Baha Mar buyer turns out to be holding company owned by main creditor

The Baha Mar resort casino in the Bahamas has been sold to a Hong Kong-based offshoot of the property’s primary lender.

In August, the Bahamian government announced that the stalled $3.5b Baha Mar project had been sold to an unidentified buyer. The announcement prompted wide speculation as to the buyer’s identity but last week, Prime Minister Perry Christie’s office issued a statement revealing the buyer as Perfect Luck Holdings Ltd.

Perfect Luck turns out to be a special purpose vehicle (SPV) set up by Baha Mar’s primary creditor, the Export-Import Bank of China (EXIM). The bank reportedly opted to sell Baha Mar to Perfect Luck after none of the bidders came close to ensuring EXIM would recoup the full $2.45b it has contributed toward the project. The sale may also allow EXIM to temporarily offload its Baha Mar losses onto another company’s balance sheet until the ultimate sale concludes.

Christie said his office was prompted to release the statement based on “extraordinary statements” made by Baha Mar’s original developer, Sarkis Izmirlian’s Baha Mar Ltd, which filed for bankruptcy protection in June 2015.