Mandarin Oriental International Ltd, the owners of Elbow Beach Hotel, said on Friday that it had reached a $16 million settlement of insurance claims for losses arising on business interruption caused by the outbreak of SARS.

The group, which is owned by Bermuda-based Jardine Matheson Group, said it had been significantly impacted by the outbreak of SARS and claimed against insurance cover for attributable losses for business interruption.

A $2.5 million interim payment was received and accounted for in the company's interim results, and the group will now receive an additional $13.5 million payment from its insurers, the company said in an announcement on Friday.

This will make the total settlement $16 million, which will be included in the full year results for 2003 as income.

Mandarin Chief Financial Officer, John Witt, said: "We are pleased to have reached this settlement with our insurers as it will go some way in compensating the group for the negative effect SARS had, particularly in Asia."

"While the Group was fortunate to have this cover in place at the time of the outbreak, it was not possible to maintain the same scope of cover when the insurance policies were renewed on 1st July 2003," said Mr Witt.

Mandarin Oriental is the award-winning owner and operator of some of the world's most prestigious hotels and resorts, including Elbow Beach.

In total, the group operates 18 luxury hotels in key business and leisure destinations, with five additional hotels under development in New York (opening November 2003), Washington D.C. (opening spring 2004), Hong Kong (opening 2005) as well as Tokyo and Boston (opening 2006).