Keong Hong Holdings opens first hotel in the Maldives

BUILDING construction, property and hotel investor and developer Keong Hong Holdings, welcomes its first hotel in the Maldives with the opening of Mercure Maldives Kooddoo Hotel.

The hotel is owned by Pristine Island Investment, a joint venture (JV) company set up by Keong Hong Construction, the group's wholly owned subsidiary, together with JV partners Sansui Holding, BRC Asia and L3 Development.

Announcing this on Tuesday, the Mainboard-listed Keong Hong said the opening on Monday was attended by President of the Republic of Maldives Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom and Singapore's Non-Resident Ambassador to the Republic of Maldives Chua Thian Poh.

The Mercure Maldives Kooddoo Hotel, managed by the Accor group, has 68 villas including 43 located over water and 25 scattered along the beaches.

Also opened was the expanded Kooddoo Airport, which has an extended airport runway of 1,800 metres, allowing it to serve private jets such as Bombardier Global 5000. Its construction, which started in July 2014, was undertaken by KHA Resorts & Hotels Construction (Maldives), a subsidiary of Keong Hong.

The group's chairman and chief executive officer Ronald Leo said: "The future outlook for tourism investments in Maldives is bright and the latest visitor arrivals from Europe and the Asia-Pacific remained strong. As a hotel owner and investor, we are attracted by Maldives' one-island-one-resort concept and its rich marine biodiversity, endless sunshine and the warmth of its people. We are already looking forward to the opening of our second hotel property in Maldives, the luxurious 120-villa Pullman Maldives Maamutaa Resort in 2019."

The Maldives hotel properties will add to the group's two hotel properties in Singapore and a growing number of property investments overseas. Investments in hotel and property will provide Keong Hong with a stable recurring income, part of its long-term plans to grow the contribution from hotel and property investment to form a more substantial portion of its earnings, it said.

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