As we've told you, the battle over BTL has to some extent been fought via press release. Government and the Parallell Telemedia have repreatedly countered each other with releases.
But, others have also spoken up. The Chamber of commerce who came out swinging when BEL was nationalized, had all the attitude of a punch drunk fighter in the 13th round with its latest release. The brief statement is almost open ended, saying, "The Chamber calls on government … to follow all the legal protocols to ensure that the Court of Appeal's determination in the BTL case are followed while pursuing any further legal remedies it chooses to pursue"
The PUP is less oblique saying that "the PUP urges both the Government and the previous majority owners of BTL to arrive at a reasonable settlement to this crippling dispute…"
It adds that, quote "We also believe that Belizeans deserve the opportunity to become shareholders in our utility companies, allowing for dividends to be re-invested in our economy."
And concludes, rather open-endedly "The PUP calls on the Government of Belize and the previous majority owners to move expeditiously, within the rule of law and the country's Constitution to resolve this long simmering dispute,"
In other slightly related news relating to the Ashcroft Alliance, we today saw news on the internet which says that the Shares in the Alliance's flagship company, BCB Holdings fell by almost a quarter on Monday after the group revealed that it registered a loss in the year ended 31 March.
According to the report, quote: The firm, which operates in Belize and the Turks and Caicos Islands, reported a net loss of $7.3million, compared with a net income of 25.9million the year before."
Loss per share fell to $0.07, from a profit of $0.27. Shares were trading 22.5% down yesterday.
