Financial Times

Aitken Spence, one of Sri Lanka's leading blue chip diversified companies, is gearing to push forward their $25-million medical tourism project with a 250 bed hospital this year on the back of declaring a net profit of Rs.1.2 billion last year, an increase of 8.5 percent from the previous year.

"We are going into a joint venture with a Singaporean partner called Raffles, which is a famous medical group there and we are planning a state-of-the-art hospital in Colombo," Rajan Britto, Deputy Chairman and Managing Director told The Sunday Times FT.

Earlier the company was rumored to be interested in the Asiri Hospitals, but the move was blocked by the Softlogic Group who entered into Asiri Hospitals and obtained a board seat earlier this year. Softlogic has upped their stake in the hospital further last week, with more rumours in the market that they will eventually acquire the entity.

Meanwhile, Britto said that the company is still looking for land in Colombo, which is no easy task. "Getting suitable land in Colombo has proven to be difficult and we are still trying to finalise something in this regard," he said, adding that the company sees medical tourism as an extension of the hospitality industry that they already have a stronghold in.

"There is an urgent requirement from European countries for medical tourism, but there are not many medical hospitals here, so there is a huge demand," he said, adding that a specialist medical group from Singapore will be brought in for the hospital.

Meanwhile, Aitken Spence posted revenue of Rs 13.6 billion, a growth of 35 percent over the previous year and an earnings per share of Rs.44.76 with a return on equity of 15 percent. The company has recommended a final dividend of 35 percent, marking a total dividend of 65 percent for the year.

The company's diamond logo has also been revamped and the lettering has changed.

"The new logotype for Aitken Spence is a contemporary fusion of components of the original signatures of the founders both Mr. Aitken and Mr. Spence, who were British, were married in Sri Lanka, and we traced their marriage certificates to get the signatures," Britto said.

As for the tourism sector, the Maldives operations recovered strongly after the tsunami setback to record satisfactory growth.

The group invested Rs.400 million in the Water Villas at Meedhuparu, a cluster of 20 luxury water bungalows catering to the up-market tourist.

In Sri Lanka, Rs 1.8 billion has been invested in refurbishing and re-positioning its two flagship hotels Kandalama and Heritance (formerly Triton).

"We are still in discussion with two Delhi-based city hotels with the hope of acquiring them," he said, adding that a resort hotel acquisition in India was also on the cards. "We are actively pursuing this," he said.

Successful investments continued to provide a steady growth in the cargo-logistics sector, with the maritime transport division investing a further Rs 260 million in the expansion of its fleet of container vessels, and Britto said that the company will continue to expand overseas in this sector.

Freight-forwarding operations have expanded to India and Dubai with more strategic locations identified for the year ahead.

The integrated logistics division also had a good year with investments made in the previous years coming on stream.

In the strategic investments sector the group invested Rs 170 million in a state-of-the-art six colour printing press and have commenced construction of a new printing complex near Biyagama.

In addition, Rs 550 million was invested to increase the Aitken Spence stake in the 100MW power plant in Embilipitiya which commenced operations in April last year.

Strong international alliances continued to help with German investment company DEG also investing.