By Ashford W. Meikle, Staff ReporterTHE GOVERNMENT has rejected the two bids submitted for the divestment of the Caymanas Park.
This was stated yesterday by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, Fitz Jackson, while speaking at the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House.
The minister said that the bids had fallen below the stated requirements. He also said the bidders had been told that they could redraft and resubmit their proposals within 35 days of the formal announcement of the new bidding process.
The offer will be open to new bidders as well.
Earlier this year the government announced its intention to offload the Caymanas Park racetrack by inviting bids for the proposed management and operation of the track.
Two bids were submitted for Caymanas Park. Richard Azan partnered with Supreme Ventures and Magna Entertainment Corporation (the largest operator of North American racetracks) in their bid with a plan to invest US$55 million (J$3.4 billion).
PROPOSAL
Horsemen Limited submitted a $1.6 billion proposal to the NIBJ in July of this year. The Horsemen conglomerate includes Richard Lake, Michael Lake, Dr Paul Wright, Paul Hanworth, Spencer Chung, Clovis Metcalf, Neville Rhone, Lakeland Farms and Philip Liu.
The National Investment Bank of Jamaica (NIBJ), the state agency responsible for the disposal of the country's assets, is carrying out the technical analyses of the bids and submitting its recommendations to the Ministry of Finance. In fact, the successful bidder should have been announced over a month ago.
The minister's statement confirms a previous story carried by the Financial Gleaner which hinted at the likely postponement in declaring a successful bidder.
"They have to go back to the drawing board. These are quite costly proposals [and] the government is not satisfied that they would be able to pull it off completely," a source close to the negotiations told The Gleaner.
Up to press time, the Gleaner was unable to get a response from the bidders. "No comment...I have no comment at this time," chuckled Mr. Lake when contacted by The Gleaner early yesterday, prior to the minister's announcement.
While the chairman of Caymanas Track Limited, William Chin-See, would not comment on the bidding process, he dismissed allegations reported in another medium which stated that the CTL was bleeding financially. "What I have, our in-house audited financials, point to a profit of $10.6 million for the April to November period, this year," he told The Gleaner in an interview.
LOST
Mr. Chin-See noted that the track had done well, inspite of the four racing days lost as a result of Hurricane Ivan (in September) and the industrial action by the trainers earlier this year. "It is being turned around," he reflected, adding that for the period October 2003 to 2004 the track made a profit for 53 per cent of its racing days.
He said that local racing constituted 55 per cent of total sales while simulcast racing contributed the remaining 45 per cent. While the latter is a profitable arm, local racing is challeneged by the fact that "purses take a big chunk out of sales...as much as 68 per cent," he revealed.
