Ansa Mer­chant Bank will arrange and ful­ly un­der­write a 17-year fixed rate bond for $495,937,500 to be is­sued by the Sports Com­pa­ny of T&T (Sportt) to par­tial­ly fi­nance de­vel­op­ment of nine re­gion­al recre­ation­al fa­cil­i­ties.At 2.30 pm yes­ter­day, at the law of­fices of Hamel Smith M & Com­pa­ny, Sportt and Ansa Mer­chant Bank signed off on the his­toric bond. The sign­ing was wit­nessed by Sports Min­is­ter Anil Roberts and Ash­win Creed, Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary.

The fa­cil­i­ties will be cus­tomised to fit the ge­o­graph­ic space and needs of each com­mu­ni­ty and wide range of ameni­ties are planned. These will in­clude pavil­ions or bleach­ers, mul­ti-pur­pose hall, en­ter­tain­ment area, swim­ming pool, play park and prac­tice nets.

The nine recre­ation­al fa­cil­i­ties to ben­e­fit from the bond are Ir­win Park, Siparia; Pe­nal Recre­ation Ground; Ed­die Hart Sport­ing Fa­cil­i­ty; Bri­an Lara Recre­ation Ground; Dass Trace Recre­ation Ground, Cunu­pia; Cara­po, Ari­ma; In­dia Trace, Mal­abar; North­ern Recre­ation Ground, Diego Mar­tin; and Ale­scon Comets, Char­lieville.