Cinnamon Life to be completed by 2019

Construction work on the US $ 850 million Cinnamon Life project is progressing with pre-sales of the residential and commercial space continuing to be encouraging. However, the project has encountered some unforeseen delays and as such, construction work is now expected to be completed in 2019.

All efforts by Sunday Observer Business to contact Chairman, John Keells, Susantha Ratnayake or any other authority to obtain details regarding this failed.The trendsetting project, Cinnamon Life, was launched by Waterfront Properties (Pvt) Limited, a member of the John Keells Group.

This architectural icon envisages a 4.5 million sq.ft. integrated resort comprising an 800-room luxury Cinnamon Hotel, entertainment haven, residential apartments, state-of-the-art office spaces, a wide variety of food and beverage offerings and ballroom, conferencing, theatre and banqueting halls. This mixed development project is Sri Lanka’s largest private sector investment.

“The project will generate numerous benefits for the economy and the community. More importantly, Cinnamon Life will engender a sense of pride to be Sri Lankan as it will signal the march of the country towards a vibrant future,” a company official said.

“Excluding the impact of capital gains, the adjusted profit attributable to shareholders for the quarter and the first nine months are an increase of 5 percent and 17 percent, above the corresponding periods in the previous financial year,” he said.

John Keells Holdings Group net profit fell 10 percent to Rs3.9 billion in the December 2015 quarter compared to a year ago when a huge capital gain was included in the earnings. Group sales were flat at Rs. 24.7 billion with its insurance unit, Union Assurance General Limited being classified as an associate company from January 2015, and bunkering business hit by the steep fall in oil prices, a stock exchange filing said.

The December quarter diluted earnings per share fell to Rs. 3.26. Diluted EPS for the nine months to December 2015 rose to Rs. 8.23, with net profit up five percent to Rs. 9.55 billion compared to the previous year.

JKH group reported capital gains of Rs. 610 million in the December 2014 quarter.

JKH’s transportation industry group profit before tax fell 32 percent to Rs. 464 million in the December quarter from the previous financial year mainly due to a lower contribution from the bunkering business and to a lesser extent the port business.

The bunkering business maintained its market share during the quarter but sales and profitability were ‘significantly impacted’ by the steep reduction in global oil prices where inventory purchased at higher prices had to be sold at prevailing market prices, the spokesman said.