John Keells Holdings

In 1870, two English brothers, George and Edwin John set up E. John & Co., a firm of produce and exchange brokers. In 1948 The firm merged with two London based tea brokers, William Jas and Hy Thompson & Co., and GeoWhite & Co., thereby evolving into a private liability company in the name of E. John, Thompson, White & Company Ltd. The firm amalgamated with Keells and Waldock Ltd., another long-established produce, share and freight broking company thus changing its name to John Keells Thompson White Ltd. in 1960. In 1973 The company acquired a controlling stake in Walkers Tours and Travels (Ceylon) Ltd., one of the country's leading inbound tour operators and in 1974 The firm became a Rupee quoted public company and took the name of John Keells Ltd. A newly incorporated John Keells Holdings Ltd. (JKH) acquired a controlling stake in John Keells Limited and obtained a quotation on the Colombo Stock Exchange amidst a heavily over-subscribed public share issue in 1986.

JKH was involved in the biggest ever deal at the time, when Whittalls group of companies was acquired thus gaining controlling stakes in Ceylon Cold Stores, Ceylon Holiday Resorts and a stake in Union Assurance in 1991 and in 1994 JKH became the first Sri Lankan company to obtain a listing abroad, and issued Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) that were quoted on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. In 1996 Velidhu Resort Hotel, an 80 roomed island resort in the Maldives, was acquired making it JKH's first major overseas investment. Nations Trust Bank (NTB) was established in a joint venture with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Central Finance Co. Ltd. Fortune magazine named JKH “One of the ten best Asian stocks to buy”. South Asia Gateway Terminals (SAGT) the largest private sector investment in Sri Lanka at that time commenced operations to own, operate and develop Queen Elizabeth Quay at the Port of Colombo in 1999.

JKH was rated among the best 300 small companies in the world by Forbes Global Magazine. JKH also became the first company in Sri Lanka to obtain the SL AAA rating from Fitch Rating Ltd. JKH was admitted as a full member of the World Economic Forum in 2000. During 2003 and 2004 JKH acquired Asian Hotels and Properties, an acquisition that brought with it 40 per cent of the five-star room capacity in Colombo and John Keells Hotels Limited (KHL) was created as a holding company for all Group resorts. JKH acquired a controlling stake in Mercantile Leasing Limited (MLL). The John Keells Social Responsibility Foundation, the Group's CSR arm, was established as a charitable company and registered as a voluntary social service organisation. The Group entered into an MOU to develop a third resort in the Maldives on Alidhoo Island. JKH acquired 80 per cent of Yala Village Hotel. With the sale of Keells Plantations, the Group exited from the ownership of plantations. JKH entered into the BPO space through a joint venture with Raman Roy Associates. The Group also launched its new hotel brands ‘‘Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts’’ and ‘‘Chaaya Hotels & Resorts’. NTB merged with Mercantile Leasing Limited.

The Group acquired a lease on Dhonveli Beach and Spa and Ellaidhoo Tourist Resort in the Maldives. Furthermore, JKH acquired 20 per cent of Associated Motorways PLC. (AMW). JKH increased its stake in SAGT by 8 per cent to 34 per cent. John Keells Holdings Ltd was renamed as John Keells Holdings PLC.

The group's first ‘‘Cinnamon’’ resort in the Maldives, ‘‘Cinnamon Island Alidhoo’’, commenced operations. IFC, a member of the World Bank group, signed a long term funding arrangement amounting to USD 75 million to support the Group’s expansion plans. JKH acquired a further 8.4 per cent in SAGT and also increased stakes in UA, CCS, JKL and KFPL. The stake in AMW was divested. JKH further acquired a 44 per cent stake in Quatrro Finance and Accounting Solutions.

In 2009 and 2010 The market capitalisation exceeded USD 1 billion. JKH was ranked first by the Business Today magazine’s ’Top 10’ award. Trans Asia Hotel was re-branded and re-launched as Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo. The Group released its first stand-alone Sustainability Report for 2008/09 in adherence to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI-G3) framework.

JKH was ranked first in the LMD Magazine's “Most Respected Entities in Sri Lanka” for the 5th consecutive time. The head lease of Alidhoo island was divested while the Group acquired the head lease of Dhonveli island for a period of 18 years. Rebranding and re-launching of Chaaya Tranz formerly known as Coral Gardens Hotel Hikkaduwa took place. The Group acquired 6.3 million shares of Nations Trust Bank through the conversion of warrants and effectively maintained its stake. JKH also acquired 5.6 million shares of Union Assurance PLC and increased its stake to 95.6 per cent. Ceylon Cold Stores added “KIK” as its cola brand in its portfolio of soft drinks. JKH's property arm commenced construction of “OnThree20”, a 475 unit apartment complex in the heart of Colombo. Walkers Tours and Whitall Boutstead became the only destination management companies to obtain both ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certifications.

In 2012, “The Emperor” apartment project at Crescat City, Colombo was completed. Chaaya Tranz Hikkaduwa and Chaaya Wild Yala were re-opened after refurbishment. JKH was ranked number one in the LMD Magazine's “Top 50” of Sri Lanka's leading companies for 2010/11 and number one in the Business Today magazine's “Top 20” rankings for the 7th time since 1999. The 200 room five-star resort hotel Cinnamon Bey was launched and Cinnamon Citadel was opened following an extensive refurbishment. Keells Food Products PLC, successfully raised Rs.1.02 billion via a rights issue in order to fund the acquisition and expansion of the meat processing plant in Pannala. Union Assurance PLC, successfully concluded a one for seven rights issue and raised Rs.720 million. The 140,000 square foot “K-Zone” mall was opened in Ja-Ela, Colombo. JKH was ranked number one in LMD Magazine's “Most Respected Entities in Sri Lanka” survey for 2012 and also ranked number one in Business Today Magazine's “Top 20” rankings.

In 2013 The market capitalisation of JKH exceeded US$2 billion for the first time in history. JKH announced the development of the luxury mixed-use integrated resort project, “Waterfront”[2][3]. JKH was ranked first in the LMD Magazine's “Most Respected Entities in Sri Lanka” for the eighth consecutive time and Business Today Magazine's list of Sri Lanka's Top 25 companies and was also recognized as one of the 15 great places to work in Sri Lanka through a survey conducted by the Great Place to Work Institute. Union Assurance launched Sri Lanka's first-ever fully-fledged customer portal for life policyholders. Divested the stakes in Central Hospital (Private) Limited and Information Systems Associates (ISA). During 2013 and 2016, The first lean luxury hotel in Sri Lanka, Cinnamon red was launched. The "Onthree20” residential development project was successfully completed. JKH was ranked first in LMD Magazine's “Most Respected Entities in Sri Lanka”. Union Assurance completed the segregation of its Life and General Insurance businesses complying with the IBSL stipulated regulations and sold a 78 per cent stake of the General Life Insurance business. JayKay Marketing Services (Private) Limited merged with Nexus Networks (Private) Limited, with JMSL being the surviving entity. Divested stakes in Expo Lanka Holdings PLC and Access Engineering PLC. John Keells Research partnered with the University of Maine, USA to develop reinforcing fibres using agricultural waste.

JKH was ranked first in the LMD Magazine's “Most Respected Entities in Sri Lanka” survey for the tenth time since the inception of the survey in 2005 as well as being ranked No.1 in Business Today Magazine's "list of Sri Lanka's top 25 companies for 2014/15"[4]. JKH Transportation sector company South Asia Gateway Terminals (SAGT) was ranked number one in South Asia and number four in the World for Terminal productivity by the Journal of Commerce, USA. With the acquisition of the controlling stake in Rajawella Holdings Limited, Victoria Golf Club and Resort was added to the portfolio of the JKH property sector, while this sector also completed “7th Sense” on Gregory's Road, the high end niche residential development.