The loss-making Fairmont St Andrews Hotel and Golf Resort is up for sale with a £37 million price tag, it has been confirmed.
Global selling agent CBRE said offers are invited for the 209-bed luxury property which also features a spa, two golf courses, and planning permission for dozens of new holiday homes on a 520-acre estate a few miles south east of the Fife town.
It said the opportunity offered the purchaser a “truly unique” chance to further establish the location as one of the foremost conference, wedding, golfing and leisure destinations in the UK.
But accounts for operator St Andrews Bay Development Ltd posted at Companies House earlier this year revealed how its immediate parent had breached banking covenants casting “significant doubt on the company’s ability to continue as a going concern”.
Pre-tax losses more than tripled to £12.8 million during the 12 months to December 2012. Earnings were hammered by a £10.6m impairment on the value of the property, St Andrews Bay directors said, though gross profits were up 23% at £3.8m.
It was bought by present owner, New York-listed real estate and private equity firm Ares Management, in 2006 with Canadian-based Fairmont Hotels & Resorts taking over the hotel’s management.