Govt ditches offers to buy Marriott Hotel- Jagdeo

Last Updated on Thursday, 27 April 2023, 15:25 by Denis Chabrol

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday said it has rejected all of the offers by private investors to buy the State-owned Marriott-branded hotel because the prices that have been offered are too low.

“We will not proceed with any of the bids because they we believe that they are too low based on the value of that asset asset now and its capacity to earn,” he told a People’s Progressive Party (PPP) press conference. 

The six bids that were opened  by the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) earlier this month ranged from US$25 million to US$65 million, but Mr Jagdeo said “none of the bids meet our expectations” and so the property would remain in government ownership until it gets a price that that “mirrors the true value.”

“We know what we think we believe or we know what the true value will be in the current context,” he said of the hotel which is often highly booked and rooms are sometimes as high as US$500 per night.

The Vice President is on record as saying that government wanted to sell off the Marriott before several other new hotels enter the market and offer competition.

The highest bidder was American businessman American businessman Ramy El-Batrawi, founder of investment group X, LLC topped the recent bids with US$65 million. The others are owner of the Pegasus Hotel, Robert Badal, with US$55 million; NCB Capital Markets of Jamaica bid US$33 million; Operator of the Princess Hotel Casino- Integrated Management Group and Georgetown Investments and Management Services, offered US$55 million and US$50 million and Muneshwer’s Limited with US$25 million.