industrial chemicals, consumer products, leisure and plantations. The Group operates in the leisure sector through Club Palm Bay Marawila, Sigiriya Village and The Palms Beruwela that they own and manage.
This transaction saw the Company playing the role of Sell Side Advisory to a Consortium of Italian Investors, and paved the way for them to divest the entirety of their shareholding in a Beach Resort to a local company venturing into Hotels & Resorts in Sri Lanka. The Target Company was a four star beach resort property spread across 11 acres of land located in Tangalle. The resort with 54 rooms in operation is set amidst the pristine beachfront of Tangalle and the lush tropical wilderness of the surrounding environment and boasts of close proximity to a range of focal destinations in the South, including the Hambantota International Cricket Stadium, Yala Wildlife Safari Park and Mattala International Airport. Seeing its completion in March 2011, this Acquisition and Development project was an investment by a local company with diverse business interests and resorts & hotel investments in the Maldives.
Auro Holdings is a local company backed by a consortium of high net-worth investors with diverse business interests and resorts & hotel investments in the Maldives. Auro Holdings is in the process of establishing a portfolio of hotels in Sri Lanka with its initial acquisition/development of Ranna212 and city property Colombo Courtyard.
