The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Atlantis will not be sold "at this time", it was revealed last night, with its owner instead deciding to unleash a "significant" three-year investment strategy despite receiving multiple offers.

An Atlantis spokesperson, effectively speaking on behalf of Brookfield Asset Management, told Tribune Business it was now focused on major renovations to the Paradise Island property that would include new restaurants and nightlife venues.

"We have received a number of offers to purchase Atlantis, but have made a determination not to sell at this time," the spokesperson said in response to this newspaper's inquiries.

"Instead, we have decided to make a significant investment in a renovation of Atlantis which will take place over the next three years, and will include room renovations, additional nightlife venues, new restaurants, and other expanded indoor and outdoor activities."

The statement confirms information reaching Tribune Business from multiple sources that the Atlantis sales process, initiated last year, had come to an end with no preferred bidder or buyer selected, and no suitors left in negotiations with Brookfield Asset Management.

The sales process, which had been run on the $330bn Toronto-headquartered asset manager's behalf by Citibank, was disclosed last July in a report by Bloomberg. That development came after this newspaper revealed in February 2019 that a potential deal with a New York-based real estate investor, Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation, which was backed by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, had also fallen through.

Brookfield and Atlantis made no mention of how much will be invested to upgrade and refresh the Atlantis product over the next three years, but the statement indicates that the former will now continue into its eighth year of owning the Paradise Island resort property.

No explanation or reason was given for why all bids were rejected. Nor were the identities of those behind the offers revealed, although former prime minister Perry Christie last year said he was representing one of the interested parties.

Tribune Business sources recently suggested his client was likely to be Phil Ruffin, the Las Vegas hotel/casino billionaire magnate, who owned the former Wyndham resort and Crystal Palace casino before selling them to Sarkis Izmirlian in 2006 for the Baha Mar project.

Mr Ruffin has never hidden his interest in, or admiration of, Atlantis. In a 2012 interview with Bahamian media, shortly after Brookfield took possession of the property following the debt-for-equity swap with Kerzner International, he said: "I think it’s a destination casino. It’s got everything.

“It’s got a lot of land. It’s got everything you want. So if Brookfield, who is the owner, if they ever get tired of it — which they may not; they might like the asset — but if they get tired of it and sales go down and it comes at a (good) price, we’d certainly take a look at it.”

Mr Ruffin added then: “I think it’s probably no secret that this [Atlantis] makes about $130m a year; not bad, tax free. And even if it dropped to $100m it’s still a good value. Normally a property like this will sell for seven to seven-and-a-half times earnings.

“So if it makes $100m earnings, you’d probably pay $700m or $750m for it. Whether the lender would take that big a hit or not, I don’t know.” Brookfield, which also twice refinanced Atlantis’ debt, is likely to have been seeking a substantially higher price than the figures quoted by Mr Ruffin in 2012.

Morningstar Credit Ratings, the investment analysis firm which assigned the highest ‘triple-A’ rating to the most senior financing tranches in Atlantis’s last $1.85bn refinancing, revealed in a July 2018 report that the resort “feels strongly” that Baha Mar’s emergence will not impact its long-term performance after net operating income jumped 27 percent for the 2018 first quarter.