the dismissal motions, as did the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors.
CCA and CEXIM sought to dismiss the Chapter 11 proceedings on the grounds that (i) the Debtors were not eligible for Chapter 11 in the US under the Bankruptcy Code because all but one of the Debtors were organized under Bahamian law and held few assets in the United States; (ii) CCA argued that the Debtors filed the Chapter 11 proceedings in bad faith or as a litigation tactic to avoid insolvency proceedings in The Bahamas; and (iii) that the best interests of the Debtors and creditors would be better served by dismissal of the cases so that the parties can proceed with insolvency proceedings in The Bahamas, the venue with the most significant contacts and interests in the project, as most stakeholders would expect Bahamian law to apply to any winding up proceedings.
On 15 September 2015, Judge Carey, Bankruptcy Judge in the District of Delaware dismissed the Chapter 11 proceedings in relation to the 14 Baha Mar Companies on the basis, among other things, that the creditors would have expected the Bahamian courts to have jurisdiction over the insolvency proceedings. The Chapter 11 proceedings were permitted to continue with respect to the US Company Northshore Mainland Services Inc. which was the only US Company that was party to the proceedings and incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware while the other affiliated companies were not. The Chapter 11 proceedings were withdrawn by Northshore on 12 January 2016 following an application by the Debtor after Receivers were appointed over the assets of the Baha Mar Companies on 30 October 2015.
International Cooperation between Foreign Proceedings and Foreign Officeholders in The Bahamas
restructuring or reorganization related proceedings.
The procedure for recognition of foreign officeholders, and only subsequently foreign proceedings, is provided for in the legislation. It was argued in the Bahamian recognition proceedings that the foreign representative's application was misconceived in seeking to ask the court to recognize the foreign insolvency proceedings as opposed to the authority of the foreign representative appointed in the foreign proceedings. However, a further obstacle to the recognition application is that under Bahamian law a list of relevant foreign countries to whom recognition is intended to extend has yet to be designated.
If recognition was granted to the foreign officeholders the following ancillary
Under Bahamian Law, the Foreign Proceedings (International Cooperation) Liquidation Rules set out the manner in which the proceedings seeking recognition ought to be commenced, as well as the requirements to accompany an application seeking recognition of a foreign officeholder in relation to