Azurest Cambridge ask for more time from the OUR

This was expected, but their reason for doing so on the surface of it seems like a load of crock to me. This is what the Gleaner reported

According to a reliable source, “Azurest has told the OUR that a combination of factors has led to them asking for the extension. They said their financiers were uncomfortable with the series of negative events that arose out of the awarding of the contract.”

The source further told The Gleaner, “some of the negative factors include the fact that the major private-sector groups did not attend the OUR announcement of the preferred bidder and the negative response to them winning the bid. All of this has really made the financiers very uncomfortable.”

The source said the principals have asked the OUR to give them time to do their due diligence in Jamaica before they made a commitment to the project.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20131004/lead/lead1.html

The sentence in bold was my highlight, because as far as I am concerned here is where I beleived  these guys takes us for fools.

What kind of consortium or even a single company who was willing to cough up US$650M would not have done it’s due diligence on the country it plans to invest in prior to submitting it’s bid for such a major project?

There is no way on earth that this would not have been done and if Ken Allen is now suggesting that one was not done prior to now, that is enough reason to ditch the Azurest Cambridge right now. The simple fact is, if these guys are the financial experts they claim to be and with access to funding, I cannot see how they could submit a bid, wait months to hear word, accept they won the bid and after being given 15 days to show us the money, are now saying ” we don’t trust the Jamaican market”.

From where I sit, this is a load of crock, unless of course there is a hidden message, somewhere in Ken’s statement, one which is saying they have no faith in the OUR and/or the Minister with responsibility for energy, given his “visible” hidden hand in the bidding process.

I told you all that Azurest would not make it and that the company who was parachuted into the mix after the expiration date for the submission, would be the most likely company to have ultimately awarded the contract.

We wait to hear from the OUR today, in what is not doubt a very #6 fuel affair.

BTW #6 fuel is a very dirty fuel called bunker C,  which is used in many boilers for steam generation

🙂