Scotia DBG Investments Limited, advisers on the sale of Government's majority stake in the 310-room Jamaica Pegasus hotel, is mum on whether the decision to extend the deadline for submission of bids by more than a month stems from an absence of takers for the imposing 17-storey New Kingston landmark.

The Government's 59.89 per cent share holding in Pegasus Hotels of Jamaica Limited was officially put on the market at the end of July with an August 24 cut-off date for interested buyers to submit expressions of interest.

But with the date having passed, last week Scotia DBG and the state-run Urban Development Corporation (UDC), which holds the shares for the Government through its subsidiary, National Hotels and Properties, announced that the deadline was being extended to the end of September.

The Jamaican Government is trying to sell the property in a period when very few investors are willing to spend on new acquisitions.

Wrong timing

Asked whether any bids had come in before the extension of the bid deadline, Lissant Mitchell, senior vice-president at Scotia DBG, said the timing was wrong to disclose that type of information.

"I can't disclose that right now," Mitchell said.

"I would have to wait until the end of the period before I can disclose that."

The sellers of the shares are now looking beyond Jamaica for prospective buyers.

"The campaign is both local and regional," said Mitchell.

"It would be more beneficial to extend it for it to reach as wide a cross section of people as possible."

For this deal, Scotia DBG is financial adviser to the Development Bank of Jamaica, which is handling the divestment on behalf of the UDC.

"It is a good project and I am expecting to get good feedback," Mitchell said, exuding optimism that the real estate holding and hotel business would be taken off the hands of the Government, which is anxious to liquidate several state assets so it can inject cash into its almost bare coffers.

The UDC is also trying to offload the Forum hotel in Portmore, St Catherine, and the multi-storey Oceana property in downtown Kingston which was once operated as a hotel but now houses the health ministry.

dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com