The new owner of Buddy’s International Hotel has issued a statement confirming that freelance journalist Judy Fitzpatrick interviewed him for Stabroek News in St Maarten and said that there was no intention to mislead with regard to the purchase price.
President of the Princess Group of Companies Sudi Ozkan said in the statement that both he and his wife were interviewed by Fitzpatrick. He said that while he told Fitzpatrick about the “US$25 million investment” no distinction was made indicating that the purchase price was in fact US$15 million and that the US$10 million would be used to upgrade the property. He called this unfortunate.
Ozkan’s statement came in the wake of a tirade from Head of the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest) Geoffrey Da Silva at a press conference on Wednesday over an article published in Tuesday’s edition of the Stabroek News. The article, written by Fitzpatrick exclusively for this newspaper, had said that the hotel had been sold for US$25 million.
Da Silva called the press conference ostensibly to correct this, but then urged the Guyana Press Association (GPA) to investigate where and when the interview was done, stating that he doubted whether the Turkish hotelier was spoken to, since he was convinced that the man and his wife were probably not in St Maarten at the time.
Da Silva said the article followed a line being taken by the editors of the Stabroek News, intending to make public only negative things and argued that there was a difference between criticism and negativity.
In his statement, Ozkan said he and his wife were interviewed at his home about the Princess Group’s investment in Guyana, which encompasses the purchase and further development of Buddy’s.
“I wish to confirm further that during the said interview, I provided Ms Fitzpatrick with details about the purchase and about some plans for upgrading the multi-million dollar property in Guyana,” Ozkan said.
“Unfortunately, while I told her about the US$25 million investment and about plans for upgrading the property to five-star status, no distinction was made at the time of the interview indicating that the purchase price was US$15 million and that an additional US$10 million would be spent to upgrade the facility.”
Ozkan said that as a special courtesy, Fitzpatrick allowed him to vet the article for accuracy before it was release to the Stabroek News. However, he said he did not realize that the distinction was not made. Nevertheless, Ozkan said, “I am satisfied that no one had deliberately set out to mislead anyone about either the purchase priced or the overall investment, which I am convinced is a good one for Guyana. As I said in the interview, Guyana is a beautiful place rich in natural resources and we are happy to invest in this country.”
Ozkan said that an official of the Princess Group would be in Guyana shortly and would provide additional details about the investment. General Manager, Princess International Group Suriname Operations & Guyana Investments, Serkan Arslan, who released the statement on behalf of Ozkan, confirmed that he would visit Guyana next week.
The statement was copied to Go-Invest, the Guyana Chronicle, Kaieteur News, NCN and the President of the GPA among others.
