Tropical Islands has today signed agreements with Eske Group A/S and Novasol A/S for the development of vacation homes and related facilities at Tropical Islands resort.

Tropical Islands is a holiday resort destination with an all year-round indoor tropical environment with attractions catering for all age group visitors. It is located within the world’s largest freestanding dome, some 60 km south of Berlin, Germany. It houses the world’s largest indoor rainforest with over 50,000 plants from 600 species. The resort also features Germany’s tallest water slide and Europe’s largest tropical sauna and spa complex which offers different wellness themes for visitors to enjoy a holistic leisure experience.

Tropical Islands is developed by Tropical Island Holding GmbH Group, which is a subsidiary of Tanjong Public Limited Company (“Tanjong”). Tanjong is an investment holding company listed on the Malaysian stock exchange, Bursa Malaysia and the London Stock Exchange plc

Dato’ Robert Cheim, Chairman of Tanjong, said, “The creation of Tropical Islands as a resort destination with an exotic year-round tropical setting was conceptualized over three stages of development. The first stage was accomplished with the opening of the dome in December 2004. The second stage involved the addition of new attractions within the dome to improve the quality and widen the appeal of the resort to a wider range of target audiences.”

“The successful completion of the first two stages has positioned TI favourably for the third and final stage of the Tropical Islands development which is to provide resort accommodation and related facilities to enable Tropical Islands to move beyond its local leisure market offering to capture the growing European market for short-term family vacations.”

The development on the resort’s 500 hectares of land bank surrounding the dome will be carried out over three phases which is expected to see the completion of approximately 2,000 vacation homes as well as related facilities in the vicinity of the Tropical Islands dome.

The signing ceremony between Tropical Islands group, Eske Group A/S and Novasol A/S is the first of three phases and relates to the development of 375 units of vacation homes as well as entertainment and leisure outlets and ancillary leisure facilities for which the relevant planning approvals have been obtained. Phase 1 will involve the transfer of a piece of land measuring approximately 56 hectares of which 30 hectares have been zoned for the 375 vacation homes and 26 hectares are zoned for streets, common facilities, parks and forest.

Phase 1 will be independently financed by Eske Group whose main business activities are in construction and project development in Europe. Eske Group is majority owned by Synerco Group which is a leading Danish privately owned venture and an investment company, with substantial interests in private and investment banking, wind energy and solar energy sectors, advertising and media, as well as IT security solutions.

Tanjong is not expected to assume nor commit to any financial obligation in respect of the construction and development of the said vacation homes. As the homes are expected to be ready by April 2010, the proposed development will not have any effect on the consolidated earnings per share of Tanjong for the financial year ending 2009.

Novasol will be given the exclusive right to market the leasing of the vacation homes to potential visitors to Tropical Islands. Novasol will also undertake the marketing and promotional activities of the vacation homes as well as Tropical Islands dome.

Novasol is Europe’s largest rental company for vacation homes with more than three decades of experience in the industry and an established track record and wide marketing reach. Novasol is affiliated to Wyndham Worldwide, Inc., which is the world’s largest hotel franchisor and a world leader in vacation exchange network and also the vacation ownership business.

Dato’ Cheim added, “Today’s signing marks the commencement of the final stages of the development of the Resort. We are delighted to have Eske Group and Novasol as our partners, as their combined years of expertise and experience will surely contribute to the successful development of Tropical Islands.”

“The availability of resort accommodation facilities will help Tropical Islands attract a greater number of visitors from the fast growing European vacation market, and should expand its current visitor profile which comprises largely day-trippers. This will place the resort in a much better position to generate greater revenue in the longer term.”

“There remains much potential for Tropical Islands to expand even further and the Group is confident that it will capture the lucrative Europe market for short-term family vacations. Moving forward, the Group will continue to explore new options to optimize the potential of its vast land bank.”

Date Posted : 22 Aug 2008
Source : Kuala Lumpur