cse spen.n0000 industry leisure transportation & logistics power generation information technology financial services bpo kpo printing apparel plantation services property development founded 1868 founder patrick gordon spence thomas clark edward aitken s.r. aitken headquarters colombo sri lanka area served sri lanka maldives bangladesh india south africa oman fiji key people harry jayawardena chairman rajan brito deputy chairman and managing director rohan fernando director parakrama dissanayake director stasshani jayawardena director revenue us 279.9 million 2013 14 operating income us 43.6 million 2013 14 net income us 34.4 million 2013 14 total assets us 467.7 million 2013 14 total equity us 296.6 million 2013 14 number of employees 13 000 2012 website official website aitken spence plc scottish pronunciation e tkin sp ns sinhalese tamil is a sri lankan blue chip conglomerate 1 with operations in south asia the middle east africa and the pacific . 2 3 listed in the colombo stock exchange since 1983 it has major interests in hotels travel maritime services and logistics . 2 the group also has a significant presence in printing plantations power generation financial services it bpo kpo sector elevator agency services garments and property development . 2 aitken spence has been recognised by forbes as one of the most successful publicly traded companies with annual sales under us 1 billion outside of the united states for three consecutive years . 4 in 2012 aitken spence was adjudged the top winner of the best corporate citizen award 2012 presented by the ceylon chamber of commerce . 5 the company is one of the first signatories to the un s global compact in sri lanka . 6 contents 1 history 2 governance structure 2.1 chairman and board of directors 2.2 group management committee 3 corporate sustainability 4 hotels 4.1 sri lanka 4.1.1 heritance hotels and resorts 4.1.1.1 heritance ayurveda maha gedara 4.1.1.2 heritance ahungalla 4.1.1.3 heritance kandalama 4.1.1.4 heritance tea factory 4.1.2 turyaa kalutara 4.1.3 aitken spence hotels and resorts 4.1.4 aitken spence school of hospitality 4.2 maldives 4.2.1 adaaran hotels and resorts 4.2.1.1 adaaran club rannalhi 4.2.1.2 adaaran prestige vadoo 4.2.1.3 adaaran select hudhuran fushi 4.2.1.4 adaraan select meedhupparu 4.2.1.5 adaraan prestige water villas 4.2.1.6 aarah island 4.2.1.7 raafushi island 4.3 india 4.3.1 turyaa chennai 4.4 oman 4.4.1 al falaj hotel muscat 4.4.2 al wadi hotel sohar 4.4.3 desert nights camp al wasil 4.4.4 ruwi hotel muscat 4.4.5 sur plaza hotel sur 4.4.6 jabal akhdar hotel nizwa 5 logistic solutions 5.1 cargo consolidation and storage facilities 5.2 container handling repair and modification facilities 5.3 ground transport and project cargo handling 5.4 freight forwarding courier services and air cargo 5.5 maritime services 6 services 6.1 destination management 6.2 event management & mice 6.3 airline agency 6.4 financial services 6.5 knowledge and information technology 6.6 elevator agency 6.7 lifestyle offerings 7 strategic investments 7.1 power generation 7.1.1 hydro wind solar waste to energy and dendro power 7.2 plantation services 7.3 garment manufacturing 7.4 printing 7.5 next generation technology products 8 references 9 external links history edit patrick g. spence whilst the roots of aitken spence can be dated back to wilson & archer partnership of the 1830s in the early british colonial ceylon the company began to take its current form after the signing of a formal partnership agreement between thomas clark and patrick gordon spence scottish merchants and shipping agents 7 in galle on 1 september 1868 wherein clark spence & co. was established . 8 9 clark spence & co. s trading segment at this stage included exports of natural vein graphite plumbago gems hides sappan wood ebony coffee coconut oil coir yarn bristle fibre arrack and citronella oil to united kingdom continental europe united states of america and australia ; and imports of burmese rice and coal for steamer ship bunkers . 10 on 5 april 1871 patrick gordon spence secured clark spence & co. as the sole agent of lloyd s of london in ceylon . 9 in order to service the agency for the lloyd s of london for the port of colombo clark spence & co. partnered with britton aitken & co. to open a branch office in colombo . on new year s day 1873 e.c. britton opted out of the britton aitken & co. partnership resulting in patrick gordon spence edward aitken and s.r. aitken coming together to form aitken spence & co. to manage the operations in colombo whilst clark spence & co. continued in partnership to operate in galle . 8 9 in 1876 aitken spence & co. obtained the lloyds agency from clark spence & co. 8 aitken spence had also obtained the local agency of morgan crucible company for trading in plumbago . 7 as colombo became the commercial capital of sri lanka aitken spence & co became more prominent and subsequently its partner company clark spence & co. originally based in galle became a subsidiary of aitken spence & co. 11 edward aitken by the 1880s aitken spence had also secured the shipping agencies koninklijke rotterdamsche lloyd and stoomvaart maatschappij nederland for ceylon . 12 the company moved into plantations sector as an agency house in the early 1900s and with the onset of the great depression began to withdraw from its trading business . in 1918 aitken spence purchased the freudenberg building in colombo and made it its company headquarters having renamed the building as lloyds building . as a pioneer in port operations aitken spence was entrusted in coordinating the operations of colombo port during the second world war . 8 9 aitken spence became a private company in 1952 . 8 in its centenary year 1968 it appointed its first sri lankan chairman 8 e.l. van langenberg . 13 by 1971 as sri lanka was preparing to end british dominion and declare as republic the company became a wholly sri lankan owned entity . 14 in 1972 it began to offer shares to its executives thereby broad basing its ownership . the company eventually moved on from this model and in 1983 offered its shares to the general public on the colombo stock exchange with an issued share capital of rs . 51 million . 8 15 during the early 1960s and early 1970s insurance and plantations sectors which were core business segments of aitken spence where the company had been well established at the time were nationalized . 16 17 however the group s marine insurance segment including its lloyd agency continued to operate as it did not fall within the purview of nationalization . despite the setbacks from nationalization in realizing the then government s thrust to boost tourism aitken spence launched its tourism segment in 1972 with investments in its first hotel neptune hotel in beruwala sri lanka opened in 1974 . 16 the company then entered into aviation in 1974 as general sales agent for singapore airlines in sri lanka . 8 in consolidating its travel agency business that had begun with the launch of aitken spence hotels in 1974 aitken spence set up aitken spence travels in 1977 as inbound and outbound tour operators in sri lanka and as agents for eurail and britrail . 8 18 tourism is now a core business segment of aitken spence . with sri lanka adopting open market economic policies focused on export led growth in 1977 aitken spence forayed further into new business segments container and allied services in 1979 ; garments and apparels in 1979 ; 19 international courier service agency with tnt in 1981 ; 8 and elevators in 1989 as agent of otis . 8 with insurance sector being deregulated in the 1980s the group played a pivotal role in the resurgence of private sector insuarance as a proponent of the national insurance corporation and union assuarance ltd stakes in which aitken spence subsequently divested . aitken spence reentered plantations sector when the sector was reprivatized in 1992 through its stake in udapussellawa plantation plc that was later divested . in response to the power crisis in sri lanka in 1996 aitken spence began to explore investment opportunities in power generation sector with first two power plants coming online in 2002 . 20 the group also maintained container vessel operations with acquisition of five ships in a joint venture with ceyline group in 2003 which it later divested in 2008 . in 2010 in continuing its partnership with ceyline group aitken spence invested in cinec sri lanka s largest private higher education institution . aitken spence was the first sri lankan resort operator to embark on overseas resort operations having acquired bathala island resort of maldives in 1993 . 8 21 in 1996 aitken spence entered bangladesh through aitken spence cargo with its shipping services . 22 a decade later in 2006 aitken spence entered the indian hospitality sector having secured management contracts for five hotel properties in india . 8 on the same year the company broke new ground by becoming the first sri lankan company to venture into port efficiency management outside of sri lanka when it undertook to improve efficiency of ports in the african continent . 8 23 the company increased its global presence even further by obtaining the management of four hotel properties in oman in 2007 . 8 in 2013 aitken spence announced its proposed venture into fiji to manage the ports of suva and lautoka in a public private partnership with the government of fiji . 3 24 the group has expressed interest to further diversify its investments in fiji venturing into hospitality power and printing sectors . 25 currently the company has operations in seven countries sri lanka maldives bangladesh india south africa oman fiji spanning two continents 26 with 13 000 employees . 27 governance structure edit aitken spence is governed by the chairman and the board of directors and is managed by the group management committee . 28 chairman and board of directors edit the current chairman of aitken spence is mr. harry jayawardena . he is the founder director and current chairman managing director of the stassen group of companies a diversified group in exports and import trade and also the current chairman of the distilleries company of sri lanka dcsl plc . 28 the current panel of board directors includes mr. rajan brito deputy chairman managing director ; and executive directors dr. rohan m fernando dr. parakrama dissanayake ms. stasshani jayawardena ; and the non executive directors mr. g.c. wickremasinghe mr. charles gomez mr. niranjan deva aditya mr. manilal fernando mr. rajan asirwatham and mr.a.l . gooneratne alternate to mr. n.j. de s. deva aditya . 28 29 aitken spence towers corporate headquarters of aitken spence group in colombo . 02 . group management committee edit group management committee is headed by mr. rajan brito . the other members of the group management committee are dr. rohan fernando dr. parakarama dissanayake ms. stasshani jayawardena mr. ranjan casie chetty mr. rohantha peiris ms. nilanthi sivapragasam ms. nimmi guneratne mr. susith jayawickrama mr. rohan pandithakorralage mr. dinesh mendis mr. vipula gunatilleke mr. prasanna karunathilake mr. leel wickremarachchi mr. jayantha fernando mr. keethi jayaweera mr. gihan salgado mr. nalin jayasundera and mr. nilantha wakwella . 30 corporate sustainability edit aitken spence s sustainability framework is rated platinum and has been ranked 2nd in the sting corporate accountability index 2012 where corporate accountability performance of 63 corporate entities of sri lanka lmd 50 companies 9 soes on compulsory basis were analyzed . 31 32 sting consultants have also recognized aitken spence s integrated sustainability policy 33 34 as best in class for policy coverage in 2011 and 2012 . 35 36 as a result of the company s long standing engagement with the local network of the un global compact aitken spence has been admitted to the board and the steering committee of the sri lanka network . 37 dr. rohan fernando head of plantations and business development at aitken spence is the current chairman of the global compact sri lanka network . 38 aitken spence is