Lawyers outside court yesterday during hearings on liquidation proceedings for Baha Mar. Photo: Tim Clarke/Tribune Staff
By KHRISNA VIRGIL
Tribune Staff Reporter
kvirgil@tribunemedia.net
ROSEWOOD Hotels and Resorts International, a hotel brand at the stalled Baha Mar resort, on Wednesday filed a motion in a Delaware bankruptcy court to terminate its licence with the $3.5bn property on West Bay Street.
The motion was filed the same day the government began arguments for its petition to wind up Baha Mar in the Supreme Court on the grounds that it owes the state upwards of $59m to various entities.
Rosewood argued in the court documents that not only did the resort not have the money to uphold obligations under its agreement, but the company alleged that Baha Mar was not upfront in revealing the true ownership of the land on which the resort is built.
Meanwhile, in response to this turn of events, Robert “Sandy” Sands, Baha Mar’s senior vice president of government and external affairs, placed blame on the Christie administration saying Rosewood’s motion was in direct response to government’s decision to oppose the resort’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy action which was filed on June 29 in the US.
“Under the US Chapter 11 process,” Mr Sands said in a statement, “property of a debtor’s estate is protected by the automatic stay, and we will address this request for relief from the automatic stay with the bankruptcy court in due course.
“Unfortunately, as the motion itself makes clear, this action is a direct result of the efforts of the government of the Bahamas to both oppose the recognition of the Chapter 11 process in the Bahamas and pursue its current course of action, which has injected uncertainty and disruption, and prevented Baha Mar from moving forward in a productive manner to complete and open the resort.”
Rosewood said in its filed motion that there were several reasons which warranted the decision to move forward with legal action to terminate the lease with Baha Mar.
“Baha Mar has extremely limited access funding to perform its obligation under the Rosewood Hotel Agreement and in fact it is not timely performing its obligation to Rosewood under the Rosewood Hotel Agreements,” the lengthy motion read.
“Since commencing their Chapter 11 cases, the debtor almost immediately defaulted on their DIP (debtor in possession) loan agreement as a result of the failure by the debtors (Baha Mar) to have obtained the approval by the Central Bank of The Bahamas, among other things.”
“In addition, Baha Mar has incurred numerous defaults under the various Rosewood Hotel Agreements, many of which are incurable.”
The motion continued: “Among other things, Baha Mar is in violation of its representation and warranty to Rosewood that it owns the real property on which the hotel and associated residences are situated (and) construction of the hotel has ceased for more than 30 consecutive days.
“In addition, as a material inducement for Rosewood to enter into the Rosewood Hotel Agreements, Baha Mar represented and warranted to Rosewood that Baha Mar owns the Land.
“However, Baha Mar has told Rosewood that it does not in fact own the Land, and, a preliminary search performed on August 14, 2015, of The Bahamas Registry of Records reflected that Baha Mar did not own any real property when it entered into the Rosewood Hotel Agreements and still does not. Therefore, Baha Mar has incurably defaulted under the Licence Agreement and the Hotel Management Agreement,” Rosewood said.
According to a writ filed by Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson at the end of June, government agreements with Baha Mar state that it could exercise its right to serve notices on the resort to reconvey the Crown land where the resort sits, if it missed certain obligations by specified dates.
Meanwhile, Rosewood also said Baha Mar failed to pay both the rank and file employees and the senior executives at the hotel, who are needed to run the hotel and has failed to reimburse Rosewood for pre-petition and post-petition fees and expenses due under the Rosewood Hotel Agreements.
The hotel further insisted Baha Mar’s filing of its Chapter 11 case is a default under the License Agreement and other Rosewood Hotel Agreements. This is cause for the court to modify the stay to permit the Rosewood to terminate the Rosewood Hotel Agreements, it was argued.
Agreement summary
Rosewood entered into a licence agreement with Baha Mar on July 31, 2011. In this contract, Rosewood, as licensor, agreed to license to Baha Mar Rosewood’s trademark and service marks on a non-exclusive basis in connection with the sale and marketing of the residences located at the hotel.
“At all times, Rosewood remains the owner of the Rosewood marks and has the right to use and market them for other purposes except as delimited in the License Agreement. The term of the License Agreement is ten years and terminates on August 29, 2021, unless extended or terminated pursuant to its terms,” the motion says.
“In exchange for Baha Mar having the non-exclusive use of the Rosewood marks during the term of the License Agreement, Baha Mar is obligated to pay to Rosewood 4 per cent of the gross sale price received from the initial sale of each residence at the hotel to a third-party, and 2 per cent of the sale price received from the initial sale of each residence at the hotel to any insider of Baha Mar.”
Baha Mar further signed onto a management agreement, also signed in 2011, in which Rosewood agreed to operate and manage the hotel for a term of 30 years, unless terminated earlier pursuant to its terms.
As a result Baha Mar agreed to pay to Rosewood, inter alia, an annual base management fee determined by reference to a formula based on the hotel’s gross revenue, subject to certain adjustments. The agreement also provided for an annual royalty fee and an annual incentive fee.
Baha Mar is also obligated to pay the employees needed to run the hotel and to pay to Rosewood certain other amounts to reimburse the brand for certain costs incurred.
“Baha Mar agreed to pay to Rosewood a service fee equal to $150,000, payable in instalments, which has not been fully paid, plus out-of-pocket expenses, which are now owing for both pre-petition and post-petition periods,” the motion says.
In a fourth agreement – the Management Cooperation Agreement – Baha Mar and the other hotel managers agreed to cooperate with each other in order to integrate certain aspects of the operations of the various hotels and common areas at the project.
The term of the Management Cooperation Agreement is for so long as the project is open and operating to the public as a resort regardless of the identity of the hotel operators.
The brand maintained that by filing the Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Baha Mar defaulted on its license agreement, which permits the agreement termination request.
Up to press time, Rosewood was the only hotel brand indicating that it wanted to sever ties with Baha Mar.
The other brands at the mega resort include the 1,000-room Baha Mar branded Casino Resort & Hotel, a 707-room Grand Hyatt, a 300-room SLS Lux, and the 694-room Meliá, which was formerly the pre-existing Sheraton.
Morgans Hotel Group and its Mondrian brand pulled out of the project last year and was replaced by the SLS Lux brand.
A hearing on Rosewood’s motion will be held on September 18 at 11am before Kevin J Carey at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
Comments
John 8 years, 8 months ago
o what a tangled web we've weaved...
John 8 years, 8 months ago
O what a tangled web we weave who was it first we intended to deceive ? Small lies and deceptions has led to an international embarrassment a multi national scandal, the largest property in the Bahamas sitting incomplete and unoccupied, thousands of Bahamians unemployed and now a significant threat to the country 's credit rating.
asiseeit 8 years, 8 months ago
This is not a surprise, the domino's have begun to fall. Who would want to do business in a country governed by a criminal organization?
IAmOne 8 years, 8 months ago
And now begins the complete unraveling of Baha Mar thanks to the Christie government. Unintended consequences? Election Day can't some fast enough.
Wideawake 8 years, 8 months ago
Oh no, say this isn't true!! ....But really, who can honestly blame Rosewood? No prestigious international Hotel chain could possibly want to be part of the sorry mess that Baha Mar has become. The blame rests firmly with The Bahamas government who should have supported Baha Mar when they first realized that there were problems with CCA and they should have FACILITATED not OPPOSED Baha Mar's Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filed in Delaware.
So, we wait and see what Justice Winder's ruling will be. If his ruling does NOT support Baha Mar, expect a "domino effect" as all of the other hotel groups associated with Baha Mar also cut their losses and bail on the project!!
It looks more and more that The Bahamas government have "Burst the Baha Mar Bubble"!!! What remains to be seen is exactly what motivated Cabinet members to embark on this foolish, destructive and disastrous course of action.
Islandboy242242 8 years, 8 months ago
So I guess we're all just gonna wait for History to repeat itself on Bay Street too.... http://www.thepointenassau.com/about-us">http://www.thepointenassau.com/about-us
Dynasty Group, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of China Construction America, Inc. (CCA). After almost thirty years of doing business in the United States, CCA has established a diverse portfolio of projects...Supported by a series of specialist companies in the China State Construction Engineering Corporation
thomas 8 years, 8 months ago
But it's too big to fail, isn't it?
digimagination 8 years, 8 months ago
Remember the old saying, The bigger they are the harder they fall!?
TruePeople 8 years, 8 months ago
Titanic was too big to sink
BaronInvest 8 years, 8 months ago
The government keeps spreading poison to investors. Just read the statements made by ministers in the last weeks and look how they handle the case. The Bahamas are simply not competitive to global investors with amateurs leading the country. The decision to get out of the Bahamas or the Bahamar has already been made by Hyatt, Rosewood and Melia. In my personal circle i have already seen multiple investments on a smaller scale fallen through in the last weeks (in ranges from 0.5 to 3 million USD). Your country is rated on how your government handles this case - and sadly the people in charge simply do not do your country any good.
Well_mudda_take_sic 8 years, 8 months ago
Rosewood has probably given thought to the serious conflicts of interest that both Christie and Maynard-Gibson have in their maliciously meddlesome involvement in the Baha Mar dispute, including the grossly unfair favouritism shown by the corrupt Christie-led PLP government towards the Chinese general contract and Chinese lender, and decided its better to explore opportunities opening up in Cuba. The anti-foreigner sentiment of 'Freddy Boy' Mitchell and 'Bumpy Head Shameless' Shane Gibson no doubt also helped Rosewood decide that Bahamas is no longer a suitable place to do business.
PKMShack 8 years, 8 months ago
PLP all the way, thanks to it supporters. No lets see what bull.... they come up with to defend their actions. Ass .....
Bahamian_in_London 8 years, 8 months ago
This is the start of the end.
It was sadly inevitable when the PLP stopped chapter 11 being recognised by the supreme court and prevented the debtor in possession financing being approved, as well as failing to pay foreign workers.
It doesn't matter if the building is complete, the Government's and the Chinese will have control of an empty shell, with no one willing to operate the hotels.
It was so obvious this would happen, yet they persisted to follow their own selfish and ego driven agenda. Shame on you Christie and you're gang of hacks. You have failed this country.
TalRussell 8 years, 8 months ago
Comrade Thomas, the practice of hotel chains pulling out of Izmarlin's Baha Mar does have a long muddled history, having began long before the Chinese pumped their billions into the doomed resort project.
Why would Rosewood Hotel and Resorts International want their good name associated with such a mess.
Soon, all Izmarlin will be left with is a 'dock,' long enough dock every out islands mail boats, at once - but it still ain't got no nighttime lights, for il·lu·mi·na·tion da 'doc.'
jackflash 8 years, 8 months ago
Could it be true that someone in the government tem got the contract to build Tal's famous and often talked about bridge???
Honestman 8 years, 8 months ago
Get ready for rebranding as "The Beijing Palace".
jackbnimble 8 years, 8 months ago
Fa real!
TruthHurts 8 years, 8 months ago
WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED!!
Stapedius 8 years, 8 months ago
Still pointing fingers. If Bahamar had its shit together this wouldn't have gone into bankruptcy in the first place. I can't see how people keep blaming the government alone. The folks at Bahamar are idiots and it appears are willing to not take any responsibility what so ever. Only CCA and our government is to blame. Get real Sandy. The executives there sitting up getting a big check and the project hasn't been completed. Some heads should roll.
Bahamian_in_London 8 years, 8 months ago
So, tell me Stepdius, what exactly were Baha Mar meant to do when CCA downed their tools in February and left?
TruePeople 8 years, 8 months ago
There was serious issues surrounding wanton disobedience of the building code, which makes the hotel unsafe as it cannot be properly accessed by emergency vehicles. In my mind there is no justifiable reason why things would be built wrong intentionally, other than conspiracy. These same Chinese banks were doing construction work at J.J. Airport in Guyana, and guess what...................... SAME DAMN THING..... only no Sarkis or Bahamar to blame there
John 8 years, 8 months ago
Apparently you do not understand bankruptcy laws or how they work. Izmirilian, the owner of Bah Mar is not broke. He is just refusing to pump any more money in to the project under the terms and conditions the Chinese are forcing on him. He filed chapter 11 to prevent the Chinese from taking what was already invested in the project,but the government, for whatever reasons, took of fence to his actions and chose to side with the Chinese and force Izmirilian out. Do you think anyone in their right minds would continue to invest under a government that acted so wild, Wild West, so viligante and even communist?
PKMShack 8 years, 8 months ago
That's what all those PLP supporters get, dumb ass TALRUSSELL and BIRDIE to start with. Defend their gods. Now TAL go blame the red shirts while you at it. Party over Country. I am dedicated to no party as I have voted across the two of them but this shit is UNBELIEVABLE. On my way to the US of A. Where there are checks and balances a little bit vs NONE AT ALL.
jackbnimble 8 years, 8 months ago
This is going just how China and the Bahamas Government wants it. They must be giving high-fives behind the scenes.
Welcome to Little China! Our Government must be so darned proud!
PKMShack 8 years, 8 months ago
Lets protest for election on the next meeting of the HOA
TalRussell 8 years, 8 months ago
A comrade leader such as Izmarlin, when facing possible exile from his country - one of the most important tasks facing the endangered leader - is where can he go into exile to - and will the county's leader accept him.
Izmarlin has already tried to gain ground against PM Christie, by corporately running to Delaware for protection - and he done exhausted the mobilization of the "citizens" of his Baha Mar nation.
Him soon runs out options - whilst he awaits permanent ouster order, signed by Minister Freddy.
by TalRussell
jackflash 8 years, 8 months ago
Tal,
You make no sense at all.
None!
banker 8 years, 8 months ago
Great -- you and your odious, repugnant, non-patriotic comrades can communally congress with the male and female yardies in the rotting hulk of Baha Mar, while dining on the finest pigeon and coconut.
tourist1001 8 years, 8 months ago
This is so sad. :( The country is going to become a 5th world country soon if things don't change.
bahamalove 8 years, 8 months ago
Yet certain PLP members are swearing on their mamas' graves that Baha Mar will be opened before the end of the year which suggests to me that the PM has already slipped Justice Winder a note 'recommending' what his rulings should be with regards to this debacle.
Anyone that votes PLP after this needs to have a 'psychological test'!
PS: Nygard has been pretty quiet lately. Perhaps he now realizes hat he has been bamboozled and hoodwinked by the swing train Generals who says, "thanks for that election campaign donation. We still working on that stem cell thing for you!"
jackflash 8 years, 8 months ago
Perhaps that is it?
Stem cell center on Cable Beach!!
bahamalove 8 years, 8 months ago
That's "dead good" news!
TruthHurts 8 years, 8 months ago
"PS: Nygard has been pretty quiet lately. Perhaps he now realizes hat he has been bamboozled and hoodwinked by the swing train Generals who says, "thanks for that election campaign donation. We still working on that stem cell thing for you!"
You guys are cracking me up! If you don't laugh, you'll cry! (shakes head)
banker 8 years, 8 months ago
Well with the recent announcement of 36% reduction in financial services workers (that is 4 in 10 workers for the PLP math-retarded) and more cuts coming, and add the Baha Mar workers, and maybe the building can be used for emergency shelter of the 60,000 unemployed people soon to populate the Bahamas.
How long before citizens take to the streets and loot the grocery stores? Mark my words -- civil unrest will surely come. Crime will increase even more than the levels now. With the economical slowdown that the VAT has caused, Nassau will look like The Mud in a short year or two.
TalRussell 8 years, 8 months ago
Comrade Banker, your kind of talk serves but one purpose and that is its an calculated attempt to instill fear and the loss of all hope, among the people. That my Comrade friend is how a nation blindly turns to a strongman - once you can convince everyone that things are falling apart. That my Comrade Banker, not only makes for wonderful rhetoric but it can also turn into being recklessly scary talk.
banker 8 years, 8 months ago
You are absolutely right. Another operator will take over the leases tomorrow. Baha Mar will be open by October. Crime will stop because people will realise how stupid it is. The guns will be donated to BAMSI to make ploughshares and unemployment will drop to 1%. The Haitians will all leave by September, everyone in the Bahamas will be making $50,000 a year by November, and maybe Jesus will come and rapture the PLP.
How could I be so stupid not to see this???? It must be the work of Satan in me. My relatives are not having problems making ends meet. My aunt doesn't need a wheelchair that costs over two thousand dollars. She needs a healing at the PLP headquarters. There is nothing wrong with her. It's all in her head.
How could I have been so blind, as to not recognise that our Dear Leader is not all wise. And our unmarried cabinet ministers are so masculine that woman are afraid of them. And the chairman could have been a Rhodes scholar if he could have found the right road in his youth. And the cauliflower ears of the attorney general are that way from the wisdom that drips from her orifices. Dear me. I am so wrong.
How could I have been so blind? Quick, cut my head open, and implant the chip before I change my mind.
No my dear Tal, you chide me because I voice your secret fears. And you do not have the intellectual honesty to admit it.
paul_vincent_zecchino 8 years, 8 months ago
Thank you, Banker! One of the most astute, funniest, spot-on posts ever.
Trying still to get up off the floor from falling off the sofa laughing. Your post is well worth the price of another keyboard.
Not to worry, Baha Mar open on time and the VAT tax will fund a space program which will make the heavens rain green beer every Friday night.
Oil will be discovered beneath The Caves, while Batelco's Delaport Point Forward Scatter reflector antennas will miraculously reconstruct themselves and allow extraterrestrials to contact us with good news that they will shortly land and hand out checks to everyone.
Things are great, and getting better.
TalRussell 8 years, 8 months ago
Comade Paul_Vincent, before you posted I was thinking that it was only Banker, who was the only one yet to regain full mobility of the upper part he body - he brain.
TruthHurts 8 years, 8 months ago
Oh Tal stop it! You lost this one hun. Banker is making sense.. it's widely known by everyone; man, woman and child that things are very bad and not likely to change any time soon. Many are still here (in The Bahamas) still trying to lead honest, productive lives under such a strained economy. There is no hysteria being incited by stating the OBVIOUS truths of our society to date. It is, what it is! The fact that you still have loyal but frustrated Bahamians here, riding out this storm says a lot. THERE LIES HOPE FOR A BETTER TOMORROW. There is not much one can do until we go to the polls. So leave us be to 'beat our gums' as much as wish until that time. Change will come but we must realize and SPEAK truth or how will we rectify the problems and issues we seem to be plagued with year in year out?!
P.S. I'm not cloaking my 'MA' if she did wrong by someone, much less any of these goons that call themselves cabinet ministers!
paul_vincent_zecchino 8 years, 8 months ago
Tal -
banker 8 years, 8 months ago
Hey, watch what you say about The Caves. It is the site of miracles and a magical place. It can feed you. I had some banker friends from Toronto, and I was showing them out west and we stopped at the Caves. Amid the graffiti and bottles, we saw movement in the shadows. In the dark recess of the back of the cave, was a cowering goat. It was injured and its back leg was bleeding and broken. Prolly hit by a car. I kid you not, the first thing that I thought of was catching and cooking the goat. Reluctantly I had to leave it there, but as sure as a gussie mae likes donuts, I am willing to bet that it ended up as souse somewhere.
TalRussell 8 years, 8 months ago
Comrade Banker, some concerned pet lover is going be phoning the Bahamas Human Society's Animal Control to see if they need speak to you to see if there is some kinds conspiracy going on to commit goat abuse. You can expect a visit from a uniformed goat protection officer da early parts next week.
paul_vincent_zecchino 8 years, 8 months ago
Tal and banker -
Good thing the goat was gone when my wife and I went into The Caves last Wednesday, nothing down below but a puddle toward the rear. I'd have been driven to rescue it, get it to BHS for treatment; poor creature.
You know the rest. This kind gentleman had already thrown a few coins into the sand for me to 'discover' - what a thrill.
We realized that we pulled off the road just west of Sullivan House and parked and went in the water to snorkel in '03, what a pleasure.
A pleasure to read your posts, gentlemen, thank you for taking time to reply to mine.
Stopped in City Market out by Melia to pick up a few snacks, needed some change, didn't have loose coins. A very kind lady behind us right away volunteered hers. Kindnesses such as this you remember always.
Having visited the Bahamas and Nassau in particular, it's like going home. The islands are beautiful and people are welcoming, hospitable. What more could one want? It's a bond which remains forever.
Zags 8 years, 8 months ago
Still cracking up; Banker you deserve 10👍* for that one!!!
*"thumbs up" for those who cannot see the symbol...
Emac 8 years, 8 months ago
HAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
John 8 years, 8 months ago
Does anyone smell a rat? Wonder who's cooking. While Bah Mar has come to a complete standstill and sits baking in the sun guess what : Ground gas been broken for The Pointe Plaza to go up down town and the Lucayan Hotel in Freeport has announced plans for expansion (it's one of the very few full service properties in Freeport that remain open. What do both of these properties have in common? They are both owned by Izmirilian! And you thought you smelled Chinese food!
bahamalove 8 years, 8 months ago
You meant that they are both owned by the Chinese.
Publius 8 years, 8 months ago
The Chinese owns those properties, not Izmirlian.
MonkeeDoo 8 years, 8 months ago
John Donne (1572-1631), Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVII: Nunc Lento Sonitu Dicunt, Morieris:
"Perchance he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that.
The Rosewood Bell and all that is happening now is a death bell tolling for All of us in the Bahamas.
A Scottish client of mine speaking of a once very wealthy family, noted that the children had taken a small fortune AND MADE IT SMALLER. What the Bahamas Government has done is to cut more than fifty percent of the value of this project away. We can no longer refer to a 3.4 Billion Dollar property because it is now, ( if that even ) a 1.5 billion dollar project. The Bahamas Government would have difficulty raising that kind of money in the Capital Markets of the world and I doubt seriously than even the China Exim bank will put any more money up. So there it will sit. I think it could work as a new detention center though. Or an upgrade to the Defense force base. It has a nice dock as Tal keeps telling us. Freddy can assign rooms to the Haitian Refugees as they are brought in.
banker 8 years, 8 months ago
On my Bloomberg screen yesterday, I found this little nugget:
The central bank on Tuesday completed putting $48 billion (£30.6 billion) into the China Development Bank and $45 billion (£28.6 billion) into the Export-Import Bank of China, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
With the recent collapse of the Chinese stock market, the capital injections were necessary. At its peak, the Shanghai Composite Index was 152pc higher than a year earlier. Yet after that colossal bull run, shares plunged by 32pc in less than three weeks. The total value of equities listed in China dropped by around $4 trillion (£2.6 trillion).
So you are right, the Exim Bank will not put any more money up. They were foolish not to let Sarkis use his money to finish the project.
Economist 8 years, 8 months ago
If the Bankruptcy had gone its course Rosewood would still be in the game.
They now have a clear indication of how this country is run and all the conflicts of interest, secret deals so they found an excuse to get out.
Craig 8 years, 8 months ago
All the idiots, oops I mean our "leaders", had to do was to allow the chapter 11 process to proceed and the development would open before Christmas. Anyone who knows anything about this project knows that CCA is a disaster and is the sole cause of this problem. Had they met their contractural obligations the resort would be opened. The idiots, oops I mean our "leaders" are just too dense to see this. God help us.
Baha10 8 years, 8 months ago
Plenty of blame to go around, including most definetly the incomptence of Izfailian and his "trusted" expert Directors, Managers, Advisors and even "supposed" Friends, who combined to releave this Heir apparent of his Family fortune by failing to manage a Project of this magnitude and in the process create what may well become the largest Jail/Detention Centre in the Western Hemisphere, as opposed to Resort.
Craig 8 years, 8 months ago
You have no idea of what actually went on with that project. It's amazing how many "experts" are out there who continue to express their uninformed opinions!!!
ThisIsOurs 8 years, 8 months ago
It seems to me that the Bahamian government made the same mistake that George Bush did in Iraq. They looked at a situation, said this isn't the best and we need to act. Fine. But then they looked at how much money they could make. Pretty soon how much money they could make overrode all strategy. So they put forward all kinds of neat arguments for how easy it would be to accomplish a particular goal. Depose one man and drop another one in and everything would come up roses. What they actually ended up doing was breaking everything into a million pieces, something that they could have easily predicted if they weren't blinded by greed. Perry Christie, Brave Davis, Fred Mitchell, Shane Gibson and Allyson Maynard Gibson's *"Iraquian" Humpty Dumpty.
MonkeeDoo 8 years, 8 months ago
Banker: I don't think for a minute that CCA has the money itself to develop Hilton Pointe and with the tide changing in China's fortunes, they may decide that global expansionism is not really for them. Then we will have a tourism desert from Bay Street to Cable Beach. Has our government asked for any guarantee's on completion, I doubt it, they done got the private payouts so why should they care ? .
IAmOne 8 years, 8 months ago
This is a very good point. We should continue to watch how China plays with its currency. I wonder if the Baha Mar loan was in the yuan or the dollar???? The latest devaluation impacts that loan I'm sure.
banker 8 years, 8 months ago
Here is the interesting thing about Exim Bank. It is run by the Chinese State Council-the administrative arm of the Government of China. Their 1994 charter was for the development of the export of heavy machinery & electronic goods to the world. Needless to say, the export market is in decline. (The CEO of WalMart -one of China's biggest customers, announced a new plan to source American goods & foodstuffs, & to economically diversify from Chinese goods.)
The 2nd area of Exim's charter was on-lending to foreign governments. On-lending means that they have borrowed the money & re-lend it out to foreign governments. This serves 2 purposes. It can be an arbitrage, where the lower the Moodys/Standard & Poor rating, the higher the interest & the more profitable the loan is. If a country like the Bahamas has an outstanding debt of over 66% of its GDP & other lenders shy away, the Exim bank will borrow money at perhaps 1.5 - 2% , & re-lend it with an interest rate of 5%.
They are also the bank for Chinese government concessional loans. What that is, is a soft loan with long periods of repayment. They offer these loans on behalf of the Chinese government with govt money. They have the power to do this, without a profit motive - if the government deems it best for its interest in foreign affairs - like creating a Chinese influence place on America's doorstep.
It is highly unlikely that the Bank does have further funds to invest with CCA, given the fact that they needed a $45 billion dollar cash injection this week. Presumably this was just to keep operating with their commitments around the world to concessional & on-lending loans.
The Chinese will keep blustering & keeping up a good front, but they probably would have to borrow the money to finish Baha Mar and be left with a potential white elephant. At this point, they may just try to claim Baha Mar & if they win it, they will sit on the land, and let the buildings rot.
Or even worse than that, they will keep their interest in the buildings & Perry will give the project to the Snake to run as his own. Given the level of conspiracy proven by the senile Baltron Bethel, who still hasn't learned how to use email, my guess is that this whole fiasco is a knee-jerk reaction with no planning. First they tried to follow ole Cauliflower Ears, Mayonnaise Gibson's repo plan & when the corrupt attorney general proved to be legally inept, they are now stalling for a viable plan to satisfy the Bahamian courts, Delaware courts & even the Privy Council, as they gave Corrupt Damian, the Arch-Homophobe's son the heave-ho & hired a British lawyer as well.
So the soap opera continues. The only thing that you can bet on, is that Fred will have more pepper in his vaseline & hence more vitriol coming out of his mouth & the government will continue to be the dishonest anencephalic retards & kleptocrats that they are, and keep stumbling from one anti-democratic travesty to another.
The_Oracle 8 years, 8 months ago
Banker you have a sharp sense of Humor! No, we assign all sorts of motive to the Ruling Clique, but if and when they succeed at what evr their objectives they will show their hand, perhaps it is as simple as a new group of "Sunshine people" divvying up the assets of Sarkis. Initially i believe they panicked. Nothing more, but the inevitable scheming ensued. Seems to be nothing more than the well used way of gaining wealth, Steal it.
paul_vincent_zecchino 8 years, 8 months ago
"The asylums of Calcutta are filled with westerners who tried to outhustle the East." - Rudyard Kipling
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