Sandy Lane, one of the world’s most luxurious hotels, may be in for some stiff competition and surprisingly, it can come from an unusual source: an Irish financier who bankrolled the rebuilding of the Barbados property.
Dermot Desmond, an Irish billionaire investor, who put up much of the money used to tear down and rebuild Sandy Lane several years ago, is spending the equivalent of $240 million on a new paradise for the rich on Canouan, a small island in St Vincent & the Grenadines. And if you think Sandy Lane is the top of line when it comes to luxury, think again, according to people who have seen it.
“The attention to detail at Dermot Desmond’s new holiday playground for the super-rich, the Pink Sands Club, certainly knows no bounds,” stated the Irish Times, one of Ireland’s major daily papers.
To get the word out to the financial investment community and to the super-rich, the Financial Times of London was given easy access to the Canouan resort and it quoted an employee of Desmond as saying “this is a James Bond island for our times.”
And how would it compare with Sandy Lane? “The resort seems a level above even Sandy Lane in Barbados, which Desmond co-owns and rebuilt in 2001,” stated the Irish Times.
The news about the Pink Sands Club has come at a time when Barbados is experiencing some of its toughest financial days as both the Government and the private sector are laying off thousands of workers in order to cut costs. The interest in the Canouan resort has surfaced as unconfirmed reports circulate that ownership of Sandy Lane may soon change hands and it could be acquired by another exceedingly rich group of Irish investors.
“There is that talk that Sandy Lane may be sold soon to some wealthy Irish investors,” was the way a source put it.
As for Desmond, he is on Forbes Magazine’s list of the world’s wealthiest people. His total assets are said to be well over the $4 billion mark and climbing.
Earlier this month, Forbes stated that his holdings grew recently by $400 million.
The cost of a one bed suite at the Pink Sands Club starts at almost US$4 000 a night. A notable feature of the place is its colour scheme, reported the Financial Times.
Everything from the cushions to the staff uniforms has something pink in them.
“Desmond loves pink,” the FT said.
The multi-billionaire also loves green, meaning money and he knows how to earn it. He recently sold his stake in Optimal Payments, a money transfer company and he made more than US$200 million in profit from the deal. Analysts in England and Ireland trace his fortune to almost a quarter of a century ago from the sale of NCB Stockbrokers to Ulster Bank for the equivalent of $150 million. He used some of that money to invest in Denis O’Brien’s technology operation. He became richer when he bought and sold stakes in several Irish companies, including Golden Vale, Unidare and Dunloe.
That’s not all. During the financial crisis which hit Ireland and Europe, Desmond acquired and sold a stake in the Bank of Ireland but he remains a major shareholder in INM. But his biggest investment coup was his buyout of London City Airport in 1995 for £23.5 million. Back then it was located in an unattractive part of London’s Docklands.
But it experienced a turnaround in financial fortunes when the City’s financial services business expanded rapidly. By the time the City Airport was sold in 2006 to a consortium of companies, including AIG and Credit Suisse its value was more than one billion euros.
Desmond, one of Ireland’s richest men, has broad financial interests. He has investments in Celtic Football Club of the Scottish Premier League, a large newspaper, International Investment & Underwriting, IIU, and Sandy Lane.
At one stage, he was part-owner of the Manchester United Club in England. But he sold his holdings in that world famous football franchise, making a hefty profit. He is so highly regarded in Ireland that he was offered the chairmanship of the Irish Airline, Aer Lingus, but he turned down the offer on the grounds that he couldn’t devote the time required to run what is a source of Irish pride.