The Caribbean-focused lodging and hospitality company Sandals Resorts International has restarted efforts to sell itself, according to a Wall Street Journal report sourced from unnamed “people familiar with the matter.”
The Jamaican-headquartered company is reportedly in discussions with bankers on a sale that could possibly total up to $7 billion, with potential buyers coming from other hotel owners and private equity firms. A previous attempt by Sandals to explore a sale took place in 2019 but was halted when the pandemic shut down the hotel industry.
Sandals operates in Jamaica, the Bahamas, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Barbados, Antigua, Curaçao and Turks and Caicos. The Journal reported the “privately held business has been ensnarled in a family drama” that followed the death of company founder Gordon “Butch” Stewart in 2021 – his son Adam Stewart took on the position of executive chairman after his father’s death, but the elder Stewart’s common-law wife contested his will and other family members have been in conflict over the late hotelier’s estate.
The Journal added there was also the potential that no sale would occur.
Photo courtesy of Sandals Resorts
