The ICC buyout of BTL will not be completed by the February 9th Deadline. That was confirmed to 7NEWS today by Rene Henry, ICC's Vice-President of Public Relations.
Via e-mail Henry told us,"we do not expect due diligence to be completed in the next 7 days. We will continue discussions and due diligence beyond the 60 days, and however long it takes, and are optimistic that all issues will be resolved in the best interests of all concerned…" This comes after the government of Belize, ICC and BTL'S majority shareholder, Michael Ashcroft's Carlisle holdings all announced on December 11th that the sale would be completed after a 60 days due diligence period.
What's the delay? Henry says that one third of the 60 days was lost to holidays. Still, others say otherwise - including the opposition which has been doubting on the sale from the very outset - point to intractable differences over the 19% rate of business tax charged to BTL and difficulties involved in INTELCO's 15 Year exclusive license with government. But as long as the sale is not completed, questions remain about the $104 million paid To Carlisle Holdings by the Government of Belize - and the last $10 Million that - according to Carlisle's website - is due to the company on February 9.
While that is up on the air, today there were persistent reports of high-level meetings at the Central Bank with local investors to discuss what could be another scenario - so stay tuned for that.