The setting of the first stone for construction of the Hilton Hotel in Cabo Verde (Cape Verde), a luxury project costing an estimated 46 million euros, will take place Friday on Sal Island, according to financial news agency Reuters.

Funding for construction of the new hotel, in Santa Maria, in the south of the Cape Verdean island of Sal, is 40 percent secured by a local banking syndicate and the remainder is provided by Batuque SA, set up by the Hilton group.

The banking syndicate includes Banco Comercial do Atlântico (BCA) and Banco Interatlântico (BI), both part of Portuguese state financial group Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD), Banco Espírito Santo – Cabo Verde (BES-CV), Caixa Económica and Ecobank, and will provide a total of 7.6 million euros.

The first hotel of the luxury chain in Cabo Verde will have 240 rooms including 21 suites, one of which will be a presidential suite with a total area of 250 square metres, three restaurants, a 1,200 square metre gym and a business centre as well as a casino.

The license for the casino was granted by the Cabo Verde government in April 2013 and gives the company a gaming and gambling concession for a period of 25 years.

Construction was initially scheduled to start in 2009 but the financial crisis stopped it from going ahead. Originally the project was due to start operating in the summer of 2015 but is now only expected to be ready for launch in March 2016. (macauhub/CV)