Cara Hotels in bid for Le Meridien (Guyana Chronicle)

By Mark Ramotar

GUYANA-BASED Cara Hotels group yesterday confirmed its planned acquisition of Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel in Georgetown, with founders and owners Paul Stephenson and Shawn McGrath optimistic the major deal can be closed in three months time.“We - Cara Hotels - are confirming our intention to acquire Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel in Guyana,” Stephenson, 49, told the Guyana Chronicle in the presence of his business partner, McGrath, 45.
“We already have an agreement with the Directors of the Pegasus in London but there are certain aspects of the transaction that still need to be finalized and this should be completed within the next 90 days,” he said.
Over the past several months, McGrath and Stephenson said they have both been in regular contact with the Directors of Le Meridien Group in London, which owns the Pegasus in Georgetown, and they have since worked out most aspects of the deal, including the acquisition cost.
“We have been in contact with the Directors of Le Meridien (in London) and we have already agreed on the acquisition price and we are now working on closing the deal,” McGrath said.
He declined to give details on the acquisition price but said it is “obviously a very substantial sum”. “We are about 95% in closing the deal; it’s just the final aspects of the deal that we are currently working on.”.“Realistically, we are talking three months or 90 days to close the deal,” Stephenson said, nothing that what is left to be done is mostly paperwork. “We just have to finalize the investors, the shareholders agreement and the banking agreements and getting all the legal paper work done.”
He said, too, Le Meridien Group in London is “pleased” that a “Guyanese hotel company” in interested in buying the hotel, instead of an overseas company.
“The feel I get is that they (Le Meridien Group) are pleased that it is a Guyanese hotel company that is making the approach to acquire Le Meridien Pegasus in Georgetown.”
Stephenson, who was the General Manager of the Pegasus Hotel from 1986 to 1994, and McGrath, who was the Deputy General Manager of the Pegasus from 1989 to 1994, both have a wealth of knowledge and experience in managing hotels.
When the two left the Pegasus together in 1994, they co-founded the Cara Hotels group in Guyana with the opening of Cara Suites on Middle Street, Georgetown in January 1995.
With hotels in Georgetown, Guyana; Castries, St Lucia; and Pointe a Pierre, Trinidad, Cara Hotels is a company that addresses the needs of the modern business and leisure traveller, according to the charismatic and forward-thinking businessmen.
“Over the years we have offered our guests a special brand of hospitality that makes us their number one choice and keeps them coming back, year after year,” McGrath posited.

I think the London based owners of Pegasus were just waiting for a good enough offer to off load the hotel. They couldn't be bothered to compete with the "New Buddy's International Hotel". Also with talks of Marriott Hotels Group wanting to build a hotel in Guyana the owner got scared !!!