acquired luxury resort La Samanna.

Purchase price for the St. Martin resort was about $50 million.

The company had planned to buy the 80-room beach resort a year ago but the 1995/96 winter was lost after hurricane Lois.

Though the hotel was not seriously damaged, it took several months before reopening in April.

Sea Containers president James Sherwood said St. Martins holds special attractions for upscale tourists including over 300 restaurants, direct flights from Paris and Amsterdam allow access to Europe. To access North America, there are direct flights to St. Martin from several US cities.

CME PRICES SHARES BUC CME prices shares Bermuda-registered Central European Media Enterprises Ltd. (CME) priced its shares at $27.50, the company said.

The share offering, which included 4.8 million class A common shares, raised $132 million.

Investor demand drove the offering up from the original offering of three million shares, CME said.