VICTORIA, Seychelles — The Seychelles government is in the final stages of negotiations with Al Sharqia Holding, a company based in the United Arab Emirates, to take a 99 year lease on Long Island in the Ste Anne marine park. The plan is to develop the site as a high end tourism property, with hotel rooms and private villas to be built over a two year construction window. The company was selected as the preferred of two potential investors after offering the government a total of USD 23 million, of which 12 million has already been received to facilitate the transfer of the lease from the previous investor back to the state.
The Vice President, Ahmed Afif, set out the structure of the new arrangement at a press briefing. The remaining 11 million US dollars, just over R150 million at current rates, will be paid to the government as an upfront sum. From year 20 onwards, the company will be bound to a lease fee of 150,000 US dollars a month. Vice President Afif said the government was happy to have secured new investment without spending taxpayers’ money and without the cost and delay of going through international arbitration with the previous investor.
The new investor will be held to strict timelines. Al Sharqia Holding has nine months from the signing of the lease to submit construction plans to the Seychelles Planning Authority. The development, which will comprise hotel rooms and private villas, is to be completed within a two year period from the date of planning approval. Vice President Afif said the government wanted the new arrangement to be more rigid than previous attempts, and that the conditions now in place were designed to ensure that the project could not drift for years on end.
The Long Island file goes back almost two decades. The original agreement with Polus was signed in December 2005 for a 49 year lease, with an upfront payment of 3.8 million US dollars and a 30 month construction deadline. Construction did start, but the project failed to materialise, and in 2010 the government intervened and extended the construction timeframe to 2012. A further agreement was signed in February 2013, with a payment of 1.5 million US dollars and a penalty of 100,000 US dollars a month if the project was not completed by November 2014. The government opted not to sue Polus, citing an arbitration clause in the agreement, and instead sought a new investor.
The search for a replacement began in earnest in 2023. The expression of interest was launched by the Seychelles Investment Board in August 2023 and attracted four parties. One did not meet the deadline for submission. A Seychellois investor was unable to make a financial offer, and a third party offered 18 million US dollars, below the 20 million reserve price. The cabinet of ministers has since approved the new arrangement with Al Sharqia Holding, and the company has begun work on its construction schedule. Vice President Afif said the deal would bring long term investment, employment, foreign exchange, and tax revenues to Seychelles.
