The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Baha Mar’s receivers yesterday said around 400 personnel from the project’s main contractor were on-site at Cable Beach, with efforts to restructure the project under new ownership likely to “bear fruit” soon.

Raymond Winder, Deloitte & Touche (Bahamas) managing partner, told Tribune Business: “It’s an ongoing process. Things are moving forward, and hopefully we’ll begin to see the fruits of our labour.

“China Construction America (CCA) has mobilised, and they have somewhere in the neighbourhood of 400 people working on the ground. The whole assessment process is ongoing, and work has started.”

Mr Winder confirmed that Baha Mar’s potential purchaser, Chow Tai Fook Enterprises (CTFE), “is still doing their due diligence and getting prepared to ramp up in terms of meeting whatever requirements they need with the Government”.

He added that the transfer of Baha Mar’s resort assets out of the receivership into Perfect Luck Holdings, the special purpose vehicle (SPV) created by China Export-Import Bank, the project’s $2.45 billion secured creditor, was largely complete.

That is a key first step towards the bank consummating the sale to CTFE, the Hong Kong-based conglomerate owned by the Cheng family, heirs of the late billionaire, Cheng Yu Tung.

“It’s moving in a positive direction,” Mr Winder told Tribune Business.

Meanwhile, this newspaper was told that CTFE is actually planning to open 800 rooms at Baha Mar by March/April 2017, the winter season peak, rather than the 700 reported yesterday.

Tribune Business was given more details of Monday’s meeting, which involved numerous Cabinet and private sector representatives, who attended a presentation given by CTFE executives.

The presentation was given by Graeme Davis, the president of CTFE’s Bahamas subsidiary, who was accompanied by the company’s local attorney, Ryan Pinder, the former financial services minister who is now a partner at Graham, Thompson & Co.

Apart from Prime Minister Perry Christie and Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davies, also present were members of the Cabinet’s Baha Mar ‘sub-committee’, including attorney general, Allyson Maynard-Gibson, and Jerome Fitzgerald, minister of education, science and technology.

Others attending included Urban Renewal co-chairs, Algernon Allen and Cynthia ‘Mother Pratt’, sources told this newspaper.

From the private sector, there were understood to be representatives from the John Bull Group of Companies, the largest renter of retail space at Baha Mar, plus contractor Jimmy Mosko, who is a joint venture partner in restaurants at the resort.

Tribune Business contacts familiar with the presentation said that apart from the 800-room opening target, CTFE indicated that it would obtain the necessary government approvals and permits “very soon”.

There were also hints that the prospective purchaser will start to ramp up hiring early in the New Year, once its acquisition has been sealed and approved.

CTFE previously told Tribune Business it would concentrate on opening the Baha Mar casino and casino hotel, plus the Hyatt-branded convention hotel and convention centre, a strategy in line with the Government’s thinking and desires.

The Christie administration, facing a general election by May 2017, is extremely keen for at least part of Baha Mar to be operational by then, so it can attempt to justify its strategy of opposing - and helping to remove - original developer Sarkis Izmirlian as successful.

One source, speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested that the Baha Mar purchase was moving rapidly through the Government’s permitting processes.

“It might have moved swiftly,” they added. “It might have already been done. Everybody would be aware that it’s in the national interest for this thing [Baha Mar] to open.

“It’s a question of all the security checks and due diligence they would have to do. It’s election time, so none of this is surprising to me.”

One contact, though, questioned how the CTFE approvals process could be moving so rapidly when Obie Wilchcombe, minister of tourism with responsibility for gaming, had confirmed the Gaming Board had only received the Hong Kong-based conglomerate’s proposals/application within the last week.

A government delegation, featuring Mrs Maynard-Gibson, Obie Wilchcombe, minister of tourism; Sir Baltron Bethel, the Prime Minister’s senior policy adviser; and Verdant Scott, Gaming Board secretary, are set to fly to Hong Kong to assess CTFE’s operations there.

The prospective Baha Mar purchaser has said it will hire casino brands or operating partners to manage the casino, which some sources last night said raised questions over what exactly the Government delegation will see in Hong Kong.

They suggested that the Government representatives were likely to view the Macau casinos in which CTFE and the Chengs are minority partners with Stanley Ho.