£50m question, who is buying the Formentor?

The 15'000 million peseta, around £50 million, purchase of the Hotel Formentor by a British company is just days away from completion. Behind closed doors meetings involving all interested parties have been going on over the past week, but the identy of the British buyer or buyers is being kept a closely guarded secret until the purchase is finalised. However, the transaction will see yet another of the Balearics' top luxury hotels being taken over by British and foreign owners. A little over a year ago, British tour operator Airtours spent over £70 million pounds on the Bellevue resort complex in Alcudia and the combined amount of British investment in Majorca and the tourist industry in just the two transactions is in excess of £120 million. It is believed that the potential buyers have been holding talks with the Majorcan hotel sector in order to discuss the full potential of the hotel, one of the most famous in the Mediterranean. The Hotel Formentor, whose guest book over the 60 years it has been open reads like a who's who of rich, famous and powerful people, will need a substantial amount of money spent on it in order to ensure that it maintains its place in hotel history. British hoteliers now operate a luxury chain of hotels across Majorca and the past decade has seen a significant rise in the number of private British investors moving in to the top end of the hotel market.