No gov’t guarantee on private financing for Marriott – Brassington

Apr 08, 2012 News

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There is no government guarantee on the US$27 million debt that is being facilitated by Republic Bank (Trinidad) for the Marriott Hotel Project, says Winston Brassington, who manages Government investments.
“The shareholders will have to stand behind some of the obligations in the event of certain contingencies, but there is no government guarantee – none whatsoever,” Brassington told Kaieteur News this week.
With investors not rushing to get into the project, industry insiders have suggested that the only reason Republic Bank (Trinidad) would want to get into the project is that the government has some special arrangement that guarantees the Bank, and the sub-parties it is pulling together, that it will get its money if the project folds.
But Brassington insisted that this is not so, and suggested that Republic Bank (Trinidad) sees the project as a feasible one.
Lead Parliamentarian for the Alliance for Change (AFC), Khemraj Ramjattan, had suggested that no bank, local or overseas, would even consider a hotel in Guyana where the equity contribution is less than 50 percent. Atlantic Hotel Incorporated (AHI), the company the government has formed to establish the hotel, has proposed a 22 percent equity, Ramjattan stated, and had suggested that it would be interesting to see the terms and conditions of Republic Bank’s syndicated loan.
The terms under which Republic Bank (Trinidad) is getting into the project remain confidential, Brassington stated, but he suggested that the Bank would not have bought into the project without knowing that it was a solid project.
“Republic Bank would not have entered a binding term sheet if they didn’t feel comfortable with the feasibility study, the Marriott study…,” Brassington stated.
The arrangement for financing the hotel’s construction includes “senior debt” syndicated by Republic Bank (Trinidad) of US$27 million.
A syndicated loan is one that is provided by a group of lenders and is structured, arranged and administered by one or several commercial banks or investment banks. In this case, the loan is being administered by the Republic Bank (Trinidad and Tobago Limited) but the government has not named the other lenders.
Brassington said that that is totally an arrangement that Republic Bank is managing. By agreeing to this type of loan arrangement, the government is agreeing for the investors who are part of the syndicate, to get back their investment first ahead of any other investor in the project.
So, if in a scenario where the project fails and the value of the property depreciates to a value below what the investors have plugged, then the investors will get back their money, and there would be nothing to return to NICIL, meaning that taxpayers’ dollars would go down the drain.
The financing arrangement with Republic Bank was long in the making, Brassington confirmed. In fact, he said that it was Zublin Grenada, which was initially a partner in the project, that commenced negotiations with Republic Bank.
It was Zublin Grenada that came out and said that it was in negotiation with the government for the project. This angered the government, which said that Zublin Grenada had breached confidentiality agreements. It is believed that Zublin Grenada was kicked out for speaking about the project, but Brassington denied that that was the case.
With Zublin Grenada blanked from the project, the government followed on with Republic Bank to secure the debt for the project.
AHI had just been set up and having no asset base, and with the building interest fees before the hotel commences operation, plus other costs, the hotel would be out of operation within three months, Ramjattan has predicted.
But Brassington has rubbished Ramjattan’s assertion, saying that the government has “positive” feedback on the project from the feasibility studies conducted for the Marriott, an American firm contracted by the government, plus other research done by the government of Guyana.
The government will participate in the project, by way of equity, in the sum of US$4 million. This will be committed by National Industrial Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), the investment arm of the government which holds its assets.
The equity contribution determines the government’s strength in Atlantic Hotels Incorporated – the company created to see the project through. As it stands, the government is currently the sole shareholder in the company.
However, apart from the equity contribution, financing for the project would also come from “subordinate loan stocks” of US$15 million invested by NICIL.
Adding the US$2 million NICIL will end up spending in development costs for the project, including design and other preliminary studies altogether, NICIL will be putting US$21 million into the project.
The proposal is to build a 197-room hotel on an eight-acre plot of land in the Kingston area.
SCG Shanghai Construction Group International (Trinidad and Tobago) Ltd was awarded the contract.
Brassington said that a French Group had also put in a bid, but the government went with the cheaper of the options.
He said that the government received 23 applications for pre-qualifications but in the end, two bids were submitted.
“The Chinese were a lot cheaper than the other bidder,” Brassington told Kaieteur News.
The government had initially budgeted to spend $41 million on the project, based on a design that was submitted  by American company ADUA, which was the first named developer of the project.

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