April 20, 2007 (LBO) – The hotel unit of John Keells Holdings has sold a hotel property on Sri Lanka's Unawatuna coastal town in the South West of the island, the firm told the Colombo Stock Exchange Friday. Last week another listed firm, Hemas said a re-branding of several hotels in partnership with the Minor Group of Thailand had been put off. "Unawatuna Walk Inn Ltd (UWI), a 98 percent subsidiary of John Keells Hotels Ltd has been divested for a total consideration of 89.2 million rupees," Chairman Susantha Ratnayake said in a statement.
Unawatuna Walk Inn owns an 11 acre land.
Sri Lanka's hotels have been under a cloud since internal violence escalated last year and several generating markets in Europe issued travel advisories against the island.
In March arrivals fell 36 percent including from neighboring India which had been a resilient market earlier.
John Keells owns several hotels in the island, but it has been focusing on up market properties and in its resorts in the Maldives in recent years.
