THE SONEVA Group, the new company formed following the divestment of the Six Senses and Evason brands by Six Senses Resorts & Spas in April (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 28, 2012), intends to focus on developing resorts with private residences in the future.

The move will see Soneva relinquish management of Soneva Gili in the Maldives, which is being sold by majority shareholders Capital Holdings and HBOS, to a new owner.

Sonu Shivdasani, chairman & CEO of The Soneva Group, said: "This is in keeping with our decision to focus on developing private residences at Soneva branded resorts.  Soneva Gili did not offer that potential.”

“We will also focus on developing further Soneva resorts that will include a significant number of residential options,” he added.

Moving forward, Soneva will focus on developing the private residence portfolio at its Soneva Fushi and Soneva Kiri properties in Thailand, as well as launch new privately owned resorts in Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Greece.

In keeping with the new strategy, Soneva is also looking at other remote but accessible islands in the Maldives, to re-create an additional resort with the potential to sell overwater private residences.