Last night we told you how Jeffrey Prosser plans to take control of BTL through a daring maneuver that would see him take control 54% of the company for a fraction of how much it would cost to do so at present market value. How much is he saving? Well the present market value is about $6 per share, and BTL's board has agreed to sell it to him for $1 per share, meaning a savings of $5 on each share. Multiply that by 24 million shares, and you've got a neat capital gain of $120 million! Not a bad day's work for a man who still hasn't paid the government US$57 million for the Carlisle shares, 8 months after he promised to do so. It's also a quite daring maneuver for a man whose deal with BTL has still not closed, and is in an apparent state of lapse, after the last extension expired at the end of November. But all that seems to be in the rearview mirror for Prosser right now, as he is moving on to tackle the next big hurdle.
And moving on means disposing of Intelco's debt to the Royal Bank of Trinidad and Tobago. As we mentioned last night, 7NEWS _has received credible reports that Prosser has agreed to settle Intelco's US$27 million debt with the RBTT reportedly for a sizeable discount. With that, Prosser takes over Intelco's assets completely. But, as was confirmed by his attorney Lanny Davis in December, BTL will not buy these assets directly from Intelco, they will buy them from one of Prosser's companies, presumably, again, Belize Telecom Limited.
What price will BTL pay Prosser's company? Well, at this point that is not known, but judging from the past record of Prosser's corporate crafting, those with some experience in the field suggest that the mere construction of the transaction opens it possibly to another gainful situation. All these still murky maneuvers may become clearer as BTL will have to hold a special general meeting to consider the issuance of 24 million new shares.
