The lower court has given Bank of Ceylon (BOC) the rights to sell off the famed Dhoogas Hotel in Gan island of Addu atoll should its previous operator, MVK Maldives, fail to pay back the loan it took from BOC after mortgaging the hotel.
The Civil Court’s verdict last Thursday came about just months after the Maldives government decided to award the operations of Dhoogas Hotel to Maldives Ports Limited (MPL), which is already preparing to take over it reins.
MVK Maldives had taken loans from BOC on December 2011 and February 2012. The Civil Court stated in its final decision that BOC may sell or lease off the hotel if MVK does not pay back its loan of USD 2.7 million (MVR 41.6 million) within seven months.
In addition to Dhoogas Hotel, MVK had also mortgaged some of its assets and a land plot it is renting in reclaimed suburb Hulhumale to take the loan. Hence, the court verdict grants BOC to sell or lease MVK’s assets and Hulhumale land plot as well.
Apart from the company, the court also ordered the loan’s guarantors, MVK’s owner Ibrahim Shafeeq and Fathimath Fareedha, to pay back the loan.
BOC has also filed at the Civil Court to temporarily halt the government’s proceedings to hand over Dhoogas to MPL until the matter is settled.
Meanwhile, MPL’s CEO Mohamed Junaid had announced last August that the government has decided to award Dhoogas to MPL, which plans to redevelop Dhoogas as a three-star hotel He had said that project will be green lighted as soon as the hotel blueprints are submitted.
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