Sri Lanka Galadari unit in profit for second successive quarter

Mar 07, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka's Galadari Hotels said profits rose 49 percent in the December 2010 quarter to 320 million rupees from a year ago, helped by forex gains, its second successive quarterly profit after a string of losses. The Employees Provident Fund (EPF), a pension fund of private citizens managed by the state, now holds a 13 percent in the hotel, having increased its share when it acquired an 11 percent stake at 34.00 rupees per share in May 2010 from Nawaloka Hospitals.

A stock exchange filling said sales rose to 640 million rupees in the December quarter from 459 million, a 39 percent rise from a year earlier.

Sri Lankan hotels reported full houses last year on the back of a boom in arrivals after the end of the island's 30-year ethnic war in 2009.

The peak tourism season in the country coincides with winter in the northern hemisphere with December and January usually the best months for hotels.

Galadari showed steep gains in foreign exchange earnings, a 108 percent rise in the December 2010 quarter to 544 million rupees compared with 244 million in December 2009.

The hotel had earlier borrowed from its Middle Eastern parent firm to help tide over losses.

The December quarter accounts