THE STALLED FOUR Seasons Resort and private residences project needs $270 million more to be completed, with developers now looking to the Barbados National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and other local and regional investors to provide a third of the funding.
The remaining two thirds will take the form of a $180 million credit facility that has been co-arranged with ANSA Merchant Bank of Trinidad and the Washington-based Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
While the IDB is yet to officially communicate its final approval, the upbeat chairman of Paradise Beach Ltd, Professor Avinash Persaud, told a media briefing at the resort’s office yesterday that the new financial plan for Four Seasons would no longer depend on the sale of villas.
With public concern growing over the level of Government involvement in the private sector project, Persaud stressed that it would proceed “without a Government guarantee” and insisted that “only a tiny fraction” of the costs would come from the NIS. (RJ)
Read full story in today’s MIDWEEK NATION.
