By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

A Fusion Superplex executive yesterday branded The Bahamas as “the most restrictive banking market I’ve ever seen”, forcing investors to “think outside the box” for project financing.

Dominic Richards, the Atavus Group’s chief operating officer, told the Rotary Club of West Nassau: “I have businesses in Texas, Chicago and New Jersey, and I can say to you this is the most restrictive banking market I have ever seen in my entire life.

“It doesn’t make any sense. I can go to Texas and raise, as a foreigner, $8m-$10m in the YMCA in a month, but I come to my own country and I can’t get support.”

He added: “When it comes to capital raising and doing projects I would say that it’s less about whether you can find the money and more about how you bring it into the country without restrictive and predatory policies that don’t necessary facilitate the proper spreading of wealth across the county.”

Mr Richards, though, sought to debunk suggestions that capital is not readily available to Bahamian entrepreneurs. “You have to be able to think outside the box. There are so many ways to raise capital,” he said.

“There’s a lie going around that money is not available. I sat in the house of five billionaires in Lyford Cay before we did this project, and we got offers for between $20m to $40m. I turned most of them down because they required ownership or board decision-making, or the right to pull funding if they woke up one morning and sneezed.”

“We were able to get funding without anyone having the ability to make any operational decisions, have voting rights on the board or ability to determine the content we show. That’s very important when you do business. For the average business, the first two years is really rough, but since we launched there were only three movie theatres in China that beat us consistently.”

Mr Richards also defended the long-term viability of the IMAX-centred Fusion Superplex entertainment venue, saying: “You can’t convince people who don’t understand the business model to actually understand the depth to which we actually prepared the plan.”