Found at: http://www.anguillaguide.com/article/articleprint/5595/-1/140/
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Friedland Tells Cap Juluca's Workers About New Sale Plan
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Cap Juluca’s owner, Dion Friedland, has circulated a New Year’s Message to employees confirming that the proposed sale of the high-end property to the Gencom Group has fallen through and that he has found a new buyer.
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View of a section of Cap Juluca Resort
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The announcement of the failed sale was first made last week in the Anguilla House of Assembly by Chief Minister Osbourne Fleming, causing the raising of many eyebrows.
Mr. Freidland’s message, dated January 4, 2008, stated that the new buyer, whose terms of purchase he had already agreed to, had a first meeting with the Anguilla Government on January 3. He further said that the investor would return to the island in the next week to finalise arrangements with the Government.
That meeting was held on Wednesday this week, January 9, in the Chief Minister’s Office.
Here now for the record is the unabridged message to all Cap Juluca employees from Mr. Friedland:
New Year Greetings to all of you. First of all I would like to express my sincere appreciation and thanks to you for your patience, dedication and continued commitment to providing quality service to our guests during the lengthy negotiations relating to the sale of the Hotel over the past year. I am also extremely grateful for your loyalty and dedication which continues to maintain Cap Juluca as one of the world’s top resorts. My deepest thanks and congratulations.
I would like to update you on the facts surrounding the proposed sale to Genhall, which was the partnership formed by Gencom and Whitehall (a property development fund partially owned by Goldman Sachs). Following the Government of Anguilla’s insistence that I find a buyer and sell the Hotel, I concluded all my negotiations with Genhall and signed a binding agreement for the sale of Cap Juluca to Genhall on February 4th 2007.
This binding agreement was conditional only on Genhall negotiating and finalizing a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Government of Anguilla (GOA). This MOA was to set out the basis for the new lease agreement, etc. Our February 4th binding agreement was conditional on the MOA being finalized by the end of March, 2007. When the MOA had not been finalized by the end of March, we extended the binding agreement period for one more month. When the MOA had still not been finalized by the GOA by the end of April, the binding agreement with Genhall automatically terminated and was not renewed by either party.
The GOA finally concluded and signed the MOA on August 23rd, 2007. Unfortunately, by then not only was there no longer any agreement in place for the sale of Cap Juluca, between Genhall and me, but the credit markets had collapsed and Genhall was no longer able to secure the financing that was necessary for the purchase and development of the Hotel. At that time Whitehall effectively withdrew from the Genhall partnership. During September my attorney met with members of the GOA to tell them that the deal with Gencom could not be financed and was off. At that meeting my attorney was told that nonetheless, I should persevere with Gencom. After several more months of time wasting negotiations it became obvious that we would not be concluding a sale to Gencom and all negotiations with Gencom have now been terminated.
It is still my intention to sell the Hotel and yesterday I presented the GOA with an extremely well qualified Buyer for the Hotel. This Buyer plans to return to Anguilla next week to facilitate the finalization of arrangements with the GOA. I have already agreed terms of the sale with this Buyer. Provided the GOA is able to approve this Buyer and conclude the MOA in the next few weeks, the sale of the Hotel will hopefully take place before the end of March, or even sooner. As soon as the sale is concluded I intend contributing one million dollars ($1,000,000) to be paid to Cap Juluca employees. At the same time the Buyer has told me that as soon as the sale has been concluded he intends putting in place a salary increase for deserving Cap Juluca employees. In addition, this Buyer intends providing the necessary capital to immediately begin the urgent improvements that are needed to maintain Cap Juluca’s top ranking in the hospitality industry. This Buyer also has plans to improve employee benefits and facilities after taking over ownership of Cap Juluca.
Hopefully, realizing the urgency of the situation, the GOA will expedite the approval process and finalization of the MOA with this Buyer, within the next few weeks, to enable the sale of the Hotel to take place as soon as possible.
Once again, I would like to thank you for your patience. I wish you and your families a healthy and happy 2008. I know that with your assistance and dedication Cap Juluca will continue to grow from strength to strength.
Sincerely,
Dion Friedland
4th January, 2008