Buddy’s International Hotel, which was sold to Turkish hotelier Sudi Özkan last month for US$25 million, could soon bear the Hilton brand if current talks come to fruition and will see massive investment for an upgrade to a five-star property.



Sudi Özkan and his Belarusian wife KatsiarynaIn an interview at his St Maarten home yesterday, Özkan who owns and operates about ten hotel properties around the world under the umbrella of the Princess Group of Companies, said that if the Hilton decided in favour of its brand being used, he would like to christen the Providence, East Bank Demerara hotel ‘Guyana Hilton’ or ‘Princess Hilton.’
Confirming that the sale of the property for US$13 million more than was spent to construct it last year for Cricket World Cup was inked in late April, the new owner said he had immediately approached the Hilton and Sheraton hotels with the idea of the property carrying either brand.

A team from Hilton is expected to visit the property within the next two weeks to conduct an assessment and indicate the list of requirements that should be fulfilled if the hotel were to carry the Hilton brand.

Pending a decision on that score, and following the transfer process of the property to the Princess Group, which is expected to take place within the next three weeks, Özkan will begin heavy investments to upgrade the property to a five-star line.

“The way the hotel is at the moment is not good. It’s like a two-star hotel,” the new owner said yesterday. “I will spend as much as it takes to bring the hotel up to a five-star property…When I am finished upgrading it, it will be something to look forward to. It will be fantastic. The land is big and it has a large swimming pool and as soon as I get the go ahead I will start….”
Asked about issues surrounding the land on which the property sits, which had been leased from the government, Özkan said he purchased the hotel on the “condition” that the land would be transferred him.

Özkan said the sale price covered all expenses relating to the property including loans and the expansive land.

Another key aspect of the deal with the Guyanese authorities is that a licence would be granted to establish and operate a casino at the property. An amendment to the Gambling Prevention Act in January 2007 facilitated the establishment of such a Gaming Authority but it has yet to be operationalised.

Özkan said he had met President Bharrat Jagdeo briefly prior to purchasing the property to determine whether government would back the project. He said he was given all assurances that government was behind the multi-million-dollar investment.

Özkan said he had stopped over in Guyana earlier this year while on his private aircraft en route to another destination and had visited Buddy’s where he met Chief Executive Officer Omprakash ‘Buddy’ Shivraj, who had indicated that the property was up for sale. He expressed interest and purchased it after meeting and getting the assurances from Jagdeo that government would back the investment. “He [Shivraj] had owed some credit to government and he decided to sell.”

A management team of Turkish and Bulgarian professionals from the Princess Group and headed by Bulgarian Dontcho Dontchev is already in place to take charge of the operation. Dontchev had been working at one of the group’s hotels in Bulgaria.

Özkan said while the hotel would tap into the local human resources market as much as possible, certain professionals would be brought in from abroad. He also noted that if the property were to carry the Hilton brand, it would have to maintain a certain standard and the skills of employees would be upgraded, where necessary.

Asked how the Princess Group planned to attract tourists to Guyana given the crime situation here, Özkan’s wife Katsiaryna, who sat in on the interview, said many travellers and business persons look for quality service when visiting a destination and having a branded hotel would attract a certain level of clientele to the country.

Özkan added that safety of guests would be a high priority and the security at the property would be high. He said too that Guyana was a “very nice place,” rich in natural resources, which was also something that more and more travellers look forward to.

Katsiaryna Özkan, a Belarusian, said too that her husband did not invest solely “to make money,” but because he was also very community minded.

Princess Port de Plaisance, the up-scale property which the company operates in St Maarten is reputed for its community-mindedness and donates frequently to local charities. Katsiaryna and the Princess Group have also teamed up with Help Our Children Foundation, a local non-profit foundation, over the last two years to organise the annual biggest children’s event and fundraiser in St Maarten – Childfest, which this year attracted some 4,000 children and adults. She said similar initiatives, that benefit children, can be expected in Guyana once the property was up and running.

“He is constantly investing because it keeps him busy,” Katsiaryna said of her husband. “He has this drive and he likes what he’s doing. This is a huge investment and we are hoping that it will open doors for many jobs for the locals. I think it’s a good step for Guyana especially with the crime and poverty in the country.

“The type of hotel we have in mind will be one of high quality and we are hoping that it would attract many tourists.”

In the meantime, Özkan said he would also explore other investment opportunities in Guyana and was specifically interested in the areas of mining and petroleum.

Özkan who has interests in two casinos in St Maarten, also has hotel properties under the Princess Group in Suriname, Belize, Panama, Turkey and Belarus.

As was reported in the Sunday Stabroek, Buddy’s was constructed with funding that included five mortgages from the Guyana Bank of Trade and Industry (GBTI) and a $165.7 million advance on the sale of rooms to the Government of Guyana. The Ministry of Culture Youth and Sport has since paid over to the Ministry of Finance the sum of US$598,000 – approximately $119.6 million – of the $165.7 million that the government had advanced to the hotel. The remaining $46.1 million was said to have been recovered through room nights at the hotel.

http://www.stabroeknews.com/?p=14239

quote:

Originally posted by amral:
“The way the hotel is at the moment is not good. It’s like a two-star hotel,” the new owner said yesterday. “I will spend as much as it takes to bring the hotel up to a five-star property…When I am finished upgrading it, it will be something to look forward to. It will be fantastic. The land is big and it has a large swimming pool and as soon as I get the go ahead I will start….”
Asked about issues surrounding the land on which the property sits, which had been leased from the government, Özkan said he purchased the hotel on the “condition” that the land would be transferred him.

http://www.stabroeknews.com/?p=14239

I thought the hotel was about a 4 star

quote:

Originally posted by amral:

quote:

Originally posted by amral:
“The way the hotel is at the moment is not good. It’s like a two-star hotel,” the new owner said yesterday. “I will spend as much as it takes to bring the hotel up to a five-star property…When I am finished upgrading it, it will be something to look forward to. It will be fantastic. The land is big and it has a large swimming pool and as soon as I get the go ahead I will start….”
Asked about issues surrounding the land on which the property sits, which had been leased from the government, Özkan said he purchased the hotel on the “condition” that the land would be transferred him.

http://www.stabroeknews.com/?p=14239

I thought the hotel was about a 4 star

Never heard of rising, waning, and exploding stars?

This is a very clear indication that casinos will spring up in Guyana because Sudi Özkan's fight with the turkish govt in the mid 1990's when they closed down casions was that casinos are imperative for hotels to prosper .He began opening hotels in the caribbean years ago and found that after the tourist season the hotels would suffer vacancies so he was one of the people who pushed for casinos to complement hotels . In addition , he along with ex chief of Atlantic records an Egyptian got the music industry to do jazz and other music festivals in the islands which boosted the hotels sales and casino businesses . With the Turkish govt closing down casinos in Turkey he had to go overseas and negoiate with govts for casinos / hotels he now owns about 25 casinos outright and with partnerships . Then with 9/11 rich mideasterners being refused visas to certain European countries and USA and Canada he began negotiating in the caribbean , south america and africa . This guys is big and he would not invest in a hotel in Guyana if he knew he could not get a casino operating license , the two together are his the core of his business philosophy . His casinos have a wider variety of electronic gambling games than any casino in Vegas . If he bought Buddy's then he has already been promised a casino license , he will expand and enhance Buddy's , he will encourage other businesses to go invest in Guyana to support his investment so Guyana could be seeing a big boom in the areas of hotels , casinos so the business people in Guyana could feed off his investments to create supporting services . He is ruthless in business , hope BJ and his govt have the ability to keep him in check . He is presently fighting major lawsuits in district courts in the USA for SEC violations . He has one of the worlds top law firms in his corner , The Rosen Law Firm .

quote:

Originally posted by kidmost:
This is a very clear indication that casinos will spring up in Guyana because Sudi Özkan's fight with the turkish govt in the mid 1990's when they closed down casions was that casinos are imperative for hotels to prosper .He began opening hotels in the caribbean years ago and found that after the tourist season the hotels would suffer vacancies so he was one of the people who pushed for casinos to complement hotels . In addition , he along with ex chief of Atlantic records an Egyptian got the music industry to do jazz and other music festivals in the islands which boosted the hotels sales and casino businesses . With the Turkish govt closing down casinos in Turkey he had to go overseas and negoiate with govts for casinos / hotels he now owns about 25 casinos outright and with partnerships . Then with 9/11 rich mideasterners being refused visas to certain European countries and USA and Canada he began negotiating in the caribbean , south america and africa . This guys is big and he would not invest in a hotel in Guyana if he knew he could not get a casino operating license , the two together are his the core of his business philosophy . His casinos have a wider variety of electronic gambling games than any casino in Vegas . If he bought Buddy's then he has already been promised a casino license , he will expand and enhance Buddy's , he will encourage other businesses to go invest in Guyana to support his investment so Guyana could be seeing a big boom in the areas of hotels , casinos so the business people in Guyana could feed off his investments to create supporting services .

Which one of his hotel and casinos is bigger than MGM in Vegas.?.

not size of hotel but variety of electronic gambling . in Vegas they are restricted by regulation on the variety electronic gambling they cannot have electronic roulette etc but in other countries where the Turk operates he invests in more electronic gambling , tables for high rollers .

quote:

Originally posted by kidmost:
not size of hotel but variety of electronic gambling . in Vegas they are restricted by regulation on the variety electronic gambling they cannot have electronic roulette etc but in other countries where the Turk operates he invests in more electronic gambling , tables for high rollers .

The size of the casino depends on the size of the Hotel..

Rama you lost me .

Buddy took so much flak from the PNC and their sidekicks in the press concerning his investments. I wonder how they're going to react to this deal which netted millions for Buddies in less than a couple of years.

What happened to the Crack in the hotel and sinking foundation???

What happened to all the talk about low occupancy rates?

Rama equates size with electronic sophistication

quote:

Originally posted by kidmost:
Rama you lost me .

I've been there I've seen the operation. It is quite huge.. There is no other hotel in the world which has more variety of electronic gambling than MGM.

quote:

Confirming that the sale of the property for US$13 million more than was spent to construct it last year

So Buddy made a US$13M profit.

Who is getting the profit from this deal Buddy or the Gov't?

quote:

Originally posted by Sunil:

quote:

Confirming that the sale of the property for US$13 million more than was spent to construct it last year

So Buddy made a US$13M profit.

Will 20% of this profit go to the Government as capital gain taxes - according to law?

quote:

Originally posted by Billy Ram Balgobin:
Buddy took so much flak from the PNC and their sidekicks in the press concerning his investments. I wonder how they're going to react to this deal which netted millions for Buddies in less than a couple of years.

What happened to the Crack in the hotel and sinking foundation???

What happened to all the talk about low occupancy rates?

CASINO!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Chief:
Who is getting the profit from this deal Buddy or the Gov't?

It's the owner, stupid..

Buddy sold the hotel and paid off his loan to the government. he keeps the profit after taxes., stupid..

Who in Guyana cares for or is able to pay for the use of a high class hotel?

quote:

Originally posted by Ramakant_p:

quote:

Originally posted by kidmost:
Rama you lost me .

I've been there I've seen the operation. It is quite huge.. There is no other hotel in the world which has more variety of electronic gambling than MGM.

dude they have more machines but not more of a variety of games than casinos outside the USA - regulations .

quote:

Originally posted by ksazma:
Who in Guyana cares for or is able to pay for the use of a high class hotel?

dude if Sudi bought Buddy's it only means he bought it to get a foot into Guyana to expand his gambling and hotel operations which will benefit Guyana in more ways than one . What the Govt needs to do is encourage such investments BUT , focus on crime , law and order and allow locals to start up bussinesses , expand businesses which can both compliment , support and profit from these investments . The catch word for the PPP govt is to relax the micro management , allow small startups to grow and expand and stop trying to control which way the ants and cockroaches are crawling .

Gambling don't benefit poor people which Guyana has plenty of.

quote:

Originally posted by BLACKBEARD:

quote:

Originally posted by Sunil:

quote:

Confirming that the sale of the property for US$13 million more than was spent to construct it last year

So Buddy made a US$13M profit.

Will 20% of this profit go to the Government as capital gain taxes - according to law?

Now if the hotel is registered as owned by an offshore company eg Bahamas, Buddy simply sells that company and no cash ever enters Guyana. Happens all time in big business, no one is ever sure of who own what.

I bet Ozkan will bring the big poker and blackjack players down from Vegas and Hong Kong where their winnings will be subject to less tax than the US.

quote:

Originally posted by Sunil:
Now if the hotel is registered as owned by an offshore company eg Bahamas, Buddy simply sells that company and no cash ever enters Guyana. Happens all time in big business, no one is ever sure of who own what.

Guyanese don't need offshore sites to hide from the income tax department. They only need friends in the government and I am sure that Buddy has many there.

Anyone heard from Caribj, LK , Bonus etal. HEHEHE A "Coolie" man made $13 Million Dollars in two years. Boy they gun be real mad now.

With all the Cracks on the Hotel and nocustomers they try to "Brainwash" us with, De man still made $13 Million. From now on anything these Chaps say, I will take seriously and even bet on their side. I know I am going to be on the side of competence, reasoning and Intelligence.