The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

An ex-Baha Mar director yesterday said he was “a little sceptical” that the newly-launched process to sell the $3.5 billion project would produce a positive outcome for the Bahamas, adding: “We’re still in for the long haul.”

Dionisio D’Aguilar questioned whether the China Export-Import Bank was truly serious about seeking a buyer for the resort complex, or merely seeking to show it was doing something in an effort to appease the Government and Bahamian people.

He told Tribune Business that any purchaser faced an immediate potential ‘deal breaker’ given that Baha Mar’s financier had yet to publicly relent on its demand to be ‘made whole’.

As a result, Mr D’Aguilar urged the Christie administration to maintain consistent pressure on the China Export-Import Bank to bring its new sales process to a successful conclusion, and drive home the possibility it may be unable to recover its full $2.45 billion.

The Government’s political Opposition, meanwhile, told Tribune Business that the appointment of a Canadian-headquartered real estate firm to market Baha Mar was further evidence that Prime Minister Perry Christie’s previous optimism about an imminent resolution was “fiction”.

K P Turnquest, the FNM’s deputy leader, agreed with Mr D’Aguilar that there remained “a long road ahead” before Baha Mar can be completed and opened.

Both men were speaking after Tribune Business exclusively revealed that Baha Mar’s receivers, Deloitte & Touche, had hired Colliers International to market the unfinished mega resort complex to prospective purchasers.

Mr D’Aguilar, while praising the launch of a formal sales process, said it had taken the China Export-Import Bank and its advisers some five months to take this first step.

“I’m a little sceptical that it’s going to result in anything,” he said. “It’s hard for me to come off the fact they’re [China Export-Import Bank] wanting 100 cents on the dollar straight out of the starting blocks.

“It’s good they’re starting the process, but I still think we’re in for the long haul. It’s important for the Government to apply pressure to ensure an outcome.

“This could be just to get Christie off their backs and show the Bahamian people they’re actually doing something. Well see what happens.”

Expressing doubts that the China Export-Import Bank was truly interested in securing an exit route, given its demands, Mr D’Aguilar reiterated: “They want to demonstrate to everyone that they’ve gone through the process and couldn’t find a buyer.

“It’s important for the Government to push to have an outcome, and it’s important for the Government to sensitise them to the fact they need to make a deal/.

“It may not be the best deal, but in the interests of the well-being of the economy of this country, the Chinese may have to prepare themselves for the eventuality they don’t get 100 cents on the dollar.”

Mr D’Aguilar said potential Baha Mar buyers needed to be aware of the China Export-Import Bank’s desires, and questioned whether these would deter investors from paying the $50,000 non-refundable deposit necessary to gain access to an electronic ‘data room’ containing all necessary due diligence information.

“It’s taken them five-six months to get this off,” he added of the Chinese bank and its receivers. “If I was the Government of the Bahamas, I’d be a little upset it’s taken them this long to come with this process.

“They promised that once they took control, they’d be in a better position to open the hotel than if Sarkis remained there. Yet in five-six months, they’ve only put out a small tender or prospectus offering the property for sale.

“I’m not encouraged that this is going to move fast, because it’s taken five-six months to get this far.”

Mr Turnquest, meanwhile, while agreeing that the appointment of Colliers and sales process launch was a positive move, said it reinforced the impression that the Christie administration had been wildly optimistic on its previous Baha Mar resolution predictions.

“It proves that the Prime Minister’s comments that this property will be completed shortly, and re-opened in 2016, were a fiction,” the FNM deputy leader told Tribune Business, “and that there’s still a very long road ahead to bring this project to fruition.

“It leaves one to ask what the Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism were talking about when they said there were buyers lined up and interested.

“Again, everybody who has discussed this project has been extremely cautious with projections as to how quickly this thing can turnaround but, true to form, the Government - as it does with most things - is very aggressive with timelines.”

Mr Turnquest said Colliers’ hiring raised questions as to how much buyer interest there really was in Baha Mar, given that the resort’s construction was not complete.

And he reiterated concerns about what would happen to the $74 million still owed to Bahamian contractors, and the multi-million dollar sum outstanding to other creditors, given that any sales proceeds would be used to first satisfy the China Export-Import Bank’s $2.45 billion debt.