FirstCaribbean Corporate Banking Curacao has successfully closed a landmark US$45 million refinancing transaction with Pristine Estates N.V., which owns the 612-room 3.5 star Holiday Inn Resort and Casino in Aruba, the bank has announced.
FirstCaribbean has been associated with Pristine since 1999 as part of a syndicate which included partner banks Maduro & Curiel’s Bank N.V. and Girobank N.V. However this transaction represented a larger facility for the customer with FirstCaribbean being Lead Arranger and participating as a Senior Lender.
A release from the bank quotes Donna Wellington, Manager – Hospitality, Corporate Finance, who led the deal team, as saying the Unit was able to create a financing solution tailored to meet the client’s needs and expectations and further, formed relationships with the local banks in order to successfully syndicate the transaction.
“Pristine Estates is part of the larger Lionstone Group, a prominent hospitality investment group with significant Caribbean presence,” Donna Wellington, Manager – Hospitality, Corporate Finance, who led the deal team said in a news release. “It is our hope to have a continued close working relationship with Lionstone allowing us to provide them with financial solutions to meet their needs on a larger scale. It is also pleasing that we were able to become the Lead Arranger of the facility for Pristine, given that they have been closely associated with one of our main competitors in the Dutch Caribbean for about a decade,” she said.
The Lionstone Group is one of the most prominent hotel owners and operators in the Dutch Caribbean for more than 20 years.
“The transaction also shows that FirstCaribbean is committed to their clients and to the Dutch Caribbean, even in the difficult economic circumstances the global economy is facing,” said Pim van der Burg, FirstCaribbean’s Managing Director, Dutch Caribbean added.
