Dubai: The UAE-based Dutco Group of Companies, the owner of JA Resorts & Hotels, said on Sunday it has acquired a high-end resort in the Maldives, its first one outside of Dubai. The company said in a statement that the move also marks the first hospitality investment in the Maldives by a UAE company. It, however, did not divulge the value of the acquisition.
Ahmad Adeeb Abdul Gafur, Minister of Tourism for the Maldives, who attended the formal transfer of ownership of the property from Tropical Maldives to JA, said that he hoped this was the first of many large scale investments by UAE companies in the island nation in the Indian Ocean-Arabian Sea area.
The resort will be relaunched later in the year as JA Manafaru.
“The investment does not just end with the purchase of the Resort as JA Resorts & Hotels have also earmarked several million dollars to making several upgrades and soft refurbishments to the resort to ensure it is able to compete with the very best that the Maldives has to offer when it is relaunched later in the year as JA Manafaru,” the company stated.
Larger expansion
Tareq Baker, the chief executive of the Dutco Group said that the investment in the Maldives is “a part of the company’s larger expansion plan of high-end properties both within the UAE and in other markets outside of the Middle East.”
“While a number of factors influenced our decision to buy this property, the purchase is dictated by our prudent growth strategy supported by the long-term strategic investment policy we have implemented in the hospitality sector which will also see us investing in new hospitality projects in Dubai,” he added.
The company further said that besides expanding operations in other global markets, JA Resorts & Hotels will be announcing the launch of properties closer to home over the next 18 months with at least three new hotels planned in Dubai prior to 2020.
