The Guyana Marriot Hotel, which is currently 100% owned by the State, is likely to be sold to an American Investment Group which had proposed US$90 million – the highest bid among several companies – to buy out the facility.
X, LLC – an American investment group founded by Ramy El-Batrawi – was one of two companies that responded to NICIL’s invite in May to resubmit bids with a base price of US$85M for the sale of the Marriott Hotel in Guyana.
With a US$90M bid, X, LLC emerged as the top bidder following NICIL’s evaluation.
The other bidder was Integrated Group Guyana Inc. which had proposed US$86.1M.
During a press conference on Thursday, Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo announced now that the evaluation is completed, NICIL has started negotiations with the top bidder.
The US-based investment group was also the top bidder among the six bids that were initially submitted for the acquisition of the Guyana Marriott Hotel but were rejected by the Guyana Government on the grounds of being too low.
The negotiations with NICIL can either result in the company going ahead with the sale or if negotiations fail, government can either retender or move on to another bidder.
The Guyana Marriott Hotel, which opened in 2015, was constructed to a tune of US$58 million.
In a notice back in December 2022, NICIL had announced its intention to sell the State’s shares in Atlantic Hotels Incorporated (AHI), the special purpose company that fully owns the 197-room hotel, whose financing structure had depended on a casino and entertainment centre to make enough money to repay up to US$30 million in debts to the banks and other creditors. But those add-ons to the hotel were scrapped.
VP Jagdeo had argued that now is the right time to sell the hotel, which is currently operating at a profit even without those add-ons.
