Tonight, the government is back at the helm of Belize's water company. Stephane Richter, the Chief Executive Officer of Cascal this afternoon signed over control of 82% of the company shares to the Prime Minister Said Musa, and Public Utilities Minister Ralph Fonseca. The Prime Minister said that the shares will now be offered to Belizeans.
Rt. Hon. Said Musa, Prime Minister of Belize
"As I had mentioned in the State of the Nation address, the government intends to offer the majority of these shares to the workers of Belize Water Services and the Belizean public. A prospectus for this purpose will be issued shortly. I will encourage all Belizeans, especially Belizean entrepreneurs, to fully participate in the process of acquiring BWS shares so that we can keep our Belizean water in Belizean hands."
Any share purchase will have to be made in U.S. dollars. Government has confirmed that it will not remove the guaranteed rate of return which is what drove rates up by 17% earlier this year.
The ceremony was closed to the media and these images are from the Government Press Office, the only camera invited to witness the signing session. We assume that if it were a happier handover where bouquets and glib praise are volleyed from one side of the table to the other, the independent media would have been invited to capture the glittering show of goodwill. But the fact is Cascal leaves very peeved because it could not get the 33% increase in rates it requested earlier this year.
Cascal maintained that in its review the PUC had failed to properly honor is guaranteed rate of return. The last time the media was barred from a utility signing over was in April of 2004, when Jeffrey Prosser bought controlling interests in BTL. While no money changed hands on that day, in this case US$14.9 million was dollars was provided by the Taiwanese government. The full vale of the transaction is US$24.9 million and the remaining US$10 million will be financed from Cascal.
