09 April, 2007

ANTIL 1

Cap Juluca's Future.

Cap Juluca Hotel is one of the premier tourist hotels in Anguilla. Well, it used to be. It is going rapidly downhill. It is rundown. It is no longer the jewel it once was. Instead of investing some of the profits in maintenance and upgrading, all of the income of the hotel for the past twenty years has been frittered away in law suits among the owners. The result has been that Government has told the owners that it is fed up with them, and Government would like to see them sell to someone who will concentrate on renovating and upgrading the property.

So, Cap Juluca’s future ownership has been in the news. The ANTIL-Firesky Group is one of its would-be purchasers. The Anguilla National Tourism Investment Ltd, or ANTIL, is a grouping of local Anguillians. They are partnering with a foreign group called Firesky in bidding to purchase Cap Juluca. Another would-be owner is the Gencom Group. Dion Friedland, one of the principal owners of Cap Juluca, has published a release stating categorically that he has a binding agreement to sell to Gencom. He is not going to deal with ANTIL. He is not even talking to ANTIL. ANTIL, have not given up. They have published a large number of press releases in the media over the past few months claiming that they have a solid case to be the purchasers of Cap Juluca. They have been holding “town hall meetings” throughout the island explaining their motives and plans for Cap Juluca with a view to build public support for their bid.

Marcel Fahie is one of the promoters of ANTIL. No one doubts his personal integrity and good intentions. He has very eloquently defended ANTIL’s intentions at a series of “town hall meetings” throughout the island. Having recently heard him and other members of his team explaining why ANTIL would be a better option as owner of Cap Juluca, I am convinced. We all want the hotel to be owned by a competent hotel company that will preserve and improve the hotel and the many Anguillian jobs that are involved. The best purchaser of all would be someone who partners with Anguillians, someone who would look after the best interests of the employees and interests of Anguilla. That is what ANTIL is proposing to do. Gencom has no such plans. Clearly, any loyal Anguillian would prefer ANTIL over Gencom to be the future owner of Cap Juluca.

Why then is it that I still feel so uneasy? Why does my stomach churn whenever I contemplate ANTIL? Is it an unreasonable feeling, or is it justified?



6 comments:

  1. I don't know anything about your stomach, Mr. Mitchell, but mine churns because I have reason to believe that Guish is sitting behind ANTIL and pulling the strings.

    I keep hearing people say that 90, 95 or 98% of the workers at Cap Juluca want nothing to do with Guish or anyone he's associated with. Why is that?

    Dion Friedland's ownership carries with it certain rights. He says his buyer is highly qualified. On what reasonable basis could Government refuse to approve this sale? If they did, what message would that send to other foreign investors? Government has certain powers but they are limited to what is reasonable and in good faith.

    Friedland doesn't need me to defend him. But if his rights are restricted, you or I could be next. This is not a question of choosing who we like best, like the Miss Anguilla Show. This is a question of laws and rights.

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  2. Mr. Fahie got government in that horrendous lease with Cap Juluca, and now he is trying to rectify the deal. If this case ever goes to court, the government will lose solely on the basis that the advisor for the government and the advisor for ANTIL is one and the same.

    It is clear that Mr. Friedland efforts to sell the resort is hampered by government and the advisor and arrangments to sell CJ has been change over and over by government. Only when the public started to crutinize the deal, government went back and decided CJ must have 20% AXA ownership. I wonder if a group of Anguillians decide that they want St. Regis Resort and that it should have 25% Anguillian owenership if government would ask the owners to sell. Can the government force the owners of the golf course to sell so we can all have ownership in St. Regis. Afterall, it would be best for Anguilla. And we all know we want what's best for Anguilla.

    My only hope is that they stop trying this issue in the media and leave CJ good name out of it. A group of Anguillians is single-handedly destroying CJ good name just because they can't have it.

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  3. Someone finally calling the cat by its name. Val Banks openly admitted that Antil was formed after Guishard was terminated for cause.

    If Antil and Guishard are not one how come all these so called "anguillian patriots" created Antil to participate in Temenos, Viceroy and Altamer?

    Marcel Fahie, Val Banks, Guishard is all a click.

    Has anybody done a search on the internet on Mr. JB Turbidy? Try and google his name....

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  4. Someone commented that we should check JB Turbidy on Google. I did
    that and came up with this old article: http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/1999/08/30/story4.html. I can find nothing further on the internet that indicates how this matter involving litigation over kickbacks and fraud was resolved.

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  5. First was Starbust and scam master Carl Kruse what a happened to them. Their platform was the same as ANTIL only different name.

    Now is ANTIL and JB Turbidy allegedley accused of kick back scheme in America. That is why they hired Guichard to come via the back door rather than dealing wih the owner of CJ from business to business. Business transactions are not done via press releases and government presure unless you do not have a clean slate.

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  6. The story about the case concerning the kick-back scheme is from the Denver Business Journal of August 1999. That is almost eight years ago. It would be useful to find out if anyone knows what happened with the case.
    IDM

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