The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Perry Christie has said he believes the Export-Import Bank of China is prepared to present a possible buyer for the beleaguered $3.5 billion Baha Mar resort, as he declared a resolution to the Baha Mar debacle is “imminent”.

Mr Christie, while a guest on the “Ed Fields Live” show on KISS FM on Monday evening, said the government is “closer than we’ve ever been before” on a resolution to the Baha Mar controversy, and that talks towards the same “have been taking place rapidly”.

Mr Christie did not indicate who the potential buyer of the West Bay Street development might be; however, he said the EXIM Bank, Baha Mar’s $2.5 billion secured creditor, “would have only chosen someone with an incredible capacity to finance a $2.5 billion deal and finish it.”

As such, Mr Christie said the government is “agitating aggressively” for a resolution to the situation, particularly with regards to the payment of Bahamian contractors involved with the resort.

Last month, Mr Christie revealed that two firms, one with ties to Bahamian investors, had been shortlisted as the court-appointed receivers of the project moved closer to deciding which entity will acquire the West Bay Street development.

He said the final decision is solely at the discretion of receiver managers who were in Beijing, China at the time negotiating a contract to remobilise and complete the project as soon as possible.

Mr Christie said China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) along with the resort’s general contractor China Construction America (CCA), CSCEC’s subsidiary, were also participating in the talks.

He did not name the two shortlisted groups, but said neither involved Baha Mar developer Sarkis Izmirlian.

When questioned for an update on the stalled resort on Monday, Mr Christie said: “I think we are closer to a resolution than we’ve ever been before. Events have been taking place rapidly. I think the next few weeks in the scheme of things (of) our country will be important when it comes to the final decision making with respect to Baha Mar. “And I think the bank is ready to present a possible buyer to us…we would need to know who that is so that we are able to begin investigations.

“The bank would have only chosen someone with an incredible capacity to finance a $2.5 billion deal and finish it. And so these things I think are in progress, I think we are closer than we’ve ever been before.”

Mr Christie also said the government is likewise engaged in discussions on a “daily basis” with the relevant parties to put an end to the Baha Mar controversy and resume construction at the resort.

Officials have said that Baha Mar is 97 per cent complete.

“The receiver managers and the (EXIM) bank have been in negotiations with the construction company to settle an agreement to resume construction, and the government has to be a bystander in that because we also have a vested interest because the government has indicated to all concerned that certain things must pertain,” Mr Christie said on Monday.

“For example, notwithstanding a liquidation where people don’t have the right to claim payment, we have asked for the Bahamian contractors to be paid as near to 100 per cent of what they’re owed as possible. So in any negotiations going forward we expect that to be a major point, where up to over $100 million in debt is owed to Bahamian contractors and we want Bahamian contractors to be paid.”

He added: “We are a part of that process. We are agitating aggressively, in meetings every day, meetings in the evenings, meetings yesterday, meetings this afternoon, meetings tomorrow, we are involved on a daily basis, and that is why I’m saying, it’s imminent. It’s as close as we’ve been.”

Baha Mar was initially expected to open in December 2014. The property is currently in receivership.

In May, Mr Christie announced that the government and Chinese officials had entered into a “framework agreement” to complete the stalled Baha Mar resort as “expeditiously as possible.”