Kerzner International: Dubai parastatal buys major stake

A Dubai government conglomerate behind some of the emirate’s industrial powerhouses had bought a “significant” stake in the international hotel operator that operates the Atlantis hotel on the city’s main palm-shaped island, it said yesterday. Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD) said it had bought the stake in Kerzner International Holdings from the family of its founder and several institutional investors. Neither company disclosed the purchase price, but an ICD official said the investment parastatal now owned more than 40 percent. ICD chief executive Mohammed Al Shaibani is now the chairman of the hotel operator, replacing founder Sol Kerzner. Another state-owned Dubai firm, Istithmar World, bought out Kerzner’s stake in the Atlantis Palm in Dubai in 2012. Kerzner still runs the hotel operations for the One&Only and Atlantis brand in Dubai, as well resorts in the Bahamas, Mauritius, the Maldives, Mexico and South Africa. – Sapa-AP