Elpitiya Plantations PLC an associate company of Aitken Spence PLC, recently entered into a Shareholders’ Agreement with Sim Leisure Group Ltd., a listed company in Singapore Stock Exchange, to develop and operate an adventure theme park under the ‘ESCAPE’ brand in Galle, Sri Lanka.
While the partnership will formalise and strengthen the business relationship between the two companies, this is an extraordinary step from both parties amid the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the country and shows the confidence on the government foreign investment policy.
‘ESCAPE’ will bring their well-known philosophy for theme parks to Sri Lanka with a unique state-of-the art adventure park. Moreover, the project is the first of its kind in Sri Lanka and obviously the first in Regional Plantation Companies.
A few unique features of the park would be: longest waterslide in Sri Lanka at around 800 m; the first chairlift experience in Sri Lanka; and cascaded flying fox and other exciting games.
The investment for ESCAPE Sri Lanka project is estimated to be over $ 4 million. The construction of Phase 1 of ESCAPE Sri Lanka on 30 acres is scheduled to commence in the financial year ending 31 December 2020, targeting to open for the public beginning of FY2021.
ESCAPE Sri Lanka will be situated in the Galle district.
This will be an attraction for Sri Lanka’s largely untapped domestic tourism sector, which has increased over the years, whilst strengthening leisure and entertainment options for international tourists.
The theme park will also integrate well with the Government’s efforts to strengthen the tourism sector and to promote destination Sri Lanka. What’s more, this is likely to create ripple effects for the economy by attracting more investments into districts outside Colombo and by creating employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for the local communities.
Sim Leisure is a leading theme park developer and operator based in Malaysia (under ESCAPE brand). Over the past 25 years, Sim Leisure has completed more than 300 projects, including Bollywood and Motiongate (Dubai), Yas Waterworld (Abu Dhabi), Legoland (Denmark and Malaysia), and Universal Studios (Singapore).
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