–Dr. Jagdeo says as other avenues being assessed after prospective hotel buyer dies

WITH American businessman Ramy El-Batrawi, who was the prospective buyer of the Marriott Hotel, passing away, People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo has said that the government is examining whether they will engage the second bidder or keep the hotel.

During a press conference at the Party’s headquarters on Thursday, he said: “… If the [second] bid is not valid, the government may decide to go back out or keep the hotel.”
He then went on to say: “There’s no rush to conclude anything here, because we’re not desperate to sell.”

It should be noted that El-Batrawai was in negotiations with the government.
Six companies were competing to acquire the Guyana Marriott Hotel. However, only two of them resubmitted their bids, and met the minimum price of US$85M set by the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL).

Initially, the highest of those six bids then was US$65 million, tendered by El-Batrawi. The second highest bid tendered was US$55.5 million from local businessman and owner of the Pegasus Hotel, Robert Badal.

However, because this did not meet the government’s expectations, both were invited to resubmit their bids, to which El-Batrawi’s company, X, LLC then submitted the US$90 million bid, while the Integrated Group Guyana Inc. submitted a US$86.1 million bid.

The Guyana Marriott, situated in Kingston, was established in 2015 with a total investment of US$52 million. The funding for the project was secured through a combination of public investments and a syndicated loan worth US$27 million, provided by Republic Bank Ltd.

The government contributed US$30 million to support the venture, through NICIL. The government initially owned the hotel through the Atlantic Hotel Inc. (AHI). However, in 2017, AHI faced challenges meeting its loan obligations, prompting the government to intervene. Consequently, the government assumed control of the loan by acquiring all shares in AHI.