said Mr. Marcello Ausenda, prospective co-owner of the Dockyard business.

Mr. Ausenda and his father Mr. Valerio Ausenda are incorporating a new limited liability company to be called Sanremo Ltd. which will own the restaurant, located beside the entrance to Dockyard.

"We are currently finalising an agreement to purchase the business from Mr.

Neil Inchcup's company NFRB&P Ltd.,'' said Mr. Ausenda, a law student working for the law firm of Conyers Dill & Pearman.

But the sale is not complete yet, he added.

Mr. Valerio Ausenda, a former dining room manager at the Grotto Bay Hotel, has 35 year's experience in the hospitality/restaurant business and has been managing the Freeport restaurant since March, he said.

Mr. Ausenda controversially left Grotto Bay in April, 1994 following accusations that he made a racial slur against other staff members.

He left the hotel weeks after his work permit had been extended.

Mr. Inchcup, who made the news after being acquitted in connection with a charge of conducting an illegal lottery, in the form of Freeport Home bingo, could not be reached for comment.