Turkey's Limak plans to invest $600 mln in tourism projects

ISTANBUL

Limak’s tourism division is to invest around $300 million in building two hotels in southern Turkey’s Mersin and 250 million euros ($292 million) in a complex in Macedonia’s Skopje, the Turkish company’s chairman said on July 4

The announcement was made by Limak Chair Nihat Özdemir at a ceremony to open a new hotel in northern Cyprus for an investment value of $200 million.

The group also plans to acquire a hotel in France’s Nice, according to company representatives. 

Özdemir said this was the eighth hotel investment of the group and they planned to build hotels in southern Turkey and Skopje. 

“With our new hotel Limak Cyprus Deluxe Hotel, we have reached a total bed capacity of 7,000,” Özdemir said at a ceremony for the launch of the hotel on July 4, adding that the group’s aim was to reach 10,000 in the next five years. 

According to a Reuters report, the group will build two hotels in the southern province of Mersin for a $300 million investment value and a construction complex composed of a hotel, residences, a mall and commercial area in Skopje for an investment value of 250 million euros. 

Limak Tourism Group General Coordinator Kaan Kavaloğlu said Limak was in talks with a hotel group to acquire an asset in Nice.

“We plan to extend our hotel investments into Balkans and Western Europe,” he said, adding that the group also planned to build a city hotel near the third Istanbul airport, which is under construction now by a consortium, in which Limak is a partner. 

The city’s third airport is due to open on Oct. 29 with an initial capacity of 90 million passengers per year.

Limak also plans to start production in three power plants by the end of 2019, Özdemir told Reuters on the sidelines of the press event.