Citrus Leisure PLC is a

hotel chain A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suite (hotel), suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a d ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. The hospitality company owns and operates Citrus Waskaduwa, Citrus Hikkaduwa and the Steuart by Citrus. The company was incorporated as Hotel Reefcomber Limited in 1973. In 2010, the company was rebranded as Citrus Leisure when

Dilith Jayaweera Dilith Susantha Jayaweera (born 18 September 1967) is a Sri Lankan businessman, entrepreneur, media mogul, lawyer and politician. He is the current Chairman of George Steuart Group of Companies, and the founder and CEO of TV Derana. He entered p ...

and Varuni Fernando of Triad Advertising bought a stake in the company. In 1984, the company was quoted on the

Colombo Stock Exchange The Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) (; ) is the main stock exchange in Sri Lanka that utilizes an electronic trading platform. The CSE headquarters have been located at the World Trade Center (Colombo) Towers in Colombo since 1995, and it has regi ...

History

Citrus Hikkaduwa was incorporated in 1973 as Hotel Reefcomber Limited. Hotel Reefcomber was listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange in 1984. The hotel company was rebranded as Citrus Leisure PLC in 2010. Sri Lankan entrepreneur,

Dhammika Perera Kulappu Arachchige Don Dhammika Perera, commonly known as Dhammika Perera (born December 28, 1967), is a Sri Lankan billionaire businessman and politician. A top corporate leader, he is one of the wealthiest people in Sri Lanka, controlling 23 li ...

acquired the hotel in 2004 for LKR26 million. Perera divested the hotel for LKR328 million in 2010. Dilith Jayaweera and Varuni Fernando of Triad Advertising acquired a stake in the company in the same year. The

Criminal Investigation Department The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is the branch of a police force to which most plainclothes criminal investigation, detectives belong in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth nations. A force's CID is disti ...

opened an investigation in 2013 on a land purchase by Citrus Leisure in 2013. Citrus Leisure purchased land in

Pasikudah Pasikudah or Pasikuda (; ; (Pronounced ''Paasikkudah'' - historic Tamil translation "Green-Algae-Bay") is a coastal resort town located 35 kilometers northwest of Batticaloa, Batticaloa District, Sri Lanka. Historically a small Tamil hamlet alon ...

for LKR139 million for a new resort called Passikudah Beach Resort. The ownership of the land was disputed in court by two Swiss nationals. The company resolved the dispute with a payment of LKR80 million to the party who instituted the legal dispute.

Kalpitiya Beach Resort

Citrus Leisure applied for listings on the Colombo Stock Exchange for two of its subsidiaries, Waskaduwa Beach Resort and Kalpitiya Beach Resort in February 2011. Kalpitiya Beach Resort's

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

oversubscribed 2.3 times while Waskaduwa Beach Resort's IPO oversubscribed by 3.4 times. Building Citrus Kalpitiya was delayed in 2013. Initially, Kalpitiya Beach Resort PLC was planned to build a 150-roomed, four-star resort and 50 villas. The number of villas planned to build was lowered to 32 in 2013. The lack of infrastructure such as roads and pipe-borne water that the government promised to develop was cited as the cause of the delay. The Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka ordered Kalpitiya Beach Resort to call an

extraordinary general meeting An extraordinary general meeting, commonly abbreviated as EGM, is a meeting of members of an organisation, shareholders of a company, or employees of an official body that occurs at an irregular time.' The term is usually used where the group wo ...

. The Commission expressed "grave concern" that the company has not built the resort within the time stipulated in the IPO. The Commission ordered the company to reveal its true financial position to the shareholders and pass an alternative course of action. The company issued a clarification regarding a statement made by prime minister

Ranil Wickremesinghe Ranil Wickremesinghe (; ; born 24 March 1949) is a Sri Lankan politician who served as the ninth president of Sri Lanka from 2022 to 2024. He has also served as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 1993–1994, 2001–2004, 2015–2018, 2018-2019 a ...

in the parliament.

Restructuring

In September 2016, Citrus Leisure underwent a

corporate restructuring Restructuring or Reframing is the corporate management term for the act of reorganizing the legal, ownership, operational, or other structures of a company for the purpose of making it more profitable, or better organized for its present needs. ...

. Waskaduwa, Kalpitiya resorts and privately held Passikudah Beach Resort were placed under Hikkaduwa Beach Resort. In 2018, Citrus Leisure decided to abandon the plans to develop the Kalpitiya Resort. The company stated the capital would be employed to settle the debts of the company. Following the merger of Kalpitiya Beach Resort with Hikkaduwa Beach Resort, the Colombo Stock Exchange decided to delist Kalpitiya Beach Resort in 2018. Citrus Leisure opened Ceylon Curry Club, a Sri Lankan contemporary food restaurant in the Dutch Hospital, Colombo.

Properties

Citrus Waskaduwa is a 150-roomed five-star resort in Waskaduwa. The hotel commenced operations in April 2014 with the participation of president

Mahinda Rajapaksa Mahinda Rajapaksa (; ; born Percy Mahendra Rajapaksa; 18 November 1945) is a Sri Lankan politician. He served as the sixth President of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015; the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 2004 to 2005, 2018, and 2019 to 2022; the ...

. Citrus Hikkaduwa is formerly known as Hotel Reefcomber. Hotel Reefcomber opened in 1973. The hotel was relaunched as Citrus Hikkaduwa in January 2012. Citrus Hikkaduwa is consisted of 100 rooms and is located in

Hikkaduwa Hikkaduwa, in south-west of Sri Lanka, is a large costal tourist area, covering 11 different villages over 6 km (3.7 mi) on the ocean, and 3 km (1.9 mi) inland. It is run by the Hikkaduwa Urban Council. Located in the Galle District, Hikkaduw ...

. In 2015, the 175 year-old Steuart House in

Colombo Fort Fort (Colombo) (Sinhala: ; Tamil: ) is the central business district of Colombo in Sri Lanka. It is the financial district of Colombo and the location of the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) and the World Trade Centre of Colombo from which the CSE ...

was converted into a city hotel.

George Steuart Group George Steuart Group of Companies (George Steuarts) is Sri Lanka's oldest mercantile establishment, having been established in 1835 during British occupation of Ceylon. It is the oldest surviving mercantile firm in the country, with a recorded h ...

, the parent company of Citrus Leisure, leased the property to Citrus Silver Ltd to operate a 50-roomed, Scottish-themed hotel. The hotel was named the Steuart by Citrus. The rooms of the hotel are named after Scottish toponyms.

References

External links