Calamander Group set to develop 5 hotels; eyes shopping mall and int’l F&B brand
The Calamander Group Inc, a Singapore based investment holding company which recently announced expansion plans for its Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf franchise in Sri Lanka, is poised to set up three more hotels, in addition to its beach resort in Unawatuna, oficials said.
“We want to build three new hotels which will altogether have 500 rooms”, Roman Scott, Founder and Chairman of The Calamander Group Incorporated, with interests in real estate, hotels, F&B, and education in the Commonwealth countries, and Managing Director of Calamander Capital, the firm’s fund management unit told the Business Times.
He added that the company already has set its sights on acquiring two hotels- one in Colombo and the other in Kandy “These will be city centre hotels and they will be ‘nice, middle class’ brands,” he said, adding that they will be three star hotels. These two hotels will be managed by international brands, he said.
Roman Scott
“After this we’ll be looking to build two new hotels,” he said, adding that a lot of work went into Calamander Unawatuna Beach which is a four star property. Mr. Scott said that Calamander’s mission is to add value to real assets via asset repositioning, operational improvements and turnarounds.
The company will be refurbishing its 8-room boutique hotel in Nuwara Eliya and has plans to build another such upmarket hotel in a land they own in Matale.
Calamander’s enterprise business does buy-outs and buy-ins in a diversified range of industries linked to emerging Asian consumption and urbanization, and has a niche in the Sri Lankan market.
The company is also eyeing to set up a medium sized shopping facility in Colombo while looking to acquire an international school or a hotel school.
“We’re quite interested in the educational sector,” Mr. Scott said.
The group has plans to bring other international brands in addition to Coffee Bean to Sri Lanka, he said, adding that it will most likely be an American brand.
Calamander currently holds interests in real estate, hotels, consumer and agri-business sectors, in South and South East Asia.
By 2017 the group plans to setup 20 The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf distribution points across Sri Lanka out of which six new stores would be setup by the end of 2014. The Phase I location expansion plans covers the core Colombo central zone and the most popular upper middle class suburbs such as Bambalapitiya, Racecourse, and Colpetty in Colombo Central; Rajagiriya, Wattala and Mount Lavinia in the city’s affluent suburbs.
Other locations targeted are major new shopping malls, and selective co-locations with other major branded retailers. Regional expansion locations planned include Kandy, Kurunegala, Galle, and Gampaha.
Calamander Capital, the group’s fund management unit manages private equity funds linked to group investment strategies. The group employs over 250 people, with offices in Singapore, Colombo and Dhaka.
Mr. Scott was previously a Partner in The Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) Global Finance Services Practice, and had a 20-year career as board level advisor for more than 75 financial institutions and state bodies in the financial markets in London, Tokyo Singapore and Jakarta. He served as advisor to the Indonesian Government’s Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) and four of Indonesia’s top five banks, and is an expert on post crisis bank restructuring and credit risk management, as we as investment and consumer banking and life insurance. He led BCG’s wealth management practice in Asia and has worked for most of the private banks.