by Brian Major
Last updated: 4:48 PM ET, Thu May 11, 2017
Officials at Sandals Resorts International (SRI) are "exploring options to accelerate the company's long-term growth and development plans," they said in a statement issued Thursday.
The statement follows a Reuters report that says officials at the privately held company are "exploring strategic alternatives including a potential sale of the company."
Sandals was founded 36 years ago by Jamaican entrepreneur Gordon "Butch" Stewart. It is the largest non-government employer in Jamaica and one of the largest privately owned Caribbean resort firms, with properties in Antigua, Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, the Bahamas and the Turks & Caicos.
The Reuters report says SRI has hired investment bank Deutsche Bank AG to explore several options, including a sale of a majority stake in the company, citing sources close to confidential deliberations.
The resort firm also operates tour services in the Caribbean, and its value could be "well over $1 billion, including debt," the Reuters sources said.
Now the company's chairman, Stewart began his career as a sales manager at Curacao Trading Company, founding his first company, Appliance Traders Ltd., in 1968. The resort company was launched in 1981 with a single beachfront hotel near the Sangster International Airport in Jamaica's Montego Bay.
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