enter into a management agreement with the developers of the Bermudiana site, Bermuda Financial Centre Limited, has had its annual report slammed by a Canadian newspaper.

The Globe and Mail, in an article published last week, picked holes in the accounts of the hotel group.

The article described how in recessionary times, the group has turned to managing hotels for a fee, rather than owning them.

"Competition in the hotel business has roughed up even the high-styled hotels of Four Seasons,'' the Toronto-based national daily reported.

"Low occupancy rates industry-wide and price-conscious consumers have exposed deep flaws in a strategy adopted in recent years by the company, and many of its rivals, to minimise risks.

"But owners these days make a habit of leaning on their deep-pocketed managers to keep afloat -- a severe cash drain for Four Seasons,'' the article stated.

Those cash calls have barely tarnished Four Seasons' books, said the article, which suggests that the group has resorted to "financial alchemy'' to "paper over the problems''.

"Its books, which are all reported in Canadian dollars, show it made $7.7 million in 1992, and another $5.2 million in the first nine months of 1993, although losses on many properties are being obscured because of the accounting.

"The financial techniques Four Seasons uses take many forms, but one of the most serious allows it to issue quarterly profit-and-loss statements that hide the troubled financial health of many of its holdings.

"The company manages 44 hotels and resorts, but by stretching an accounting loophole, its quarterly results fully reflect only three.

Luxury hotels are said to have suffered more than most in the hotel industry.

"Four Seasons' steadfast reluctance to skimp on service surfaced again last fall when it opened a swanky new hotel in Manhattan, which it manages, but technically owns very little of.

"With 906 management companies competing for the 200 new hotels beginning construction in 1993, winning new contracts often comes down to who can promise the deepest pockets.'' The company's debt is said to be ballooning. Four Seasons is reported to have borrowed $348.2 million from its lenders by the end of the third quarter of 1993, 20 percent more than what it owed at the end of 1992.