The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Perry Christie yesterday confirmed that the multi-billion dollar Genting Group was assessing various investment opportunities in the Bahamas, as sources suggested it had offered to take a 50 per cent equity stake in Kerzner International’s former Paradise Island properties.

While not disclosing exactly what opportunities the Malaysian-headquarteerd group was looking at, Mr Christie told Tribune Business he had made a “good effort” to get Genting to look at other Bahamas-based prospects other than its Bimini Bay deal.

“I have made a good effort to have the Genting Group look again at the Bahamas,” he said.

“They have announced a relationship with Bimini ,which I expect to be a significant one. Genting is a world-leading resort developer, and I expect Genting to look at our country and see what other benefits it could get from our country and what other contribution it could make to the country.

“You can expect that as Prime Minister I would make every effort to impress upon them the advantages of investing here in the Bahamas. I am optimistic, as I always am, with respect to these matters.”

Tribune Business was yesterday told that Genting had approached the current Atlantis and One & Only Ocean Club owner, Brookfield Asset Management, to see if it could form a joint venture and acquire 50 per cent equity ownership in them.

Confirming that contact had been made between the two sides, one source, requesting anonymity, said: “They [Genting] offered to buy half.”

Brookfield’s response is not known, but the source said of discussions between the Government and Genting: “There’s been a couple of high level meetings between the two, and they’re progressing.”

Genting’s holding company, Genting Berhard, is said to be worth $11.3 billion on the Malaysian stock exchange. Its four subsidiaries, all listed either in Malaysia or Hong Kong, have market capitalisations ranging from $2.3 billion to $12.8 billion.

Brookfield, which acquired the Paradise Island properties from Kerzner International in the much publicised debt-for-equity swap that resolved the latter’s $2.5 billion crisis, has only extended the original loan agreement with the other lenders until September 2014, which some observers have interpreted that as a sign Brookfield is planning to exit the properties by ‘flipping’