The BTL Annual General Meeting will start in about half an hour - and those who attend the meeting will see an agenda item for declaration of a dividend.
But, it's not going to happen. The meeting will proceed as normal but the Executive Chairman Nestor Vasquez has advised us that following the wishes of the majority Shareholder - which is the Government of Belize, no dividend will be declared.
That was the decision of the Caribbean Court of Justice earlier this week - which asked that the declaration of a dividend be deferred until at least December 15th.
And yesterday, Government's legal advisor Gian Ghandi wrote to the Executive Chairman advising him that quote, "GOB does not agree to the declaration of dividends at the meeting scheduled for 28thSeptember, or any other date before the 14th day of December 2012." End quote.
So that's the end of it -the AGM will proceed, but no dividend will be declared - which is a major anti-climax - since the main business of an AGM is to declare a dividend, which in BTL's case amounts to 45% of the company's annual profits.
It will still happen, but shareholders will have to wait for the check close to Christmas.
