By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Justice Ian Winder has “struck out” the Government’s original $59 million ‘omnibus’ petition to wind-up Baha Mar for being “highly irregular”, although he did allow those by several of its key agencies to move forward.

The Supreme Court on Friday determined that the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) and the Treasurer had made out a sufficient case to allow their winding-up petitions to proceed, while the fact the $3.5 billion project “undoubtedly insolvent” led it to appoint joint provisional liquidators.

Prior to the appointment of Bahamian accountant Ed Rahming, a partner in KRyS Global (Bahamas), with two UK accountants, Mark Cropper and Alastair Beveridge of AlixPartners Services, Justice Winder read into the court record his judgment allowing the BEC and Treasurer’s winding-up petitions .

He said the appointment of provisional liquidators was necessary to prevent the “dissipation of assets”, but was not satisfied that such a move should be made on the grounds of “public interest” as the Government’s lawyers had argued.

Justice Winder allowed the petitions filed in August on behalf of BEC and the Treasury to proceed, but struck out the original winding-up petition filed by the Attorney General in July, having found it to be “grossly irregular”, and ordered that costs be paid to Baha Mar.

He found that the Water and Sewerage Corporation and the National Insurance Board (NIB) winding-up petitions could not proceed, since they were not parties to the Heads of Agreement and could not be counted as creditors. Justice Winder did, though, give the Gaming Board 14 days to submit further evidence proving its standing as a creditor.

Wayne Munroe, attorney for the Gaming Board, said outside court: “The interest of the Gaming Board is the casino, which will be one of the largest - if not the largest - in the Caribbean to be open and operational, so that the Gaming Board can receive its fees and revenues into the public purse.

“The interest of all the Government entities is that the place be opened and operational. Although the judge was dismissive of the public interest aspect of it, the public interest will be served if the place is open.”

The Government had sought to wind up Baha Mar , Baha Mar Land Holdings , Baha Mar Properties, BMP3 (Wyndham Hotel), BMP Golf Ltd, Cable Beach Resorts and Baha Mar Enterprises on the basis that it is owed nearly $59 million by these companies.

In delivering his decision, Justice Winder lamented that “it is extremely regrettable” that the parties have not found a way to resolve their issues given all that is at stake.

Baha Mar has been granted leave to appeal the winding-up petition approval, and also has an outstanding appeal against Justice Winder’s decision to refuse recognition of its US bankruptcy proceedings. The hearing of the substantive winding-up matter is set for November 2, although the parties could come to some resolution prior to that.