Luxury hotel group Belmond Ltd. announced Wednesday that its board of directors has begun a comprehensive review of strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value that could include a potential sale.
The result could be a sale of the entire business, a sale of individual properties or moving forward as an independent company. Belmond owns or manages 46 luxury hotel, restaurant, train and river cruise properties in two dozen countries around the world.
“The board is committed to pursuing a path that is in the best interests of all Belmond shareholders. Accordingly, we are conducting a robust review of the full range of strategic, operational and financial alternatives available to the company, including a possible sale,” the board’s chairman, Roland Hernandez said in a statement.
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“We have made meaningful progress toward our long-term strategic goals, including growing earnings, increasing brand awareness and expanding our global footprint. We believe that now is the right time to conduct a strategic review process in order to enhance value for shareholders, given Belmond’s truly exceptional and unique collection of iconic owned properties and strong fundamentals in our markets around the world.”
The company, which reported a net loss of $1.5 million during the second-quarter of 2018, gave no timetable for the review process and said it can’t give any assurances regarding the outcome.
Some of Belmond’s most notable properties include Italy’s Belmond Hotel Cipriani and Belmond Hotel Splendido, Belmond Copacabana Palace in Rio de Janeiro, the U.K.’s Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Belmond Grand Hotel Europe in St. Petersburg, Southern California’s Belmond El Encanto and the renowned ’21’ Club restaurant in New York City.
The announcement comes less than two months after Belmond launched the newly-designed Belmond Savute Elephant Lodge in Botswana’s Chobe National Park and opened reservations for its St. Martin Beach Retreat.
