Spain: Tenerife casino tender declared void

This tender process was unsuccessful due to a requirement included in the articles and conditions which, in practise, results impossible to comply, as it finally happened. It was due to the fact that the companies that wanted to acquire those three casinos (located at Playa de Las Américas, Taoro portuense and Santa Cruz de Tenerife) had to perform an added investment of 4.5 million euros in any improvement project for the touristic sector.

Such project had to count with the diligence standards and/or authorizations of the administrations involved, which is something very difficult to obtain, according to the newspaper Diraio de Avisos.

It was in 2016 when former president of the island, Caros Alonso (Coalición Canaria), announced its intention to sell the three casinos, despite, for example, in 2017 they had benefits for more than 2 million euros.

In spite of the criticism of opposition parties such as Sí Podemos Canarias and trade unions like UGT, the so-called disposal started its trajectory with a previous phase, in a pre-registration mode, in which four companies of the sector participated, like Global Casino Technology Corporation, Pama e Hijos, Olympic Entertaiment Group and Automáticos Canarias-Grupo Orenes.

Just one of that companies remained for the second phase, allocated for the tender, but Pama e Hijos found such clause, and the Hiring Boureau had to comply with the law and reject its proposal, too, declaring this tender void. The firm presented the project correctly in order to improve the touristic sector with that 4.5 million euros, but without the authorizations and/or licences to perform them.

It had to be concluded in a four-year deadline and had to be related with the casino activity, although other turistic activities had to be related.

Tenerife Council will decide, next Tuesday, to declare the tender void, but, after the Hiring Boureau rejected the only offer presented in this tender process. However no one knows if the new team will choose to repeat the procedure to sell the casinos or not.