The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Perry Christie said “things are good” with Baha Mar as he revealed that representatives from a leading resort in this hemisphere arrived in the country yesterday to put their interests forward to the Export Import Bank of China regarding the unopened mega resort.

Mr Christie said he and EXIM Bank officials have been in continued talks over the $3.5bn hotel with pointed discussions on finding employment for the more than 2,000 workers who were made redundant last month.

The nation’s leader further said he has put forward a proposition of his preparedness to work with the bank in finding the workers’ employment on the basis that stakeholders would reimburse the government of the Bahamas.

Mr Christie expressed his optimism of how the impasse will ultimately unfold during yesterday’s opening ceremony of the Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants’ (BICA) Week at the Melià hotel.

“Ray (Raymond) Winder was named with his colleagues out of Beijing receiver manager and (Edmond) Rahming provisional liquidator,” Mr Christie said. “I was happy and gratified that even though we didn’t want it to happen that way to see that there are Bahamians in the forefront of what is taking place in this group of hotels here.

“Last night (Sunday) I had an hour conference discussion with the president of the Export Import Bank of China about the need to accelerate the decision making on finishing over here. There is a compelling urgency for me to have a conference this morning with the construction company to speak to them about the difficulties the two are trying to work out, but to let them know that we want all the Bahamian contractors to be paid hopefully dollar for dollar. We want them to resume construction in the shortest possible time.

“I gave them a proposition of my preparedness to work with them in finding employment for the 2,000 people who were laid off on the basis that they would reimburse the government of the Bahamas.”

Mr Christie went on to insist that if questions linger of the confidence that investors see in the Bahamas, critics need only look at the response from the international community on the availability of Baha Mar.

“I leave you with a great degree of optimism because some of the world’s leading resort entities have expressed continuing interest. One of the leaders in the Western Hemisphere arrives in the Bahamas today (Monday) to speak with representatives of the bank all with a view to putting their interest on the table of being able to manage or purchase interest out here. So we are optimistic.”

“One thing that I can say is that when one is looking for confidence and whether it exists in the Bahamas, the response to the possible availability of these premises have demonstrated to me that the world is interested and they are coming to the Bahamas. Over the next week or two they will (announce).

“I can say that the bank needs to finance this interim stage and they have given me the assurance that in the shortest possible time from now they will provide that interim funding. So things are good so to speak.” Mr Christie said.

Last week The Tribune reported that a deal was being discussed for the stalled Cable Beach resort between Island Capital Group LLC, a private real estate merchant bank led by Andrew Farkas and partnered by hotel magnate Sol Kerzner, the China Export-Import Bank and China State Construction Engineering Corporation Ltd.

Last Friday, Mr Christie said he was “impressed” with the names of the many investors who are in talks with the Export Import Bank of China over the resort.

Baha Mar filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a US Bankruptcy Court for 15 of its companies on June 29.

However, in September, a US judge threw out the Chapter 11 cases for Baha Mar’s Bahamian companies.

On September 4, Edmund Rahming of KRyS Global, Mark Nicholas Cropper and Alastair Beveridge of AlixPartners Services UK were appointed as joint provisional liquidators and given the task of overseeing the company. In October, they received approval from the Supreme Court to make 2,020 Baha Mar employees redundant due to the resort’s insolvency.

On October 30, the EXIM Bank, Baha Mar’s secured creditor by way of its $2.45 billion mortgage debenture, obtained Supreme Court approval to appoint the Deloitte & Touche accounting firm as receivers for the troubled project.

Raymond Winder, the firm’s Bahamas managing partner, and two colleagues from Deloitte’s Beijing office, have been selected as receivers for the mega resort.

The resort was originally scheduled to open in December 2014.