A Chinese company has financed the bank-appointed receivers of the stalled Baha Mar Resort in the Bahamas with million, to be used for maintenance and preservation of the unfinished project’s assets while receivers search for a buyer.
The financing from China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) places the firm at the top of the list fore repayment as a preferred lender, according to the Bahamas Tribune. Under the deal CHEC will be repaid by a new owner even before main financier China Export Import Bank (Exim), which has invested $2.45 million of the estimated $3.5 billion project cost.
The project went into receivership in October, and liquidation proceedings commenced in November. The government of the Bahamas, which has been urgently trying to get the 90-percent-complete project restarted after construction halted in a dispute with founder and now-former owner Sarkis Izmirlian.
CHEC will also be repaid before 120 Bahamian construction companies and 2,000 laid-off workers.
CHEC is one of China’s largest state-owned enterprises operating outside of the country. The Tribune reported that the engineering firm is “one of the prospective investors” to take over the ownership stake of the Izmirlian family, which had invested around $1 billion of its own money in the six-hotel project on the legendary Cable Beach in Nassau.
It is estimated that another $600 million will be needed to complete and open Baha Mar. The Bahamian government is hoping for a quick sale to get the project restarted.
