(Guyana Chronicle)A HOSTILE political Opposition and media environment is what led to the delays for Financial Closure for the Marriott Hotel in Kingston, Georgetown, forcing the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), to plug the additional funds required to complete the facility. At least this is according to Winston Brassington, Chairman of Atlantic Hotel Inc. (AHI) – the Special Purpose Company established to construct the project.

Brassington yesterday put to rest speculations when he met with the local Media corps in the Mazaruni Room, of the nearly completed Marriott Hotel, and fielded extensive questions in relations to the numerous assertions being peddled publicly.

TROTMAN CHALLENGE
According to Brassington, two court challenges brought by Desmond Trotman, of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), led to the delays.
He said the court litigation continues to delay the disbursement of several million dollars, critical to the project.
The AHI Chairman told media operatives the first court challenge that had been brought by Trotman sought to prevent the lease of the land from NICIL to AHI.
Brassington said this was overcome by AHI utilising its option to buy the Kingston property, since the edifice had already been substantially completed at the time.
Brassington told media operatives that operating in tandem with an antagonistic media environment, a second court challenge was brought by Trotman, who at the time sat as an APNU Member of Parliament (MP).
The second court challenge brought by the APNU Member, according to Brassington, led to the stymieing of a tranche of disbursement from Republic Bank Limited (RBL).
He explained that RBL had been approached to syndicate a loan of US$27M for the project and this was being secured through a Debenture and a Mortgage.
The AHI Chairman explained that the northernmost plot of the Kingston property is still leased while the other swath of land on which the building sits, has been purchased by AHI.
This, he said, led to the use of the financial facilities of both a mortgage and debenture to secure the USS$27M Syndicated by Republic Bank.

MONIES HELD UP
According to Brassington, the court action has held up more than US$11.7M of the Syndicated Loan, since Republic Bank has only been able to disburse just over US$15.2M, before it was halted by the APNU Member, Trotman.
The AHI Chairman further lamented that not only did the maneuverings of the political Opposition cause the disbursement of the RBL Syndicated Loan to be stymied, it also caused the Private Equity Investor, ACE Square Investment Inc’s, transfer of US$8M to the project to also be halted.
This situation, he said, led to NICIL, which is already a US$4M equity partner in the project, to advance US$16M, to the project, to ensure the conclusion of the hotel.

The money advanced by NICIL will be reimbursed when the court litigation has been resolved.
Brassington explained that NICIL utilised its own resources garnered from its sale of assets and earnings from dividends, to advance the money to the project.
He elucidated saying the assets disposed of were the shares that had been held in the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T), and some of this was used along with dividends earned from other bodies for which NICIL holds an interest.
“Had NICIL not provided bridge financing of the project, construction of the hotel would have stalled, resulting in deterioration of the asset and escalation of costs to complete,” according to the AHI Chairman.
He was adamant that no tax dollars have been used to fund the project as had been erroneously reported in sections of the media.
MARRIOTT INT’L RESCUES CASINO
In his continued lamentation of the effects the Opposition’s posturing has had on the project, Brassington disclosed that Guyana’s status as a deficient country when it comes to its Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act, led to ACE Investments, which had been in the final stages of also securing the role of operating the Casino and Entertainment Complex annexed to the Hotel, to pull out.
It was explained that ACE Investments Limited, became extremely concerned about the potential risks of operating a casino in a jurisdiction about to be internationally black-listed and the resulting impact on the reputation on their officers, who are officers of publicly traded companies in Hong Kong.
The concern led both ACE and NICIL, to enter into discussions with Marriott about operating the casino and other parts of the Entertainment Complex resulting in an agreement with Marriott International, has since stepped in, to not only manage and operate the Hotel, but the Casino and Entertainment Complex as well.
Brassington explained that while ACE Square Investment Inc. did not want to entangle in the casino business in a country with deficient Anti-Money Laundering Legislation, Marriott International’s global network and credibility, allows it to fill the void.
While the Casino and Entertainment Complex will be opened later in the year, Brassington said that the Official Opening of the Marriott Hotel in Kingston will be opened next month.
According to the AHI Chairman, to date just over US$52M has been spent to bring the project to the stage it is at and that the Marriott Hotel, is poised to be the largest revenue earner and tax contributor in the local hospitality and service industry (concessions granted will expire in 10 years).
HOSTILE MEDIA
Turning his attention to the challenges faced by the project with respect to the media landscape and the political Opposition in addition to the litigation, Brassington chronicled a number of articles published particularly in the Stabroek News and Kaieteur News, some of what was dismissed as outright erroneous.

AHI Chairman, Winston Brassington

He spoke too to the Parliamentary attacks meant to stop the project and pointed to a motion that had to be spearheaded by Alliance For Change (AFC) Leader, Khemraj Ramjattan in 2012 entitled, “Public monies in the Marriott Hotel be halted until approval by the National Assembly.”
The AHI Chairman said Ramjattan used the motion to attack the project and the role played by NICIL in its execution.
According to Brassington, the Opposition’s criticism of the Marriott project, particularly post 2011, served to strongly discourage and then delay private investment in the project.
There was a summation that it is very likely that in the recent history of Guyana, no project has ever been subjected to such a sustained and targeted attack by both the leaders of AFC and APNU.
Brassington documented more than 40 screaming headlines against the project that had been published in the Stabroek News and Kaieteur News, the contents of which were all attributed to the leaders in the political Opposition.
This, he said, is in addition to the numerous articles published that reference Opposition statements for dissemination.
According to the AHI Chairman, the overall theme of the Opposition has been largely targeted at scaring away potential investors and raising the risk profile of the project.
“A number of these statements have been directly targeted at threatening investors, to the point, that the Private Sector Commission had to step in and condemn the Opposition statements on private investment,” said Brassington.
He suggested too that at times, the nature of the attacks as reported have been scandalous and outrageous.
“Warnings to investors, suggestions of money laundering, fraud and corruption, illegalities, project will be halted, project not being financially feasible, have all been levelled against the project and potential investors,” the AHI Chairman added.
According to Brassington, it is resultantly not surprising the time taken to conclude the investment given the roadblocks thrown up by the Opposition and special interest groups over time.