Caribbean resort operator Sandals Resorts has reportedly hired Deutsche Bank to explore its strategic alternatives, including a potential sale of the 36-year-old brand, according to a Reuters report.
Gordon “Butch” Stewart has built Sandals into the largest non-government employer in Jamaica and sources said today the company could be worth well over US$1 billion, including debt.
The company, which caters primarily to adult couples, owns 24 vacation properties in seven Caribbean countries, including Jamaica, the Bahamas, Grenada and Barbados. When Stewart founded Sandals in 1981, the company began as a single hotel near one of the largest beaches on Jamaica’s Montego Bay.