Aitken Spence Resort Operator’s Profits Rise

Aitken Spence Group, Sri Lanka’s biggest resort operator, has posted post-tax profits of 260.7m Sri Lankan Rupees (Rf.30.7m) this week.

The firm, which runs six resorts in Maldives with a total of 776 rooms, reports profit grew 7.9 percent during the last quarter of 2006, despite a difficult year for the tourism industry. Aitken Spence, a part of the Stassens Group, said profit after minority interest and tax and interest grew to 260.7 million (Rf.30.7m) from 241 million (Rf.28.4m).

Aitken Spence operates the following resorts: Adaaran Prestige Water Villas, Adaaran Select Meedhupparu, Adaaran Ayurveda Village Meedhupparu, Adaaran Select Hudhuran Fushi, Adaaran Club Rannalhi and Adaaran Club Bathala.

The company reports group revenue grew to 4.4 billion Sri Lankan rupees (Rf.518.7m) from 3.3 billion (Rf.389m). Maldives and Bangladesh brought 2.2 billion (Rf.259.3) of the revenue.

Aitken Spence is expanding and is currently building a leisure property in India. Group finance costs doubled to 232 million rupees from 114 million. In the 9-months interest costs rose 76.5 percent to 603.6 million.

The group said tourism brought in 348.7 million (Rf.41.1m) in operating profits during the nine months, with cargo logistics bringing in 190.1 million and strategic investments 2 billion.

Source: minimannews