Sarkis Izmirlian is offering to buy back his stalled US.5 billion Baha Mar for more than the current undisclosed bid.
Bahamas daily The Tribune reports that the original developer of the super-resort addressed his offer in a letter to Liu Liange, vice chairman and president of the Export Import Bank of China (EXIM), the project’s lead lender, saying his company, BMD Holdings, will also cover all “substantiated” Bahamian claims and all money owed to citizens of the Caribbean island nation from the failed development, a politically sensitive issue for the government.
“We can complete Baha Mar with the soonest opening of all other options,” Izmirlian said.
The 2,200-room Baha Mar broke ground on Nassau’s Cable Beach in February 2011 with plans to open in late 2014. But Izmirlian, its founder, and his principal contractor, China Construction America Bahamas, a division of China State Construction, fell out with each other, prompting lenders to pull their financing. Izmirlian sought to place the development under the protection of U.S. bankruptcy law, but the administration of Bahamas Prime Minister Perry Christie blocked the move. The project went into receivership in the Bahamas instead, and Izmirlian was forced out.
Christie said earlier this year that his government has an agreement with EXIM to finish construction, possibly as soon as next spring, and to sell the resort to a “world-class hotel and casino operator.” EXIM has created a subsidiary called Perfect Luck Holdings to purchase Baha Mar’s real estate assets out of receivership in preparation for a sale. The government also has reported that negotiations are under way with a buyer, believed to be Chinese, but has refused to disclose its identity.
Izmirlian, whose relationship with the Christie regime has been brittle at best, charges that the sales process is not being conducted through the normal receivership channels and is intentionally freezing him out.
“The multitude of bona fide offers we have made were not considered because of that,” he said.
Christie’s office has hit out at those claims and has cast doubts on whether Izmirlian has the financing to make a credible offer. In a statement the government said: “If, as he states, Mr. Izmirlian is in a position to, and wishes to work with, China Export-Import Bank to deliver Baha Mar for the Bahamian people, then he should engage seriously with Perfect Luck and its advisors.”
The statement said also that the government would not use its leverage to support Izmirlian’s offer.
Tribune sources said Izmirlian had yet to receive a reply from EXIM or the government and that some observers were likely to question why the government is not at least encouraging the bank to speak to him. It has been speculated that a deal with Izmirlian would likely require China Construction Americas to be removed from the project, and EXIM and the government will not agree to that.
