Ousted Baha Mar developer Sarkis Izmirlian in a letter to President of the Export Import Bank of China (CEXIM) Liu Liange criticized the sale of Baha Mar's assets to Perfect Luck Holdings Ltd., and said his legitimate offer to purchase the resort is still on the table.
The Office of the Prime Minister said in a statement last week that if Izmirlian wants to make an offer to purchase the assets he needs to deal with Perfect Luck, the new owner.
In a letter made public yesterday, Izmirlian called the CEXIM Bank president's silence in relation to his offer -- and the refusal of anyone connected to the bank, the receivers or Perfect Luck Holdings Ltd. to engage with him -- "bizarre".
In the followup letter to Liu, also copied to Prime Minister Perry Christie -- as was the first such letter -- Izmirlian assured that his proposal to buy Baha Mar at a price superior to any offer Perfect Luck or CEXIM has received is a bona fide offer.
"As part of my offer, I also made clear that this proposal to acquire Baha Mar would result in, among other benefits, all substantiated Bahamian creditors being paid in full and all Baha Mar employees -- both Bahamians and expats -- being paid the monies they are owed," he wrote.
"Bizarrely, CEXIM has not acknowledged receipt of my proposal, nor has anyone associated with either the bank, the receivers or Perfect Luck made contact with us."
Izmirlian charged that this refusal to engage with him to even discuss his proposal "makes neither economic sense nor is it in the best interests for the future of Baha Mar or The Bahamas".
"The fact that the receivers were not able to find an arm's-length buyer has nothing to do with the quality of the asset and everything to do with a process where bidders were not given information, and were forbidden to meet with stakeholders or to discuss the status of construction with any of the relevant parties," he said.
Izmirlian has claimed before -- during the receivers' sale process -- that prospective bidders were not given sufficient information and were prevented from meeting with stakeholders.
After receiver-manager Raymond Winder of Deloitte confirmed that there would be no more one-on-one negotiations with the bank, but that all bids must go through the receiver, counsel for BMD Holdings Ltd. Whitney Thier called the process "opaque at best" and worried that Izmirlian would be disadvantaged by some of the parameters of the process.
Izmirlian also claimed, "The fact that the Bahamian court signed off on the sale does not mean that a comprehensive and inclusive process was followed. It only means that your lawyers were able to craft a story sufficiently plausible for the bank to sell Baha Mar to itself and conduct a further sale of Baha Mar in even more secrecy."
Izmirlian pointed out that construction has not restarted at the property, and "the mysterious real buyer" has not been identified.
"So for the record, we reiterate our offer to purchase the Baha Mar assets," he said.
"We have been in ongoing communication with many industry experts, operators and interested parties, many who have considered their options for pursuing Baha Mar.
"They, like us, question the sincerity of the process and the real goal of the appointed receivers. They also recognize the unique experience we bring to this significant project given the many hurdles that lie ahead."
Urging the bank to engage, Izmirlian argued that at this stage no one feels lucky, not the thousands of Bahamians out of a job, not the contractors not paid, not the foreign creditors ignored, and not the shareholder of CEXIM who is forced to take an enormous write-off on its debt.
"We present the best option to complete the project and affirm the policy success of CEXIM," Izmirlian said.
"Together, we will have shown that even when faced with a challenge that we have found the solution and resolved the problem. Why not at least engage in a serious discussion with us to consider whether there is a pathway forward?"
K. Quincy Parker, Guardian Business Editor
Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian
