The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The late Edward St George’s family are “very resistant” to selling their 50 per cent stake in the Grand Bahama Port Authority Group of Companies (GBPA), Tribune Business can reveal.

Multiple sources familiar with developments, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to this newspaper that the St Georges were “pretty dismayed by what was presented” in the acquisition offer from UK-based Highgrove Securities.

The family is understood to be seeking further details on where the financing for Highgrove’s offer is coming from, and for it to reveal who it may be representing.

In other words, the St Georges are suspicious that Highgrove Securities is only a ‘negotiating lead’ acting on behalf of a party/parties that are the real financiers behind any bid to purchase the GBPA and its affiliate companies.

“The question from our side is: Do you have funding? Show us proof,” one source said of the St George position on the Highgrove offer. “And we don’t know who they are yet. They haven’t indicated who they are representing.”

They also rebuffed suggestions reaching Tribune Business that the Government, in the shape of Prime Minister Perry Christie himself, had been pushing the St Georges to listen to the Highgrove offer and negotiate a potential sale.

This newspaper understands that while the Prime Minister has raised the Highgrove offer in conversations with the St Georges, neither he nor his government has applied any pressure on the family to reach a deal with it.

“He has brought it up, but right now the Government is more focused on what happens in August,” a source said, referring to Freeport’s ‘sun setting’ investment incentives.

Tribune Business’s contacts, meanwhile, confirmed this newspaper’s previous revelations that the Highgrove Securities offer does have some connections to Ireland’s wealthy Ryan family, who founded well-known low-cost airline, Ryanair.

The principal person involved is understood to be Michael ‘Kell’ Ryan, but Tribune Business sources suggested he was not heavily involved in the airline’s founding.

They appear to be basing this on 2007 media reports, which recorded how Ryanair was itself distancing itself from public comments made by Kell Ryan.

The airline also denied that he was a Ryanair co-founder, as suggested in some media outlets. Instead, Ryanair said Kell Ryan was a brother of its co-founder, Tony Ryan, and while he had worked at the airline in sales and marketing, and ground operations, he was not a member of its Board prior to his 2004 retirement.

Tribune Business, though, understands that despite the negative responses from the St George family, the Highgrove team is set to “fly in” to Freeport within the next fortnight in a bid to meet with them and their fellow shareholder, the late Sir Jack Hayward’s estate.

While the majority of Hayward estate members are thought to be keen on a GBPA exit, the same cannot be said of the St Georges - especially when it comes to the Highgrove offer.

“They’re very resistant,” another contact said of the family, explaining that the St Georges had little substantial income outside the GBPA and its Port Group Ltd affiliate.

“They will have no other reason for being,” the source added. “If a sale goes through, the St George children will not get that much. It’s not in their interests to sell, as they will not get that much compared to what they are getting now.”

Tribune Business previously revealed that the late Sir Jack Hayward was talking to Highgrove Securities LLP over the potential sale of the Hayward Trust’s 50 per cent equity stake in the GBPA.

Highgrove Securities was only founded in 2011, and describes itself as a private investment house that was set up in the wake of the global financial crisis to funnel capital into private and public companies across Europe and North America.

Simon Whittley, a former senior Credit Suisse executive, who is listed as a Highgrove Securities partner, is understood to have been the main ‘contact point’ on the GBPA talks.

It is unclear how far the discussions advanced prior to Sir Jack’s passing, although Prime Minister Perry Christie he confirmed he knew the GBPA co-owner had been in sales talks.

Sir Jack’s passing has brought the GBPA ownership issue into sharp relief, especially when set against the background of Freeport’s continued economic travails and the negotiations over the expiring real property tax and Business Licence exemptions - all of which play into potential amendments to the Hawksbill Creek Agreement that will be likely be discussed this year.

While many believe Sir Jack’s passing may accelerate the search for a new GBPA owner, the difficulty remains that this is a quasi-governmental asset that requires ‘special’ buyers and shareholders to direct it.

Another issue is getting all members of the Hayward and St George families on board with any agreed sale, a task unlikely to be easy. While there is widespread consensus that an ownership change is necessary, pulling it off will be much harder to accomplish.