Tonight the good news is that embattled BTL owner Jeffrey Prosser appears as if he will soon have one of his legal worries settled..And the bad news? Well, he's settling a good portion of it with BTL's money gathered from the phone charges that you pay.
7NEWS has obtained a document tabled before the Supreme Court of Delaware that offers an $85 million settlement for a decision against a Prosser and related companies. In May, a Delaware court decided that Prosser had underpaid minority shareholders when he bought over Emerging Communications. The court found that Prosser paid $10.25 per share when the value, in the court's opinion, was $38 a share. A gross underpayment that could have cost Prosser over US$100 million if the court were to decide. So he has opted to settle, and that document obtained by 7NEWS shows that settlement to be in the amount of US$85 million.
Tonight, the news is that, according to the payment plan outlined in the document, US$24 million of that, more than one quarter, would come from BTL. According to the settlement proposal, Prosser's ICC would grant what is called a "lease-secured note" that will see, "BTL will pay directly....US$500,000 per month for 25 months and a final monthly payment of US$250,000." And that only the half. The next page discloses another "loan secured note" and it will see BTL again, "pay directly...US$500,000 per month for 24 months." That's a total of US$24.75 million, which would be paid from BTL's revenues in just two years. According to the document ICC has the right to do this under, "certain lease agreements with Belize Telecommunications Limited. "
Well we don't know what lease agreement it refers to, but we'll risk that it seems rather presumptuous for the man, who still has not paid for his majority shares in BTL to be making such heavy commitments for a company which he owns only in name. And while it looks good on paper, the proposed figure would see BTL paying out $24 million a year when its profits haven't touched that mark in more than three years. And while it is thoroughly bewildering, it's also quite worrying, because if the settlement is approved, and we stress it is pending before the Delaware court, it would see all of BTL's profits, and then some, flushed out, in foreign exchange, with apparently no regard for the minority shareholders in Belize who still own 18% of BTL and under the articles of association are entitled to a dividend. How would Prosser bring BTL's sagging profits back up? Well those we spoke to who are conversant with the BTL topic say that there's always that guaranteed rate of return and the always vulnerable rate-payers.