Sagicor Life Jamaica is already on the hunt for prospective operators of its 256-room hotel property that the Sandals group will demit in six months.

The property at Mammee Bay, in St Ann, has operated under lease as Sandals Dunn's River.

"They have opted not to continue and now we are looking for another operator, so we are inviting other persons to look at it," said Richard Byles, chief executive officer of Sagicor Life.

Byles was evasive on whether there was interest in the hotel and in what numbers or even if Sagicor would retain or sell the asset, but his remark that another operator was being sought suggests no sale was contemplated.

Big spending on upkeep

The hotel, which sits on 20 acres of beachfront land, was originally purchased by Sagicor in 1989. It was leased after extensive refur-bishing to Sandals group in June 1999, renewable at five-year intervals.

Sagicor, again, spent US$15 million in 2006 on more repairs to the property, which was operated as an all-inclusive and said to have averaged occupancy of 75 per cent within this decade.

The lease ends May 2010.

The property is held by Sagicor Pooled Investment Funds Limited, the subsidiary that manages the insurance group's pension funds portfolio, which, at December 2008, comprised $47 billion of eight pooled and 10 self-directed funds.

Sagicor PIF investments straddle real estate, equities, fixed income, money market foreign currency and other investments.

The net asset value of its pooled real estate and mortgage portfolio stood at $7.27 billion at December 2008.

Sagicor Life also operates a property company with a hefty real estate portfolio, spanning residen-tial and commercial developments.

But, the company has had to put on hold five projects which, at announcement, amounted to about $4 billion, the market now feeling the impact of the economic slowdown.

That slowdown, plus a credit market still nervous about issuing debt capital and a tourism sector hammered by falling revenue as dollar yield per room sold declines, could affect timely recruitment of a new investor willing to take on a hotel project.

business@gleanerjm.com