LAUGFS will invest a colossal amount in the LPG and Maritime sector and will acquire 17 vessels by 2020, said LAUGFS Chairman. W. K. Wegapitiya.
This would take their fleet up to 20 and make the company one of the biggest private sector maritime companies in Asia.
Speaking to ‘Daily News Business’ at the celebrations of the first anniversary of its second hotel, Anantaya Passikudah he said that they will either buy these vessels on an outright basis or on wet lease. This will strengthen the company’s LPG logistics capability to cater to regional demands as well as their own LPG operations in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
LAUGFS acquired its third LPG vessel – Gas Courage, in January this year.
Commenting on their LPG gas operations in Sri Lanka he said that a price revision was long overdue parallel to the escalating global prices. “Both of us (LAUGFS and Litro Gas) are losing due to this,” he lamented.
Wegapitiya said that in 2015, LAUGFS became one of the largest LPG downstream players in Bangladesh and would now invest on a LPG gas cylinder manufacturing plant there. “We will export these canisters to Africa as well,” he assured.
Bangladesh is a fast developing country and with LAUGFS there are five players in Bangladesh and the LPG gas penetration was only 2% and there was huge opportunities there.
The LAUGFS LPG Import & Export Terminal in Hambantota will help position Sri Lanka as a service and supply hub in South Asia, by taking advantage of its strategic geographic location in the Indian Ocean.
It is constructed with a total investment of USD 80 million, with a total capacity of 45,000 MT, of which Phase 1 will be of 30,000 MT. “ Construction is well on track and we plan to commission the new Terminal in the second half on 2018,” he said
He also said that they will also invest on a domestic airline mainly to service their Anantaya hotel in Passikudah from Colombo and also to cater to other hotels in the region. “We are looking at two fixed wind aircraft of around 20 seats each to operate from Ratmalana and Colombo,” Wegapitiya added.
He said that they want to also have stop overs in some of the other domestic airports like, Palali, Trincomalee, Koggala to make the operation more viable. We will also include Mattala International airport to our radar.” He emphasized that they will definitely offer the lowest airfare which would be around USS 50 per passenger and operate schedule flights. He said that this would be an easier and lower cost operation than purchasing ships.
“Our second step would be to go regional starting from the Colombo Maldives flights.”
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