Royal Caribbean Group to Invest US$3 Billion in Sandals Resorts

GEISHA KOW­LESSAR-ALON­ZO

Roy­al Caribbean Group is set to ac­quire a 50 per cent eq­ui­ty in­ter­est in San­dals and Beach­es Re­sorts for ap­prox­i­mate­ly US$3 bil­lion, un­der a land­mark part­ner­ship aimed at ex­pand­ing the all-in­clu­sive re­sort com­pa­ny’s pres­ence across the Caribbean.

The agree­ment, an­nounced yes­ter­day in Mon­tego Bay, Ja­maica, and Mi­a­mi, would bring to­geth­er Roy­al Caribbean Group’s cruise and va­ca­tion port­fo­lio with San­dals and Beach­es Re­sorts’ more than four decades of ex­pe­ri­ence in Caribbean hos­pi­tal­i­ty.

The pro­posed joint ven­ture would in­clude San­dals and Beach­es’ col­lec­tion of all-in­clu­sive prop­er­ties across the re­gion.

The com­pa­nies said the part­ner­ship is in­tend­ed to sup­port re­sort ex­pan­sion, broad­en va­ca­tion of­fer­ings and make it eas­i­er for trav­ellers to ac­cess ex­pe­ri­ences across their re­spec­tive port­fo­lios.

Roy­al Caribbean Group op­er­ates the Roy­al Caribbean, Celebri­ty Cruis­es and Sil­versea brands, along­side a port­fo­lio of pri­vate des­ti­na­tions and oth­er va­ca­tion of­fer­ings. The com­pa­ny said the in­vest­ment would ex­pand its par­tic­i­pa­tion in the glob­al va­ca­tion mar­ket by adding an ad­ja­cent cat­e­go­ry of land-based, all-in­clu­sive re­sorts.

The part­ner­ship is al­so ex­pect­ed to cre­ate op­por­tu­ni­ties for the com­pa­nies to broad­en dis­tri­b­u­tion, strength­en cus­tomer en­gage­ment and ex­pand the reach of San­dals and Beach­es Re­sorts.

Roy­al Caribbean Group Chair­man and Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer Ja­son Lib­er­ty said the agree­ment would bring to­geth­er two es­tab­lished va­ca­tion com­pa­nies with a shared his­to­ry in the Caribbean.

He said the part­ner­ship rep­re­sent­ed an­oth­er step in the de­vel­op­ment of Roy­al Caribbean Group’s broad­er va­ca­tion plat­form and would sup­port the growth of San­dals and Beach­es Re­sorts.

Adam Stew­art, Ex­ec­u­tive Chair­man of San­dals Re­sorts and Beach­es Re­sorts, said the agree­ment would al­low the com­pa­ny to ex­pand with a part­ner that shared its com­mit­ment to hos­pi­tal­i­ty, long-term in­vest­ment and es­tab­lished brands.

Stew­art said the com­pa­ny would con­tin­ue to fo­cus on pro­vid­ing va­ca­tion ex­pe­ri­ences while cre­at­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for its em­ploy­ees, trav­el ad­vis­er part­ners and the com­mu­ni­ties in which it op­er­ates.

Un­der the pro­posed arrange­ment, the joint ven­ture would be gov­erned by a board un­der the shared lead­er­ship of Stew­art and Lib­er­ty. Stew­art will re­tain a lead­er­ship role in guid­ing the com­pa­ny’s long-term strate­gic growth as Ex­ec­u­tive Chair­man of San­dals and Beach­es Re­sorts.

The com­pa­nies said ex­ist­ing reser­va­tions, loy­al­ty pro­grammes, re­sort op­er­a­tions and cruise op­er­a­tions would con­tin­ue as usu­al. Ad­di­tion­al re­sources from the part­ner­ship are ex­pect­ed to sup­port fu­ture ex­pan­sion and oth­er op­por­tu­ni­ties.

Roy­al Caribbean Group said the US$3 bil­lion in­vest­ment rep­re­sent­ed a for­ward earn­ings-be­fore-in­ter­est, tax­es, de­pre­ci­a­tion and amor­ti­sa­tion mul­ti­ple of ap­prox­i­mate­ly 10 times. The com­pa­ny has se­cured com­mit­ted debt fi­nanc­ing from Mor­gan Stan­ley to fund the trans­ac­tion.

The deal is ex­pect­ed to close in ear­ly 2027, sub­ject to cus­tom­ary reg­u­la­to­ry ap­provals and oth­er clos­ing con­di­tions. Roy­al Caribbean Group said the trans­ac­tion is ex­pect­ed to be ac­cre­tive to earn­ings next year.

San­dals Re­sorts op­er­ates adults-on­ly all-in­clu­sive prop­er­ties in Ja­maica, An­tigua, Saint Lu­cia, The Ba­hamas, Bar­ba­dos, Grena­da, Cu­raçao and Saint Vin­cent and the Grenadines.

Beach­es Re­sorts, the com­pa­ny’s fam­i­ly-ori­ent­ed all-in­clu­sive brand, op­er­ates prop­er­ties in Ne­gril, Ja­maica, and Turks and Caicos. The brand al­so has planned de­vel­op­ments in Ex­u­ma, The Ba­hamas; Bar­ba­dos; Run­away Bay, Ja­maica; and Saint Vin­cent and the Grenadines.

The com­pa­nies said the part­ner­ship would build on their re­spec­tive op­er­a­tions while ex­pand­ing the range of va­ca­tion ex­pe­ri­ences avail­able to trav­ellers across the Caribbean and be­yond.