Azan
THE MUCH-anticipated divestment of Caymanas Park has taken another strange twist with rumours now surfacing that one of the two bidders is being blindsided by accusations of not having the interest of horse racing at heart.
According to information reaching The Sunday Gleaner, a document has been sent to members of the Cabinet, who are at the moment considering which of the two bids to give the nod to for the divestment of the lucrative Caymanas Park horse racing plant, berating the bid submitted by the Richard Azan-led consortium.
The Richard Azan-led Caymanas Entertainment Limited group which includes Supreme Ventures Limited, is competing head-on with the Richard Lake-led Horsemen's Limited for Caymanas Park.
SABOTAGE THE PROCESS
"This divestment race is not going in the manner that something of this magnitude is going," one source told The Sunday Gleaner on Friday. "Somebody or some people have decided that the way to go is to sabotage the process and this is not going over very well with everybody."
The document in question is said to be going 'viciously' after Supreme Ventures, accusing the lottery company of not having the country's best interest at heart and accusing them of not being worthy of consideration for the right to manage and operate Caymanas Park.
It also comes on the heels of a number of advertorials which were run by the Horsemen Limited group, saying their "bid is in the best interest of Jamaica because the Horsemen consists of the leaders in every sector of the racing industry for the last 25 years, versus a bid consisting mainly of newcomers to racing."
UNDISCLOSED SHAREHOLDERS
It charged that, "The Horsemen's bid favours competition compared to the creation of a virtual monopoly on gaming by Supreme Ventures. The Horsemen's bid is totally transparent versus a bid with undisclosed shareholders and misleading reports. The Horsemen's bid consists of 100 per cent Jamaican ownership versus some foreign ownership. The Horsemen's bid will earn foreign exchange rather than export foreign exchange."
A source close to Supreme Ventures said the company was disturbed by efforts to sully its name, adding that it would not in return, respond by using what it called "desperate and underhand tactics aimed at railroading a process."
"We will not get involved in anything that could undermine the process at hand," the source said. "As we have said on many occasions, we will be following the rules. Efforts to get a comment from Richard Lake were unsuccessful. One source close to the group said the company too was waiting for the process to work itself out.
