Cash Plus Group of Companies, led by former banker, Carlos Hill, is finalising purchase of a 79-room Golden Seas Beach Resort from businessman and former principal of the UGI and CVM Television, Neville Blythe, Wednesday Business has learned.
Yesterday Hill confirmed that he was in negotiations for the property but declined to elaborate on the specifics of the purchase, including the price.
"We are in the process of negotiating property and it should be completed in the next week or so," Hill told Wednesday Business, en route to the airport.
Situated beside a river, Golden Seas is located in St. Mary, about 20 minutes from Ocho Rios. It was not clear why Blythe, who the source says will have a vendor's mortgage over the hotel, is off-loading the property. Last year, he also sold his majority stake in UGI and CVM to billionaire Michael Lee Chin.
Blythe sold 80 per cent of his stockholding in CVM to Lee Chin for about $300 and, in return for a 80 per cent stake in UGI, the billionaire pumped in about $750 million. But Blythe, who held on to United General Insurance Brokers, still owns the Morgan's Harbour Hotel.
Started some five years ago by the former banker, the Cash Plus Group, which employs about 1,000 people, evolved out of a series of joint ventures, acquisitions, mergers and now morphed into complex network of some 12 operations spread across distribution, gaming, telecommunications, entertainment, security development, industrial and financial services.
Cash Plus, viewed by some as the bane of the local banking sector, has developed a reputation for paying its members a return of 10 per cent monthly, or 120 per cent per annum, on Jamaican dollar funds advanced as loans by the members. In contrast, the typical fixed paper instrument offered by financial institutions average about eight per cent per annum.
The company is also developing a reputation for purchasing distressed properties and completing the original plans of the developers.
In the past couple weeks the company has been advertising for sale refurbished units in gated communities such as Villa Chelsea in Ocho Rios and Mango Walk Villas in Montego Bay for sale.
Hill recently took over construction of the remaining phase of The Promenade gated townhouse development in Billy Dunn in Upper St. Andrew. Those units will go for prices ranging from US$680,000 to US$1 million, which has left some persons questioning if there is indeed a market in Kingston for the upscale units.
Hill also acquired 8 Waterloo Road, former headquarter's of Hugh Scott's company, KES and purchased property on Oxford Road earmarked for its corporate headquarters to bring its 14 offices under one roof.
- business@gleanerjm.com
