00:00At this point in time, I would just like to tell the workers that it could breathe a sigh of
00:04relief. Hilton is not leaving in September. And going forward, I think we are open to dialogue with the unions
00:13and the employees of the hotel.
00:16Land and Legal Affairs Minister Saddam Hussein, as he spoke with the media, about the announcement by Evolving Technologies and
00:23Enterprise Development Company Limited, E-Tech, that there will be no immediate changes to employees' existing duties, reporting arrangements, work
00:31schedules, salaries or benefits arising from the transaction, in a new ownership and management arrangement for the hotel and conference
00:40center at Lady Young Road in Port of Spain.
00:43This old arrangement that we had between Hilton being landlord and tenant, I was informed that maybe we are the
00:50only jurisdiction in the world that Hilton had a presence that had that relationship.
00:54So now we are moving towards modernizing that relationship and we are consistent with respect to the international practices of
01:01the hotel industry, where these hotels that have the brand operate the asset on behalf of the owners.
01:07The minister spoke with the media at the Land and Legal Affairs Ministry's head office on Friday, a few hours
01:13after E-Tech announced that under a share purchase agreement, it acquired all of the issued and outstanding shares of
01:19Hilton International Trinidad Limited, which has been renamed Hotel TT Asset Management Company Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the
01:29state-owned E-Tech.
01:30So the state was apparently always in the hotel business. We have the Magdalena Grand, which is in Tobago. You
01:38know that the waterfront. We have the Hyatt. But the Hyatt operated under the HME model, which is the hotel
01:45management agreement model, which is now what we moved towards the Hilton with. So we are now consistent with respect
01:52to the relationship.
01:53E-Tech said the hotel management agreement has an initial term of six months, with provision for a further six
01:59-month renewal, subject to agreement between the parties.
02:03How do you respond to any concerns, be it by employees or persons who would want to stay at the
02:10hotel going forward at any point, that at some point, if things don't work out, the Hilton brand could just
02:16pick up and leave Trinidad Limited?
02:18So there are, in fact, stipulations in the HME that we have signed. Those are the commercial themes and so
02:24on.
02:25Minister Hussain also made reference to the opposition PNM, having previously claimed that following the 2025 general election, the UNC
02:33-led government dropped the ball on an agreement arrived at between the Hilton and the former PNM-led government for
02:39$400 million worth of renovations to be done at the hotel.
02:43They left us with no financing arrangement for that $400 million. But at the end of the day, we require
02:50hotel stock in Trinidad. We have a booming end in the industry now. We have major sporting activities in Trinidad.
02:58We have carnival. We have Christmas and so on. So therefore, we require hotel stock. So therefore, that is why
03:05we took a decision as an administration to ensure that Hilton remains in Trinidad and Tobago. They could have left.
03:12But what we have done through this new arrangement is that we kept the Hilton here.
03:16E-Tech also said the new hotel management agreement will see Hilton continue to manage and operate the Hilton Trinidad
03:22and Conference Centre, while E-Tech, through its subsidiary Hotel TT, will own the hotel asset.
03:29Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
