Ken Dart reinvents himself as land baron

Sao Paulo

TWO decades after Ken Dart renounced his US citizenship and took his tax attorney with him to the Caribbean, the billionaire bond investor and local kingpin is reinventing himself as the Cayman Islands' biggest real estate owner.

Mark VanDevelde, chief executive of the tycoon's Cayman-based Dart Enterprises holding company, recently told Bloomberg that Mr Dart is less interested in distressed foreign debt these days, increasingly turning his focus to luxury real-estate development on the Cayman Islands and elsewhere, especially in Latin America. "Vulture is a small part of our overall portfolio," said Mr VanDevelde. "We had demand for office tenants so that's where growth has been since conception. We're now shifting our focus towards resorts and residential."