After a long hiatus, Government is optimistic that a new board for the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) will be appointed soon, even as it has emerged that a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) has already been appointed.
This revelation was made during a post-Cabinet press briefing hosted by Minister of State, Joseph Harmon on Monday. According to Harmon, the new CEO is Dr Harold Davis Jr, who is the son of late former Chairman of GuySuCo, Harold Davis and the entity’s Director of agricultural services.
According to the Minister, Dr Davis was appointed last week and will be taking up his duties from Monday. He will take over from acting CEO Paul Bhim, who had held the reins of director of finance.
Bhim himself took over from former CEO Errol Hanoman, who parted ways with the Corporation last year when his contract came to an end. “The consideration for a Board of the entity is well advanced and I believe that by the end of this week or early next week, we will have the announcement of a Board of Directors for GuySuCo,” Harmon said.
When it comes to the divestment itself, Harmon revealed that English firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) was likely to complete its evaluation by the end of September. He also revealed that there have been numerous expressions of interest (EoIs) from investors.
“Those estates are up for divestment. The divestment process has taken some time, because it’s a requirement for us to have a careful assessment of the value of these assets,” Harmon explained. “The fact that the estates were never independent entities of themselves, it means that the entity, apart from a valuation, will require a separation of them from the whole. So every estate will have to have a demarcation of what the assets are. “In the meantime, based on the work that has already been done, there are some advertisements with respect to expressions of interest. We have some very exciting EoIs. Not only for the four estates up for divestment. We have proposals for the entire industry, including the three estates that remain in GuySuCo. There’s a lot of interest and we want to take our time to make sure we get it right.”
The previous GuySuCo board expired since February of this year and a new board with Special Purpose Unit (SPU) Head Colvin-Heath London was gazetted. It subsequently emerged, however, that the old board was still in effect amid reports of a split at Cabinet over the new board’s composition. Since then, there has been much confusion over the matter.
It has been recently reported that, through the Chamber of Commerce in Delhi, India, several Indian companies have indicated interest in investing in the local sugar industry, or acquiring assets therein.
The SPU has also been able to secure a syndicated bond worth G$30 billion to assist with the revitalisation of GuySuCo. Heath-London said the loan has been acquired at good rates, with several banks participating.
The idea behind the borrowing of this syndicated bond is to assist the SPU with the reopening of the estates, to facilitate providing proof to potential investors that the estates are viable.
Over 5000 sugar workers from Enmore, Rose Hall and Skeldon were dismissed from their jobs following the downsizing of the sugar industry, which began to take effect in late 2017.
