EIE buys cove

Press, 27 September 1988, Page 28

EIE buys cove

NZPA-AAP Sydney Ariadne Australia has sold its Sanctuary Cove prestige real estate and tourist resort development for sAust34l million to Japanese investment group, EIE Development Co., Ltd, EIE said. The sale agreement was struck on Saturday after a long night of intense negotiatons following a counteroffer from Japanese liquor consortium, Suntory, Ltd. The purchase price, which was confirmed by EIE was nearly $6O million above ElE’s original offer of $2BO million for 87.5 per cent of the resort. Ariadne placed the Gold Coast resort on the market earlier this yeat* as part of an asset sell-off forced on the group by the October sharemarket crash. The Japanese group, which now has more than $1 billion of property, tourist and education investments in Australia, said it based its original bid price on a commissioned valuation of $252 million for Sanctuary Cove, made by property consultancy firm, Jones, Laing and Wootton. ElE’s international investment consultant, Dr Bungo Ishizaki, said Ariadne had driven a hard bargain, but the price was within parameters the group regarded as economic in the context of its plan to build a network of leisure resorts in the Pacific. He said the working capital EIE could bring to Sanctuary Cove would accelerate its development -Je completion, but there-were no plans to interfere with-management-of the resort-m the short term: