Página 1 de 7 Hacienda Matapalo Investigation. II Report. Gonzalo Gutierrez Acevedo, Attorney Carla Amador Gómez, Attorney AG Abogados, Costa Rica Dear Investors, We want to let you know that, nevertheless appointing a day for the meeting itself was an issue, and the people from UTA LLC were not present; what we consider a positive meeting was held with Mr. Varela on Monday morning.. We reached to the agreement that new contracts will be re-negotiated individually and for the people that already received their contracts; we were promised that some clauses will be re-negotiated. Mr. Varela showed himself open to negotiations, but insisted we dealt in this meeting only with how we were going to handle the general aspects of the negotiation itself. It is obvious to us, they are in their way to organize they way in which the project is going to be handled. He mentioned again they were still working on a chronogram to establish the project execution phases and dates. It s important for you to know, he seemed a lot more informed about the general aspects of the project. In our last meeting he wasn t sure what was going on with the commercial center or the condominiums, for this time he assured us they were going ahead with the project in its totality. In regards to the commercial center, the information will be provided very soon, because the ownership of the commercial
Página 2 de 7 center, including the name and legal representation are going to be transferred to the investor who purchased it. More information will be revealed as we get it.. The condominiums are going ahead, -this is good news for the fractional ownership investors as well- but they have not a timeline yet. We have to have patience since it is understandable they need some time to get everything in order taking into account the magnitude of the project. In case the condominiums are in trouble of getting done in the future, we asked about the possibility of exchanging or converting them to lots, as a solution for the condo owners. They answered it was possible to do this at this time, but again: every case will be examined individually. In general they promised preferential treatment for our clients, offering of biggerthan-contracted for lots, etc. It is important to clarify though, that they are not delivering on the promise of helping you in any way to rent the property out, this is something that would have to be sorted out by the investors themselves. Even though we do not think this is something that is going to get done, Mr. Varela even mentioned the possibility, should the project be a success, he could be open at some point to refunds. This was a little bit surprising and we consider it to be unlike, but we will remain on it. Another piece of good news is that he said that they are investigating and trying to arrange for beneficial financial options to be offered to investors. This would be very beneficial to all of you, because to this day according to an investigation we carried out for you in the financial market nowadays since some of you asked-, this would be the only options in terms of Costa Rican institutions that would loan non-residents:
Página 3 de 7 1. Scotiabank: The only bank in CR that is offering financial/credit options for non-residents, 20 to 30 years (or less), at 8% or 9% annual interest, with the following restrictions: a. The property dimensions have to be less than 3500 square meters. b. The use has to be residential (in fact this is why they limit the dimension of applicable properties) c. No type of agricultural easement should exist to access the property. 2. Stewart Title CR: We investigated the possibility of arranging the credit through them, and found out they are working to help non-residents by two types of credit: a. Again though Scotiabank, and what they offer is basically a much faster process, a sort of preferential treatment from the bank and taking care of all logistics (paperwork). Same criteria for approval remains and same conditions, 20-30 years, 8 or 9% annual interest and a fee for ST CR of 1% the amount of the loan. b. Private moneylenders that they usually work with. They don t usually impose any criteria of approval on these kind of loans, apart from a personal visit from them to the property (basically to see if it makes financial sense for them to acquire it in case of foreclosure). The conditions are far more disadvantageous for the debtor though, since they do 1 or 2 years term for payment, 14 to 15% annual interest and ST CR charges a 7% fee out of the value of the credit.
Página 4 de 7 The only drawback with GIR recently has been our visit to Hacienda Matapalo on Wednesday this week, since they didn t allowed Carla into the property. Mr. Varela was called about this and he basically answered that his partners we not allowing anybody in, but this will be dealt with and we will be letting you know. Our purpose was to surprise them, and see what they were doing without them knowing we were arriving. The property was being watched over by two gardeners, who assured me they were the only ones working in the project these days. One of them knew Carla from the past visit with Gonzalo and mention material has been arriving but he was not sure when the electric installation is going to take place. The other one has only been there for 15 days. They have kept and fixed the entrance and we should say, that besides the disappointment of not getting in, we were glad to see some difference. Carla could not observe any electricity posts from the outside, though this does not mean some could be installed already. I will confirm when we manage to get a guided visit to the place. The guard hut is finished now as you can see and the gardeners told me the only water and electricity were installed there. You can compare these photographs with the previous ones sent on our first report.
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Página 7 de 7 Next Steps. We will approach one by one your cases and negotiate with Varela, so we will be contacting all of you according to the following order: a. Clients with new contracts (September 15 th deadline) b. Clients with new contracts (September 21rst deadline) c. Condominium investors d. Commercial center investors e. Friends and Family offerings f. Fractional Ownership Investors If you have more than one condition, your case will be considered by us as the first condition is met. This will probably be a long process but we ask for your patience and assure you we remain at your service. Please write if anything needs to be clarified. For those of you who haven t done that yet, we would like to have a list of your individual expectations, questions and issues you would like to have negotiated for you. For instance, if you are interested in a conversion to a lot. Cordially, Atty Carla Amador & Atty Gonzalo Guttierrez AG Abogados Costa Rica