Bahamians can invest in cruise port by mid-October

Nassau Cruise Port Limited’s (NCP) Chief Executive Officer Mike Maura told Guardian Business that by mid-October, all Bahamians will have the opportunity to own a piece of the port when the Bahamas Investment Fund (BIF) opens.

This fundraising round will be the second undertaken by NCP and will feature a lower minimum share purchase cost than the initial funding round, so that average Bahamians will be able to invest in the port.

Maura explained that NCP and leading investment management and advisory firm CFAL are currently preparing the public relations component and marketing of the BIF.

In the first funding round, the port raised more than $130 million to begin the renovation of the piers and the upland works.

Maura said two years ago that the port would wait until Bahamians could see significant progress before launching the BIF.

“The contractor right now is in the process of driving piles to support the superstructure for the arrivals terminal,” Maura said. “You can go out there today and see a new 800-foot extension on the northern pier and you can see where we have reclaimed a few acres of the seabed using the dredged material from that dredge operation that was completed about a month ago, so we essentially have our canvas in place to paint this new upland picture.”

The 2020 private placement bond offering had a minimum $50,000 investment and sought to raise $80 million in Bahamian dollars and $50 million in US dollars to begin aspects of the redevelopment of Nassau’s cruise port. The placement was successful and fully subscribed.

This latest fundraising effort will take the port to its completion in the middle of 2022.

Maura told this paper that NCP now has more cruise lines booked for 2022 than were booked in 2019, when visitor arrival numbers to The Bahamas broke all records. He added that he has been approached by new cruise lines that are in development.

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/bahamians-can-invest-in-cruise-port-by-mid-october/