By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Atlantis resort’s owner is looking to invest a “significant sum” in a five-year capital expenditure plan for the Paradise Island resort, having pronounced itself “quite excited” to have completed the $1.9 billion refinancing.

Andrea Balkan, managing partner for Brookfield Real Estate Financial Partners, which holds Atlantis among its assets, said the company had also invested $200 million of its own assets as part of a refinancing that has left $1.75 billion in debt secured on the property and associated real estate.

“We have completed refinancing of our debt on Atlantis. We have obtained a $1.75 billion, seven-year loan on the property from a consortium of banks, pension funds and sovereign wealth funds,” Ms Balkan said.

“We are quite excited to have completed what was a complicated financing transaction. Brookfield has invested an additional $200 million of its own capital, as well as capital of its partners, in this transition which enables us to put the financing to bed for the period of seven years.

“It enables Mr Markantonis and the team to focus on our primary mission, which is a first-rate hospitality asset which we continue to invest in and drive more and more satisfied guests to.”

Ms Balkan added that the specifics of Atlantis’s latest five-year plan would be developed over the coming weeks, and said: “We certainly have plans to spend a significant amount of money over the next five years, and we just need to sit down down and really kind of flesh out where the money will be spent, whether it will be on expansion, refurbishment of existing facilities or adding new attractions - probably some combination of all three - but we are not quite ready to specify which is coming first.”

Brookfield Asset Management, which owns and oversees $150 billion of assets worldwide, assumed control of Atlantis and the One & Only Ocean Club in a debt-for-equity swap. That involved Brookfield forgiving some $175 million worth of junior debt, leaving some $2.2-$2.3 billion still secured upon Paradise Island.
 Access Industries, the company controlled and founded by its billionaire chairman, Ukrainian-born Len Blavatnik, confirmed last month that it had closed the One & Only Ocean Club’s purchase from Brookfield - a deal first revealed by Tribune Business in mid-March.

Speaking on that transaction, Ms Balkan said: “The sale of the Ocean Club obviously allowed us to concentrate our efforts on Atlantis. The Ocean Club is a phenomenal asset; it’s a 100-room ultra luxury resort, and I think Access Industries has plans to develop that to its full potential, and we will focus our efforts on the Atlantis.”

Prime Minister Perry Christie called the completion of the refinancing of Brookfield’s Paradise Island assets “encouraging”.

“This is an enormous manifestation of confidence, both in Atlantis as a successful business and in the economy of the Bahamas. The size of this transaction is an incredible accomplishment in today’s challenging global economic environment,” he said.

“It confirms the forecast of a bright future for our tourist industry, in which Atlantis is the largest private sector partner with some 8,000 employees. My Government has worked cooperatively and tirelessly with Brookfield and its partners to approve and grant the necessary permits for the refinancing transaction on terms and benefits similar to those granted at the time of Brookfield’s acquisition of majority ownership from Kerzner in 2012.”

Mr Christie said Brookfield had agreed there would be no reductions in staff at the resort under the current ownership, and that Atlantis would continue to be operated as a world-class facility maintaining high standards. Bahamian contractors, labour, materials and supplies will be used to the fullest extent at the resort.

“In making more facilities available for Bahamians, suitable arrangements are being put in place for playtime and preferred fees for members of the Bahamas Golf Federation to utilise the Paradise Island golf course,” said Mr Christie.