Who owns BTL? Seems like there's a different combination of answers to that question everyday. Well tonight it's no different as there are many tangled stories of who owns, who will own and who will operate the most profitable company in the country.
But today the Prime Minister tried to put an end to all the speculation with a 3:00 pm address to the nation. He confirmed what we reported yesterday: that government has signed an agreement with E-com, a Michael Ashcroft company to buy 15% of the government's shares. He also confirmed what we've been reporting since last week: that as part of the deal government has signed a settlement agreement with Ashcroft's Carlisle Group to write off the $12 million in business tax that the Belize Bank owes. Here is a portion of the Prime Minister's statement explaining those points and government's overall strategy.
Said Musa, Prime Minister of Belize
"Yesterday, we signed a Share Purchase Agreement with ECOM Ltd., one of the Carlisle Group of companies. Under this Agreement, we have now transferred 15% of our 52% shareholding in BTL to E-com for the price of U.S. $14.5 million. This 15% represents 4,000,000 Ordinary "B" shares and 1, 531,278 Ordinary "C" shares. This 15% combined with the 10.02% already held by the Carlisle Group will now give them a 25% shareholding in BTL. Very importantly, the Carlisle Group has given a written undertaking that they will not seek any further shareholding in BTL."
"Under the Share Purchase Agreement, the Government holds three directorship appointments on the Board of Directors of BTL, and has appointed Mrs. Karen Bevans, Mr. Keith Arnold, and Mr. Gaspar Aguilar as government's directors. E-com Ltd. also hold three directorships on the Board and has appointed three companies in this regard."
"This now clears the path for the managers and employees of BTL, and other interested Belizeans, to purchase the remaining 37% of the shares held by the government, as well as to negotiate, with the support of the government, for the purchase of the 30% held by the ICC/ Belize Telecom Group. These negotiations are in fact already underway. With this new opportunity, it is therefore now of critical importance that we as a people come together and work together to re-Belizeanize BTL."
"In creating this new opportunity we have had to make a difficult decision. That decision was to sign a Settlement Deed under which we agreed to abandon any litigation against the Carlisle Group for the recovery of outstanding business taxes in exchange for the Carlisle Group abandoning its litigation pending in both Belize and the United Kingdom for the right to buy back BTL and undertaking to limit itself to a 25% shareholding in BTL."
"For some it might not be an ideal agreement, but it provides us with the most practical basis upon which to move ahead."
The Prime Minister's entire statement will air as a government sponsored announcement later in this newscast and you can read it by clicking here.
Looking at it, first we can confirm that contrary to what the Prime Minister said, the Carlisle Group has not given any written or oral undertaking that it will not buy more than 25% of BTL. A senior executive from the Carlisle Group confirmed that E-com is an Ashcroft Company, not a Carlisle Company and while Carlisle has not given any undertaking, it presently has no interest in buying more shares in BTL but Michael Ashcroft could do so, independent of Carlisle.
And while that is one issue, the more pressing one is what will happen with the Sunrise Group. As the Prime Minister indicated, the government is prepared to work with Sunrise to take control of the company and, as he mentioned, government appointed its three principals as directors. We do also know that government is working on a Memorandum of Understanding with Sunrise towards a takeover, but that's some ways off.
It seems the biggest hurdle for Sunrise will be to convince a banker to lend it tens of millions of US dollars to buy a company with two powerful dissident shareholders, namely Michael Ashcroft and Jeffrey Prosser. More than that, if Sunrise does buy Prosser's shares, it would also presumably have to buy the US$26 million Intelco debt that he has taken on. And no matter how you slice it, at the end of the day that cost would have to come back to ratepayers.
So while government is encouraging Sunrise, it's gonna be a painful night before that sun comes over the horizon. And it's apparent that the only way Sunrise can get the kind of credit it needs, is if it gets some serious assurances from government, which translates into concessions and guarantees like the kinds that were made to Prosser and Glenn Godfrey which is what got us into this mess in the first place. And while government is now encouraging Belizean ownership and may have to go very far to get that accomplished it's tough to forget that this entire situation is predicated on the fact that apart from making secret concessions to Prosser, government also signed a still secret buyback agreement with Ashcroft, which is what forced yesterday's signing and is the defining force in the entire new deal.
