The Tanoa Hotel Group has confirmed it has pulled out of a deal to purchase the iconic International Dateline Hotel in Tonga.
The Managing Director of the Fiji and New Zealand-based company, Rohit Reddy, says his company and the Tongan government made all efforts to get an arrangement in place.
But Mr Reddy says they failed to reach an agreement on some key commercial terms.
He says they were very keen to develop the hotel, in a similar way that has been done with their other properties in Fiji and Samoa.
The Tongan government purchased the hotel in 2012 when it fell under liquidation.
Matangi Tonga reports the Finance Minister, Tatafu Moeaki, as saying the government had offered a 75-year lease, and the Tanoa Group was willing to invest just under 10 million US dollars to develop the 126-room hotel.
But Mr Moeaki said the government did not change what it initially put on the negotiating table.
