Government to go ahead with sale of failed Grand Hyatt hotel project
- CNL Reporter
- May 30, 2025
- News
- Grand Hyatt
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Sri Lanka’s leftist government said it was selling a failed hotel project, marking its first privatisation move in line with an IMF bailout. About 120 million dollars, or around 36 billion rupees, is needed to complete the Grand Hyatt project,
Government spokesperson Nalinda Jayatissa said the cabinet had agreed to revive the previous administration’s stalled process “of disposing of shares in Canwill”, a fully state-owned company established in 2011 to operate hotels.
The sale of Canwill marks the first major privatisation under the government of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, a self-avowed Marxist. With no prospect of raising the capital to complete the project, the new administration decided to divest the asset instead.
Jayatissa told reporters the government had decided to retain Deloitte, a leading professional services firm, to manage the sale.The government said Canwill, with an issued capital of US$61 million, needed at least another US$120 million to complete its 47-storey, partially built, 458-room beachfront hotel in Colombo
