With the government’s move to transfer at least 10 properties to private companies earlier this month coming under scrutiny, the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) yesterday said that it was simply finalising the sale of some of GuySuCo’s assets to help assist the cash-strapped corporation.
Orders for the transfer of the properties, made on June 11th, 2020 and signed off by de facto Minister of Finance Winston Jordan, are for large swathes of land on the East Coast of Demerara and the Demerara River Bank.
According to the documents, seen by Stabroek News, the purchasers are Premier Sales Inc.; American Marine and Services Inc.; the Chinese-owned Bosai Minerals Group Incorporated; Cardiology Services Inc.; Trinuyana Investments Inc.; Navigant Builders Inc.; and Caribbean Marketing Enterprise Inc (CMEI).
The lands ranged in lots from 0.53 acres to 30 acres.
While Jordan signed off all of the orders, NICIL said it was just procedural and he had nothing to do with selecting the buyers.
Some of the orders had no dates that agreements of sale and purchase were entered into, while one stated December of last year and the others in February of this year.
The orders say the title to the property shall, as from the Appointed Day, stand transferred to and shall be vested in the purchaser absolutely, free and clear from all claims and liabilities.
Jordan’s office was asked by this newspaper to explain his signing off on the property transfers in light of the government’s caretaker status and no response came. However, shortly after, NICIL issued a statement on the issue in response to a Facebook post.
“We wish to remind the public that NICIL through the SPU [Special Purpose Unit], sold lands that were vested to it by the Government of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana. NICIL received deposits for the lands commencing December 2019, however, the transactions remained incomplete since the vesting orders were not ‘Signed and Gazetted’ as required by law and this meant that the remaining sums could not be paid over by the investors,” the statement said.
From the description of the respective properties, acreage and buyers in the orders, it seems that the caretaker APNU+AFC administration wants to complete deals announced based on plans for former GuySuCo estate lands.
In February of this year, NICIL announced that it had entered into an agreement for the building of an AC Marriott at Ogle, on the East Coast of Demerara, which would be financed by Trinidadian businessman John Aboud.
The hotel deal was followed the next week by NICIL’s announcement of a grandiose “City of Ogle” project, spanning some 800 acres going all the way from Ogle to Lusignan.
The East Coast area, according to NICIL, will have an AC Marriott Hotel, two other internationally-branded hotels, a specialty hospital in the form of a cardiology services centre and a housing development similar to the East Bank of Demerara’s Windsor Estates.
“We have actually tagged an area from Ogle to Lusignan for developmental drives. So it is over 800 acres…,” NICIL’s lead specialist Racheal Henry had said when the sod was turned for a US$100 million hotel investment on 20 acres of land at Ogle,
Jordan, the keynote speaker at that event, had lauded the step taken by the investors, even as he championed his government’s investment plans.
NICIL’s Privatisation Specialist had then dismissed assertions that news of mega projects, just 10 days before general and regional elections, were politically motivated, saying her agency was planning for the long term and for the benefit of Guyana’s people.
“We would hope that after the elections that Guyana is here because NICIL is ready to do business. We are very excited about development and what it can do for the people of Guyana. We continue to chart development and move forward with very innovative projects,” she had said.
But the opposition PPP/C had questioned the timing of the transactions, chalking it all up politicking and had said that all
of the deals would be reviewed, should the party get into office.
Postponed
Following the PPP’s notice and wide public criticisms about transparency of the projects, property developers Navigant, of Windsor Estates, which had also announced that it would develop a housing project on 30 acres of the land, later said that it was putting the project on hold because of the “uncertain business environment”.
“We would also like to state that this decision is non-partisan in nature, and that we are prepared to move forward with this project once a democratic and credible resolution to the election has been reached,” the statement had said.
NICIL had said that Navigant’s land was purchased for more than $780 million, with each acre costing just over $26 million.
From the recently signed order, some of companies named were a part of the Ogle City project.
For Navigant, it was the 30 acres, being “Block CC portion of Plantation Chateau Margot situate on the East Coast of Demerara,” according to “Plan No.74252” as recorded by the Lands and Surveys Commission.
It is unclear how much of its $780 million-plus payment was still outstanding.
The company had said that it wanted to develop a US$84 million housing project on the lands. The average retail cost for one of Windsor Estates’ move-in-ready homes is around $50 million.
Yesterday, Navigant took to its Facebook page to reiterate the statement it made in March, while noting that it was waiting on the elections results.
“Importantly, Navigant Builders would like to reiterate that our position to postpone this project has not changed as stated in our press release dated March 6th 2020 due to our concerns surrounding the elections held on March 2nd 2020,” the statement said.
CMEI got its 20 acres at $26 million per acre also and had said that it wanted to invest US$100 million on the property, which would house a hotel. The company has not yet said which hotel chain will be built there.
However, Trinidadian businessman John Aboud, of Guyana’s Amalgamated Security Services Limited, has 19.678 acres for the development and has said that he will build an AC Marriott Hotel on the property. His company’s name is Trinuyana Investments Incorporated of Guyana.
Situated a short distance from the Ogle Airport and targeting oil and gas business travellers, the hotel, Aboud had said, was expected to be established in another two and a half years. He said the US$75 million 150-room hotel is expected to provide “a world class, iconic, select service”. He also paid $26 million per acre and it is unclear how much is still owed from that deal.
NICIL yesterday sought to justify the cluster of orders by saying that it was seeking the outstanding funds to help the financially strained GuySuCo, which last month wrote to government seeking a financial bailout as it had depleted all its financing.
The Ministry of Finance had said no funds were available to help the corporation.
“The Ministry of Finance notes GuySuCo’s request to the Government for a bailout, and wishes to assure that it is actively seeking to assist GuySuCo to access funds that are available to it, to mitigate its present challenges. Notwithstanding, however, the prevailing national circumstances, coupled with the challenges of COVID-19 and a reduced national income, render the Treasury incapable of providing a bailout to GuySuCo,” the Finance Ministry had said in a statement.
In March of 2018, through local financing arranged by Republic Bank Limited, government holding company NICIL managed to successfully negotiate a Bond Facility for $30 billion.
Necessary
NICIL yesterday pointed again to the issue with the bond as it said it was trying recoup outstanding funds.
“Following GUYSUCO’s recent request to the Government for a bailout, NICIL was approached to assist the company. By now, the public must be aware that a $30 Billion bond backed by NICIL’s assets and guaranteed by the Government of Guyana was secured through NICIL to retrofit and revitalize GUYSUCO. We wish to remind too, that from July 2018 to February 2020, NICIL has disbursed $9,720,759,568 to GUYSUCO to fund its Capital and Operational Expenditure,” the NICIL statement said.
“It is also common knowledge that GUYSUCO and the bond holders were in the process of ironing out some matters so that further disbursements could be had. But NICIL, having recognized the urgency of the request, sought to complete the land transactions. It therefore became necessary to regularize the Vesting Orders. We wish to state clearly that the Minister of Finance, Hon. Winston Jordan had no involvement in the selection of the investors, is not a member of the NICIL Board nor is he involved in the day to day business of NICIL or the SPU. We reject completely the insinuations and aspersions contained in the post,” it added.
Since the loan agreement was reached, GuySuCo has bemoaned that it was not given the funds according to a planned resuscitation programme and that it seemed that it had to “beg NICIL” for its own money.
