Latest update January 23rd, 2025 7:40 AM
Brassington blank on Guyana Stores subsidiaries
… saw no need to correct investor information
Winston Brassington
The court received a string of “I don’t know” from Winston Brassington when he was questioned yesterday about the subsidiaries of Guyana Stores Limited (GSL) in which Royal Investments was interested.
Brassington, as Executive Secretary of the Privatisation Unit, managed the privatization of Guyana Stores in October 2000.
In the information pack for investors, Brassington had listed a number of agencies and distributorships which formed part of the business of Guyana Stores.
Reeaz Khan, who was leading the negotiations for Royal Investments, had written Brassington, underlining the importance of those agencies and distributorships. Khan wrote in a November, 1999 letter that Royal Investments intended to develop all franchises in the Guyana Stores business.
The court was told that Reeaz Khan had written asking for all franchises, distributorships and agencies held by Guyana Stores and for a copy of those agreements to be provided.
Brassington could not tell the court if he had responded to Reeaz Khan and undertook to provide the correspondence if he has it.
But he said that given the importance of the information to the investor, it would have been important for him, Brassington, to respond.
In the information pack Brassington prepared for investors, he had stated that there were a number of agencies that were valuable and could be further developed. But then he told the court that he did not agree that the agencies would have had to be in existence in order for them to be of any value.
Brassington told the court that at the time the Privatisation deal was signed, he was aware that some of the agencies under Guyana Stores no longer existed.
However, when asked to say what companies he knew for a certainty did not exist, he could not.
Senior Counsel Edward Luckhoo read out the names of several franchises to see if Brassington would know of their non-existence at the time the agreement was signed. Brassington responded “I don’t know” to at least 17 names called by Luckhoo.
Brassington maintained his position that the so-called Diplomatic Shop, or Duty Free shop, was not part of the transaction in the shares sale agreement.
However, “off hand” he was not able to say if this was particularly stated in the information pack to investors.
Brassington was pointed to a November 2000 letter by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, then Chairman of the Privatisation Board, advising Guyana Stores about the re-establishment of the duty free shop.
Brassington told the court that if in any event he found that information in the information pack to investors was not accurate, he was under no obligation to correct the information.
He said that the investors had time to conduct their own due diligence, through means such as workshops. Further, Brassington pointed to the existence of an information room at Guyana Stores where documents were stored and updated.
However, he could not say if that information room existed at the time Tony Yassin took over the negotiations from Reeaz Khan in August 2000.
Edward Luckhoo
The case is being heard by Justice Roxanne George-Wiltshire. NICIL is being represented by Rafiq Turhan Khan, while Yassin is being represented by Senior Counsel Luckhoo and Rex Mc Kay, and attorney Sasenarine Gunraj.
In an affidavit signed by Mr. Tony Yassin, he admitted that on October 4, 2000, he entered into an agreement with National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL) to purchase the shares in Guyana Stores Limited which was owned by the Government of Guyana.
Furthermore it was stated that before entering into the agreement with National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited, Yassin was given various information memoranda on June 5, 1996 and packages in March 1999 in respect of the matters and facts which were peculiarly within the knowledge of the NICIL, the Government and Privatisation Unit.
To these, the defendant stated, he had no access method of verifying through his own investigation and inquiry.
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