Bidders of Hotel Casino Carrasco tender ask „severity“ with competitors

The four bidders of Hotel Casino Carrasco tender made their defense before the Montevideo Council due to the punctuation received in the first stage of the process. In general, they demanded more “severity“ with their competitors.

From the beginning of the tender process, Montevideo Council (IMM) planned that it was going to receive observations of all the groups interested, after the opening of the first envelope.

The four bidders are strong economic groups that count with prestigious law firms, that will take advantage of the opportunity to revise or claim everything they consider pertinent.

The two groups that received the lowest qualifications, presented a big file. That was the case of Hyatt chain and Portuguese group Pestana. However, companies located in first and second place, Codere -Accor and Tsakos, did the same.

Codere, the firm that received the best mark, remarked that it has obtained the lowest mark for its casino proposal, when it is the “only casino operator”, with more than 50,000 slots and 120 gambling venues worldwide”, said from Argentina Guillermo Arcani, director of the project.

The consortium comprised by Hyatt chain and Liberman Group talked about the „lack of finance (of its competitors) when presenting the offera“ and sostained that Codere has a „lack of commitment“ with its hotel chain, Sofitel.

Besides, Tsakos pointed the fact that „professional backgrounds have not been considered in any of the bids presented”, which had been established in Article 22 of the documents of conditions of the tender. The representative of Tsakos, Armando Bonilla, told El País that „This is a mistake that the council should solve”.

Portuguese group Pestana, which was in fourth place for the first qualification of the Council, decided not to make public statements in this stage.

Secretary of IMM, Jorge Rodríguez, said that observations will be revised (without a deadline) and they will act according to the analysis. He assured that, in response to accusations of Hyatt chain, that all the bidders passed to a second stage in the tender “because they have economic solvency”.

„We made an agreement with National Corporation for the Development to receive counselling, we received a report from them and, based in this document, the commission made the queries it considered necessary. With the documents analyzed, we came to the conclusion that the four offers complied with the requirements”, said
Rodríguez.

Besides, Purchase Manager of IMM, Juan Canessa, said it will be necessary to analyze everything to determine the date of opening of the second envelope, which relates to the fixed fee and the variable fee of the tender. „We want it to be the quickest possible”, he remarked.