Atlantis is “not for sale”

Atlantis owner Kerzner International has rejected an unsolicited $3.4bn cash offer from BMB Group, an investment company for wealthy Middle East and Asian individuals.

Referring to “speculation over the future of Kerzner International and its debt restructuring,” BMB said the hospitality and real estate assets of Kerzner had significant potential, particularly in Asia.

But in a one-line e-mailed response, Kerzner, the hotel and resorts business responsible for the Atlantis development in the Bahamas and Dubai, said it would not entertain the approach.

The company said: “We received an unsolicited letter from BMB, but Kerzner is not for sale.”

BMB Advisors Malaysia, a unit of BMB Group, sent a letter on October 11, 2010, to Sol Kerzner, founder of Kerzner International, offering to pay $3.4bn to $4bn for his Bahamas-based company, according to a copy obtained by Bloomberg.

“We see this as a very powerful brand,” BMB founder Rayo Withanage was quoted as saying. “If there’s going to be another Atlantis, it’s going to be in Asia.”

Kerzner International also owns One&Only resorts, which operates two hotels in Dubai – the Royal Mirage and The Palm. The company was taken private in 2006 for $3.2bn, plus debt, by a group led by Kerzner himself.

He partnered with Dubai World’s Istithmar, Whitehall Street Global Real Estate Limited Partnership 2005, Colony Capital, Providence Equity Partners and Related Cos.

According to the BMB Group’s website, the company focuses on investment needs of sophisticated Eastern investors, specifically, Islamic investors, family offices, corporations and sovereign institutions. It was founded in 2004 by Rayo Salahadin Withanage and Prince Abdul Ali Yil-Kabier of Brunei.

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