The battle for BTL continues, but tonight Michael Ashcroft can claim a major victory in the battle over who controls the Carlisle shares, which represent majority holdings in Belize's most profitable company, BTL.
Ashcroft doesn't own the shares, they remain in the name of the Government of Belize, but thanks to a crafty courtroom maneuver today, there's nothing Government can do with them. 7NEWS has confirmed that Ashcroft's Carlisle Holdings today obtained an injunction from Belize's Chief Justice to block Government from doing anything with the Carlisle shares: the order of the court states that, "government is restrained form taking any further steps to effect transfer of the shares to ICC or Belize Telecom and restrained from taking any steps to sell them to anyone else." _And for the sake of clarity, that "anyone else", includes Social Security and the people of Belize, so there goes that smug Government pronouncement that: "Belizeans will be given every opportunity to participate in the purchase of these shares," or at least until mid year.
The injunction is to stand until June when the London Court of International Arbitration decides whether Ashcroft can activate the buyback clause that was built into the Prosser sale agreement. That basically says that if the deal with Prosser does not close within a certain time, Ashcroft can buy back the shares for the same price. And, it seems clear, from the fact that the Government moved in to take-over the company on February the 9th, the deal was not closed.
But while that matter will be resolved in the United Kingdom, back here in Belize, the Supreme Court injunction seems to effectively stays everyone's hand. In the three way battle for who would control BTL this is most beneficial to Ashcroft, who is in no financial emergency; and least advantageous to Prosser who, we gather, is eager, possibly desperate to get back into BTL because he was basically duped into assuming Intelco's US$26 million debt and now finds himself stuck with that useless asset that, we believe, would have ultimately have been paid for the phone users in higher rates, a virtual certainty with Prosser's "guaranteed rate of return."
And while Prosser is out in the cold, again, for the government, it can go both ways. It hurts GOB because it is desperate to get rid of the US$57 million debt to the International Bank of Miami. But, somewhat perversely, Ashcroft's strategy also benefits them, because in the short to medium term it protects them from Prosser, who has filed a law suit in Miami Federal Court to get back BTL. That, or nay such, action would now seem to be trumped by this injunction. And the wisdom there is that when you're walking wounded, as the Belize Government is, a bullet in the leg from Ashcroft is better than two in the head from Prosser. So as it is laid out now, it's a crescendo in a legal battle that now extends over two continents and three countries: as Ashcroft awaits arbitration in London, Prosser has initiated litigation in Miami, and now Carlisle has gained a single sweeping injunction in Belize. For historical context, we note that this tangle all started under the convenient rhetoric of lower rates and telecom competition, two distant promises and now remote possibilities.
