The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Grand Lucayan’s chairman says the board is targeting end-March 2019 to recommend a purchaser for the resort - a timeline that meets the deadline set at the outset.

Michael Scott, who heads Lucayan Renewal Holdings, the Government-owned special purpose vehicle (SPV) that owns the resort, told Tribune Business: “The intent is to make our final recommendation to the government by the end of March.

“The person whom they should select for the development, those closing recommendations in conjunction with Colliers will be made by March 15 or thereabouts. That is in keeping with the forecast I’ve given out, and repeated from time-to-time, that we would be in a position to identify and recommend a purchaser to the Government between April and June.”

He spoke out after Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism, said February 15 was the deadline for the Grand Lucayan’s Board and Colliers, the Canadian-headquartered realtor managing the bidding process on its behalf, to receive all offers for Grand Bahama’s “anchor” resort property.

“We have to wait until the 15th when everyone comes in, but I’m sure it will be over 20,” Mr D’Aguilar said of the likely bidder interest. “We expect to close off the acceptance of bids by the 15th of February.

“Then there will be an evaluation period paring down those who have submitted proposals to a small grouping, and then the Government will evaluate which one they feel is the best and will select an operator. Obviously we have goals, but these things take time, and we hopefully will have it done in the shortest period of time.”

Mr Scott declined to comment on the nature of the bids received to-date, or their number, although Tribune Business understands that at least two groups are regarded as very strong candidates by the Board and its agents.

He also declined to talk about the status of the voluntary separation packages (VSEps) that the resort wants to offer managerial and line staff who want to leave. The issue is increasingly seen as a distraction from the bigger, more important goal of finding the right buyer who can transform the Grand Lucayan - and, by extension, Freeport - into a sustainable destination product.

The battle between the Grand Lucayan Board and two staff unions, with both sides far apart, was not good news for the 227 workers - 90 managers and 137 line staff - who wanted to exit and will likely have been hoping to receive their payouts before Christmas.

As reported previously by Tribune Business, the two unions had initially asked for a total $8.4m payout, which represents a sum more than double, or 121 percent higher than the resort’s total $3.8m offer.

Mr Scott, as previously reported by this newspaper, hit out at the Bahamas Hotel and Managerial Association’s (BHMA) lead negotiator, Obie Ferguson, after the middle management union demanded an extra $600,000 just after the Board increased its offer by $500,000.

The lower the compensation payout, the greater the savings for the Bahamian taxpayer who has ultimately financed the Grand Lucayan’s $65m acquisition and a series of subsequent multi-million dollar payouts to former owner, Hutchison Whampoa, along with $3.5m in renovation costs.