Westin Dhaka now seeks bailout

The parent company of The Westin Dhaka, Unique Hotel and Resorts Limited (UHRL), wants the government to bail them out as its business has been severely impacted by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic for one and a half years.

Besides, the company also wants that the Health and Family Welfare Ministry pay them their unpaid bills worth Tk 68 lakh that was accumulated for providing rooms to the health workers of Kuwait Bangladesh Moitree Hospital for their quarantine in August and September, last year.

Md Noor Ali, managing director of the UHRL, recently wrote to Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, seeking his intervention to help Westin survive.

The UHRL revenue declined to Tk 50 crore or 61% until March of 2020-21 fiscal year as against the revenue (Tk 157.70 crore) of the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. The revenue has been continuing to dwindle since then because of poor room occupancy due to spread of the coronavirus.

"During our good days, we paid more than Tk 500 crore to the government in taxes. Now, we are having bad days and we request our government to help us survive," Ali said in the memo.

The hospitality company said a number of doctors of Kuwait Bangladesh Moitree Hospital had stayed in Westin hotel during June to September in 2020-21 fiscal year as per a deal signed between the Health and Family Welfare Ministry and Unique Hotel and Resorts Limited.

“We are yet to receive room tariffs for two months from the ministry,” the memo said.

Since the inception of the company in Bangladesh in 2007, it paid over Tk 500 crore in taxes to the government. Of the amount, Tk 339 crore was paid from FY07 to FY17, Tk 57 crore in FY18, Tk 56 crore in FY19, Tk 38 crore in FY2020 and Tk 9.90 crore until March of FY21, respectively.

Unique hotel and Resorts Limited is the first hotel to get enlisted with the Dhaka Stock Exchange, the largest bourse of the country.

According to the company, it currently has more than 800 employees in its hotels and restaurants. The Westin in Gulshan has 235 rooms and Hansa in Uttara has 76 rooms, respectively.

Meanwhile, in their financial statement published in fiscal 2019-2020, the Unique hotel had shown assets worth Tk 3,583 crore, while its liabilities stood at Tk 1,237 crore.

Bangladesh Bank on July 15 declared a new Tk 1,000 crore stimulus package for hotel, motel and theme parks suffering from the ongoing business slowdown amid the pandemic.

The owners of residential hotels and theme parks are entitled to receive easy funds, primarily to be used as working capital, with only 4 percent interest.

“The hospitality industry will not be able to bounce back from such difficulties unless airlines movement gets normal,” said Akhtaruzzman Khan Kabir, CEO of Bangladesh Tourism Board.

It is unfortunate that the circular of Tk 1,000 crore incentive loan is yet to reach the branches of various public and private banks, he said.

Kabir said, "How could this sector that has been devastated by Covid-19 pandemic survive without an incentive loan?” he asked.

According to him the industry has incurred a loss of Tk 20,000 crore because of the pandemic.

“We will be able to reinstate the jobs of 9 lakh employees if we get some loan,” he said. A total of 23 lakh people are employed by the hospitality industry across the country, he said.

“International standard hotels are still running below the breakeven point and that more guests are needed to reach that point.”