We are specialists and experts in the hospitality practice. Our clients come to us for our mix of technical expertise and creativity to find commercial solutions for all aspects of the hospitality practice. Our lawyers sit on the board on a number of owning and management companies for our expertise in the business. We act for the diverse array of stakeholders in the industry, including owners, operators, managers, developers and financiers.

Sales and acquisitions

We have extensive experience advising on sale and acquisition of green-field islands from the Government of Maldives, and second-hand sales of both green-field sites and operational resorts. We work to ensure effective and smooth transactions. Our experience includes acting for both the buyer and seller in 2019 on the acquisition of the Finolhu Resort by Seaside Hotels (Germany) from Coastline Group (Maldives), and acting for Chip Eng Seng Group (Singapore) in 2019/2020 on the acquisition of a lagoon in Maldives for the development a Hyatt property.

Leases

We advise on structuring lease structures for owners and operators of resort hotels. For instance, we recently acted for the sublease owners of a USD 150 million hotel on the extension of the sublease agreement with the head lease owners for 99 years. We also recently acted for the Atmosphere Hotel Group on the structuring of the joint venture head lease and sublease structures relating to various lagoon and island development projects of the Group.

Hotel Management Agreements (HMAs)

International hotel operators such as Marriott, Shangri-la, Taj, Hilton and Wyndham, and owners of resort hotels come to us in respect of HMAs for our deep understanding of the Maldives hospitality market and resort hotel operations. We recently acted for the owners of One&Only Reethi Rah Resort on the renegotiation of the hotel management agreement with the Dubai-based Kerzner Group.

Financing

We have acted for the international banks, financial institutions, buyers, owners and operators relating to financing in hospitality industry, including (1) acquisition financing, such as acting for Aareal Bank AG (Germany) on the financing provided to Blackstone for acquisition of Anantara Maldives hotels, (2) project financing (such as acting for HSBC and syndicate lenders on the USD 300 million financing for construction of Fari Islands by the Pontiac Group (Singapore), and (3) re-financing of hotel resorts.

Construction and development

We have acted for developers and owners on the construction of resort hotels. Our recent experience includes acting for the owners of JW Marriott Maldives on the development of JW Marriott opened in 2019, and acting for owners and developers of on-going resort development projects.

Operations and HR

We understand the business of hotel operations in the Maldives. We are pro-active and work closely with owners, senior management teams and HR teams on various operational and HR matters. We provide counsel to over 60 resort hotels in the Maldives.