Baha Mar Ltd. issued a formal statement last week protesting Bahamian Prime Minister Perry Christie’s plan to pursue liquidation proceedings to seize control of the troubled .5 billion Baha Mar Resort project.
Baha Mar, the largest construction project in the Caribbean, was originally slated to open last December. The opening was delayed until March, and then indefinitely as the company and its contractor became embroiled in a dispute over cost and the progress of the project.
Two weeks ago, Christie sent a delegation to Beijing, China, to foster negotiations between Baha Mar and its Chinese contractor, state-owned China Construction Company, in a last-ditch effort to jump-start construction and complete the project, on which some 5,000 Bahamian jobs depend. No agreement was reached, and the Bahamian government is expected to initiate liquidation proceedings.
The Supreme Court of the Bahamas rejected Baha Mar’s request that the government recognize its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in the U.S., which the operator had planned to use to stave off creditors while completing construction of the project.
The statement released last week, issued following the adjournment of the Supreme Court’s hearing on the bankruptcy, read:
“The government’s entire application is misguided and without merit, and the whole process is abusive, oppressive and undertaken in bad faith. We look forward to demonstrating those facts to the court. Moreover, it should be clear to the entire country that the government’s actions do not serve the best interests of the Bahamas and its people. Those interests are best served by the completion and opening of the resort, a process that the Winding Up Petition (the liquidation effort) will only undermine and delay.
“Moreover, the government’s hastily submitted application contained numerous fatal flaws in procedural terms. Those errors were then compounded by their last-minute announcement that the persons they had proposed to act as Provisional Liquidators were, in the government’s revised estimation, unsuitable.
“In any case, the appointment of a provisional liquidator is entirely unwarranted under the law, and given how the government’s first attempt to recommend three PWC partners resulted in a preposterous reversal, we cannot accept at face value the government’s assertion that it has now taken the appropriate steps to get it right.
“Considering the hundreds of Bahamian and international creditors and other parties involved in this situation, it is both necessary and appropriate that we have time to satisfy ourselves that the proposed individuals are truly independent and conflict-free, regardless of the caliber of the firm the government has identified.
“We are concerned that the government’s continued actions are only serving to distract the parties from the negotiations that are continuing, where we are making real, if slow progress, and to which we have always been committed. Our unwavering aim is to reach an outcome that enables Baha Mar to complete construction and open the resort to the benefit of the Bahamas.”
