Be ready for another long-drawn court battle over the Hilton Colombo with its promotor- businessman Cornel Perera planning to contest the recent announcement by the government that it has taken over the property from the owning company, Hotel Developers Ltd (HDL).
He is planning to file action and seek an enjoining order against the recent take-over. “The government has no right legally to take over the property as there are a number of cases pertaining to the issue and it’s a violation of a court order,” said Mr Perera, adding that now that the foreign loan has been paid in full, “my 56.4 % shares in HDL should be returned to me by the government.”
The government took possession of the property some two weeks back which was expected to end a long drawn saga involving Mr Perera, HDL, the government and Nihal Sri Ameresekere who has filed cases against the company. “They can’t take over the property based on half-baked information,” a furious Mr Perera said this week. “There is clear provision in the share transfer agreement (where Cornel’s shares were transferred as collateral for the government loan) which says that the moment the loan is repaid, the shares should be returned to me. The first part has happened (full loan to the Japanese has been repaid).”
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