Tourism Ministry asked for transfer of ownership of Herethera resort

Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture has been requested for a change of ownership of Herethera resort, Addu, managed by Maldives Tourism Development Corporation Plc (MTDC).

The public limited company has decided to sell its most valuable asset to Treetop Investments for $30 million. Tourism magnate and entrepreneur Champa Hussain Afeef holds shares of Treetop Investments.

Tourism Ministry published an announcement last Thursday calling all parties who might have a pending debt or any other such issues regarding Herethera resort to come forth before the 4th of next month, as the company who hold the lease for the resort has asked for the transfer of all shares and rights of the resort granted to them in their lease agreement.

At the company annual general meeting held last Wednesday, Managing Director of MTDC Mohamed Matheen said that the company faced $17 million in losses last year from Herethera resort.

“We’ve made a lot of effort to sell this place because it is costing us such loss, We’ve tried to sell it time and again. We received a bid to purchase it from us for $30 million. A Singapore company also proposed to buy it for $17 million. A Chinese tour operator suggested that we sublease it with $2 million upfront. Because the best proposal was to sell it for $30 million, the board made the decision to sell it to them,” Matheen said.

Matheen also said that the company still has a pending loan of $17 million to the Bank of Maldives, which was withdrawn to develop Herethera.