John Myers Jr., Agriculture Coordinator

The special Sugar Enterprise Team (SET) managing the proposed divestment of the assets of the Sugar Company of Jamaica is to revamp its divestment offer in the face of a disappointing response from private investors.

"I don't think we got enough in terms of people who are interested in participating as we would have expected much more," Agriculture and Lands Minister, Roger Clarke told The Gleaner on Monday.

"When we looked at the list we really would have liked some more and we were pinning our hopes on many enquiries coming out of Brazil (but) since then we have had two (enquiries) coming out of there," the Agriculture and Lands Minister said.

More funds needed

In light of the disappointing response from private investors, the Minister said that he would be approaching the Ministry of Finance for an additional $35 million to allow the SET to revamp its proposal.

According to Mr. Clarke, "They want to do a more thorough evaluation of the things that we have because there has to be some sort of costing as to what you have on the ground and some more advertising." He pointed out that the SET's divestment campaign was "very limited in the scope of our advertising".

The SET launched its divestment offer in May and has so far received expressions of interest from about 10 private entities from the United States, Canada, India and Brazil. However, most of the entities expressing interest did not submit pre-qualification documents in time for the end of June deadline. As a result, the government will be forced to extend the deadline for the submission of pre-qualification documents.

"We are going to be extending it for a little longer. It might set back the process but one of the things that we're trying to do as we speak is to have a plan B (in the event that none of the investors qualify)," Mr. Clarke explained. He said a decision had not yet been taken on how much longer the deadline would be extended.

But Allan Rickards, chairman of the All-Island Jamaica Cane Farmers Association, which is one of the interested parties, complained that those that have already submitted bidding documents were being frustrated by the delay. He is insisting that the process be fast-tracked to prevent losing any of the investors.