Structuring deals with Chinese partners can take a long time, according to a Cayman professional who counts the Export Import Bank of China among his firm’s clients.
Martyn Bould, chairman of Rider Levett Bucknall Caribbean, said one of the most visible developments in the region was the Baha Mar complex in the Bahamas. The deal alone for the $3.5 billion project took four years from initial discussions to completion, something that can be common in such discussions, he said.
“Normally it involves a requirement that there are Chinese workers, so for many of our islands there are work permit issues. Those are political issues.
There are often concessions that the Chinese may be looking for to do with duty concessions and so on.
About 1,000 acres [of the Baha Mar development] involved public and private properties.
“It is complex … the open market is just not lending for projects generally, and certainly not projects of this kind,” Mr. Bould said.
The chairman was in attendance at the Caribbean Hotel Investment Conference and Operation Summit in Nassau, Bahamas, where more than 200 delegates discussed creating successful integrated results, the importance of hospitality education and training, survival tactics and attracting alternative capital to the Caribbean.
