The information memorandum which could lead to the privatisation of the Enmore Sugar Estate is to be available from today.
According to an advertisement in yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek by the National Industrial and Commercial and Investments Limited (NICIL) and its Special Purpose Unit (SPU), the information memorandum will be available up to August 13th and will among other things contain the timeline for the bids, process of ranking and further details of assets for sale. NICIL/SPU can be contacted for the information memorandum on the payment of US$1,000 and the signing of a confidentiality agreement. The SPU can be contacted at spu@privatisation.gov.gy. The denoting of the payment in foreign currency will raise eyebrows.
Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) is one of a number of companies interested in acquiring the Enmore estate. DDL is hoping to use the estate for the production of molasses which it was forced to import this year from Nicaragua because of the steep decline in sugar production by the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).
In the advertisement, NICIL/SPU say that the privatisation covers 25 acres of freehold land with 60,000- tonnes sugar capacity, a sugar packaging house and warehouses. It also has inventories, equipment and rolling stock. Furthermore, there is a long-term lease tenure – initially 25 years – of 6,900 hectares of arable lands with the option to renew.
Among other attributes listed by the advertisement were fields in five-hectare plots each next to a water transport system; access to a well-established research facility and nursery with several cane varieties, a local pool of experienced factory management and well-educated workforce, agreements in place for cane supply from experienced farmers using estate lands, 85% mechanisation from mechanical tillage/planting to harvest and “excellent” drainage and irrigation systems with new pumps.The advertisement also refers to Guyana’s oil future. It said large scale oil production is set to begin in 2020 and cited a quote by the New York Times that Guyana is “…poised to become the next big oil producer in the Western Hemisphere…”
Enmore is one of four estates that the APNU+AFC government is seeking to privatise. The others are Rose Hall, Skeldon and Wales.
