A Bahamian court has approved a five-month delay to the government’s winding-up petition in the sale of the stalled Baha Mar Resort project, with the court-appointed receiver saying there are 16 prospective buyers.
Receiver Raymond Winder said there is a good expectation the stalled mega-resort project will be sold by the end of September, according to the Bahamas Tribune. Justice Ian Winder was due to hear the petition of several government agencies last week to formally wind up the sale process. The judge delayed the petitioner hearing until September 20.
“This morning (May 5) there was an application by the petitioners to have the matter adjourned to the 30th of September to permit the sales process to go on its way and be completed,” Wayne Munroe, a lawyer for the petitioners, told Tribune Business. “There is anticipation that the sales process could be completed and certainly an offer by early June. And so rather than proceed, the matter was adjourned to September 30. There are 16 persons who have expressed interest, and so they will have a period to next week to put in their firm bids and then those bids will be evaluated.”
Although Munroe would not confirm the names of the bidders, one is thought to be Baha Mar founder Sarkis Izmirlian, who is fighting to regain control of the resort he launched and expected to be complete by December 2014.
Izmirlian has promised to complete the project and to make all Bahamian creditors whole, as well as China’s Export Import Bank, which effectively holds the mortgage on the property, and the Chinese state-owned contractor, China Construction America, which halted construction after a reported 97 percent of the project was complete because Izmirlian refused to pay them, citing missed deadlines and inferior work.
