The complex Lanzarote Sands Beach Resort will become property of the entity Recursos Solares Alternativos SLU, a company wholly owned by the Papagayo Arena SL group. Once the deadlines stipulated by the order of the Commercial Court number 2 of Las Palmas the purchase is official.
The resolution puts an end to a key stage of the ordinary insolvency proceedings that affected the company Sands Beach Resort S.L. and that involved numerous creditors, among them the Tax Agency, the Social Security, the Teguise City Council and various financial entities.
The judge qualified Papagayo Arena's proposal as the "most beneficial for the interest of the tender". The economic offer amounted to 11 million euros, leaving the second offer at a "considerable distance", which barely reached 6 million.
All jobs are maintained
One of the determining points for the judicial authorization has been the commitment of the new owner with employment.
The winning offer includes the subrogation of the entirety of the workforce of the productive unit, thus clearing the uncertainty that weighed on the workers since the creditors' meeting began in 2017.
This move not only ensures the continuity of service at the hotel in Costa Teguise, but also has the positive positioning of the works council, which guarantees a transition without labor conflicts.
Sands Beach: From sporting success to the "way of the cross" judicial and financial
The hotel, which had been a benchmark for sporting events in Lanzarote, made national headlines because its former owners, the Kokorev family, was investigated by justice for, allegedly, acting as frontmen for the dictator of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang. This judicial link blocked for years any possibility of a normal sale of the asset.
While the judicial process advanced, the financial situation of the company Sands Beach Resort S.L. was sinking. According to the lists published by the Tax Agency, in 2021, the company led the list of tax defaulters in the Canary Islands, with a debt of 12.8 million euros.
The complex officially entered bankruptcy proceedings in June 2017. In May 2023, the bankruptcy administration put the hotel up for auction through specialized portals (such as gobid.es), initially valuing the complex at 17 million euros. However, that process did not immediately bear fruit due to the complexity of the encumbrances and the need to guarantee the employment of more than 130 workers.
