business@tribunemedia.net
THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 2025
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Treasure Cay buyer in $60m equity raise • Seeking 92% of equity from outside investors THE buyer for Abaco’s Treasure Cay resort is seek- • Project’s purchase from ing to raise more than 92 percent of its target $65m Meisters yet to close equity capital from other investors while only com- • Seeking $121m total mitting $5m of its own funds, capital; $25m for sale documents have revealed. By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
GreenPointe Holdings financing plans are disclosed in a private placement document, obtained by Tribune Business, that seeks to solicit the interest of potential investors even though the actual purchase of the 1,400acre property’s undeveloped
land from the Meister family has yet to close. While the developer signed a Heads of Agreement with the Davis administration for Treasure Cay’s redevelopment in September 2024, the
offering memorandum makes clear that - while the purchase is “under contract” - its closing is subject to Jacksonville-based GreenPointe obtaining the necessary permits and approvals to proceed with
the project. As a result, work will likely not begin until the 2025 third quarter. GreenPointe is seeking to raise a total $121.406m to cover the costs associated with the first two years of redevelopment work, according to the offering document. The total $65m equity capital will account for some 53.5 percent of this total, with the balance generated from a combination of residential real estate and marina slip sales, plus operating revenue from Treasure Cay’s club. Detailing how the $121.406m will be used, the GreenPointe offering
document discloses that some $25m or 21 percent will be spent on “Treasure Cay acquisition”. This is the line item representing the largest use of the $121.406m proceeds, and appears to signal that other investors - as well as real estate and marina pre-sales - will finance the development’s purchase from the Meisterowned Treasure Cay Ltd. Gaynelle James, GreenPointe Holdings’ marketing director, referred this newspaper to Edward Burr, the developer’s chairman and principal, after it submitted questions on the private placement offering’s
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structure and progress in obtaining all the necessary government planning, environmental and other approvals required. Mr Burr, in a messaged reply yesterday evening, said he was in Colorado about to travel to Costa Rica and would try to call this newspaper today. However, neither denied the authenticity or accuracy of the offering document, nor its existence, with other sources familiar with Treasure Cay developments confirming that it is genuine and dated March 4, 2025. SEE PAGE NINE
BANK ACCOUNTS Gov’t targets $866m slash OPENING LIKENED TO ‘PULLING TEETH’ to Bahamas’ national debt By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Government is predicting it will slash its direct debt by $866m during the three fiscal years to end-June 2028 as a result of generating three consecutive annual fiscal surpluses. The Government’s medium-term debt management strategy, which was yesterday tabled in the House of Assembly by the Prime Minister, forecast that it will produce this “overall debt repayment” for the fiscal years 2025-2026 through to 2027-2028 via successive annual Budget surpluses of close to half-a-billion dollars. The report, which reveals the Government is seeking to finance 80
percent of its borrowing needs for those three years from domestic or Bahamian dollar lending sources, suggests the Davis administration remains firmly wedded to the fiscal targets set in the 2024-2025 Budget despite incurring a $394.8m half-year deficit which is more than five times’ or $325m higher than the full-year goal. The Government is still forecasting that it will generate three consecutive fiscal surpluses, ranging between $448.2m and $467.9m, for the period covered by the report. Without these surpluses, and the Government’s revenue income exceeding total spending by a combined $1.374bn during that time, it will not be able to achieve the projected $866m reduction in The Bahamas’ national debt.
But, should these projections hold true, the Davis administration is predicting that its chosen debt management strategy will produce a net $603m reduction in the Government’s foreign currency debt and a further $263m decline in domestic Bahamian dollar liabilities through to the end of the 2027-2028 fiscal year. “A negative figure represents an overall debt repayment,” the strategy report confirmed; The Government, for the next three years, has elected to manage its debt through a strategy that focuses on developing the domestic Bahamian capital markets while also concentrating on managing refinancing, or rollover, risks. SEE PAGE SIX
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
BUSINESSMEN yesterday voiced scepticism that 99 percent of new bank account applications are approved - often “in less than a week” - as they described the process as akin to “pulling teeth”. Sir Franklyn Wilson, the Arawak Homes and Sunshine Holdings chairman, branded the findings of the Central Bank’s first half-yearly bank account opening survey as “a play on words” with both himself and Paul Moss, the Dominion Management Services president, suggesting the true bureaucracy
and red tape occurs prior to the decision-making point in satisfying the banks’ document demands. “Listen to what they say: ‘Once all the documents required are submitted they will approve’,” Sir Franklyn said. “The problem is they keep asking for more documents. That ain’t saying nothing. The point is it’s the process of getting to the point where they say they have all the documents. “They need this, they need a utility bill, they need so many things. It sounds to me like that’s a play on words. You’re playing on words, this language. A company I’m involved with, SEE PAGE 11
NO ‘CRY WOLF’ OVER US GROWTH SLASH By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A SENIOR tourism executive yesterday asserted he is “not prepared to cry wolf or suggest doomsday has dawned” yet after the Federal Reserve slashed US economic growth forecasts through 2027. Robert Sands, Baha Mar’s senior vice-president for government and external affairs, told Tribune Business that hotel booking trends and business volumes “remain strong and robust” as the Bahamian tourism industry heads towards the climax of its peak winter season with the Easter holiday weekend towards the end of April. Suggesting that Easter’s
later 2025 arrival, compared to end-March last year, has given The Bahamas’ largest industry “more runway” to maximise the potential economic benefits, he added that it can only “monitor and wait and see” whether the economic uncertainty generated by Donald Trump’s trade and tariff policies will dampen consumer confidence and travel demand for The Bahamas. Mr Sands spoke to this newspaper after the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, trimmed its growth forecasts for an American economy that provides as much as 90 percent of all tourists that visit The Bahamas. SEE PAGE 13
DIR HOME VAT REFUNDS ‘A FARCE’ BY ANNELIA NIXON Tribune Business Reporter anixon@tribunemedia.net THE Department of Inland Revenue’s (DIR) VAT refunds as part of its first home construction and renovation programme is a “farce”, according to one frustrated Bahamian. The citizen, speaking anonymously, said DIR would no longer even talk to them, and they had to hire a lawyer or consultant to process the application. The individual said it was “absurd” that he had to
“pay someone to get these government workers to do their job”. With a reduced VAT rate of 4 percent being applied to homes exceeding a value of $300,000, they stated that they paid the contractor’s construction VAT fees to the tune of $31, 850 - the full 10 percent VAT rate. Upon applying for the refund initiative, they were told by a representative at DIR that they would “withhold the 4 percent” and refund the remaining 6 percent. SEE PAGE SEVEN