The Grand Court has approved an application for the sale of the former Margaritaville resort to an undisclosed buyer for an unspecified sum, despite pleas by unit owners who say they have been kept in the dark about the terms of the sale and fear they could be left at a disadvantage.
The application for the sale was made by MV Cayman Ltd., which served as the property management company. It is now being liquidated along with its sister company, MV Advisory Ltd., which was the property developer.
“At the time of the initial sale, MV Cayman entered into a property management agreement with the private owners; those two rights were to have the property managed and to have a share of the profits,” Ben Tonner, KC, who represents 149 of the 154 owners of private units, told Acting Justice Alistair Walters, who presided over the matter on Wednesday, 15 March.
Tonner added, “Now that the property is to be sold again, we have heard that there are no obligations under the new management agreement, but instead rights. Maybe the agreement is in our favour, maybe it is not, but we say we should have access to the parts of the agreement that pertain to us to prevent a future litigation to address a matter that could be dealt with at this stage.”
His clients, who have units in the complex, could be affected by the sale one way or another, and therefore are considered third party to the agreement between MV Cayman and the unknown buyer.
Tonner’s application was in opposition to MV Cayman’s application for the property owners to be excluded from seeing the terms and conditions of the sale.
“These are commercially sensitive discussions which have not been finalised, and therefore should not be disclosed, as seen by correspondence from the liquidators who, when asked for disclosure, responded in the negative,” said Stephen Leontsinis, the lawyer representing MV Cayman.
Acting Justice Walters approved the application for the sale of the complex. Although he permitted the third parties to express their concerns, he ruled that they had no right to speak to the actual sales agreement.
However, he did rule that redacted copies of the terms, conditions and definitions pertaining to the third parties in the sale be made available to them.
By agreeing to the sale, MV Cayman and the undisclosed buyer will have 45 days to close the deal, providing all the conditions set out in the agreement are met. Before addressing the conditions, Walters closed the proceedings and retired to Chambers, excluding the media and third-party members.
For more on the history of the Margaritaville closure, click here.
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