Banyan Tree

Banyan Tree: may edge up on $68.4m divestment gain as unit of luxury resorts operator sells its Phuket hotel for $110m to reduce exposure to Thailand, where past political unrest responsible for group's reduced bookings last year. Laguna Resorts & Hotels will sell hotel to Dusit Thani, valued at ~2.7X hotel's book value. On proforma basis, move will boost Banyan's EPS to S4.5cts from S0.4cts…

Laguna Resorts plans to use proceeds to invest in hotel or hotel-related project overseas, repay bank loans, pay dividends. Move comes at time when Banyan struggling to remain profitable amid fallout from Thailand's recent political crisis, which company said earlier this year could continue to weigh on its performance until at least 3Q10.