Privatisation of sugar estates hit critical phase… Enmore estate offering 6,900 hectares, packaging house, factory

Jul 24, 2018 News

The Enmore factory area.

The privatization and divestment process of four closed sugar estates are heading to a critical phase.

Over the weekend, the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited/Special Purpose Unit (NICIL/SPU) announced that it has completed the Information Memorandum for the Enmore Estate- one of four sugar estates up for divestment in Guyana.

The memorandum became available for potential investors starting yesterday until August 13, 2018.

The Information Memorandum will contain, amongst other things, the timeline for the bids, process of ranking the bids and further details of assets for sale, according to a notice in the Sunday’s edition of Kaieteur News.

Four sugar estates –Skeldon, Rose Hall, Enmore and Wales- were all closed in the last 18 months with Government hiring PriceWaterhouseCooper to value them and prepare Information Memorandums for investors.
It would mean that Enmore is the first of the four to be completed.

There are over 70 offers on the table for the four estates, from both locals and foreign companies.

According to NICIL/SPU, Enmore offers an attractive investment opportunity for sugar producers including opportunities to enter into new products such as co-generation, alcohol, ethanol, branded brown packaged sugar and refined sugar, amongst others, in a hurricane-free zone.

At Enmore, the facilities include 25 acres of freehold land with 60,000 tonnes sugar capacity factory, sugar packaging house and warehouses; inventories, equipment and rolling stock and

long-term lease tenure, initially 25 years, of 6,900 hectares of arable lands with option to renew.

Among some of the highlights, will be the advantage of operating a sugar factory, with packaging warehouse and fields in five hectare plots each next to water transport system.

There will also be access to a “well established research facility and nursery with several cane varieties” and a local pool of experienced factory management and well-educated workforce.

NICIL/SPU said that agreements are in place for cane supply from experienced farmers utilising estate lands.

It was explained that the estate will offer 85% mechanization from mechanical tillage/planting to harvest and excellent drainage and irrigation systems with new pumps.

NICIL/SPU also said that Guyana is a full member of the CARICOM Trading Bloc with the country boasting a stable democracy; projected growth economy and large scale oil production to start in 2020 – defined by the New York Times as“…poised to become the next big oil producer in the Western Hemisphere…”

The Information Memorandum is being sold for US$1,000 with potential investors required to sign a confidentiality agreement.

Government badly wants to privatise the estates because it needs to cash.

However, according to Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, last week, Government will not sacrifice accountability and transparency in the process. That is why PriceWaterhouseCooper has been hired.

The Guyana Sugar Corporation, with 16,000 workers in 2016 has been struggling with its seven estates, requiring cash bailouts to the tune of billions annually with production plunging annually.

Over 5,000 workers have been made redundant in estates stretching from East Berbice to West Demerara.

Government has been worrying about the industry, which has huge political implications because the majority of the workers are from Indo-Guyanese communities.

Government is hoping to begin assessment of interested buyers before year end.

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