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Tonight, the government of Belize is on its way to acquiring the Port of Belize, and settling a number of other legal disputes with the Ashcroft alliance.
In what will be recorded as one of the signal accomplishments for the Briceno Administration - his government is paying a total of just under 200 million to get the Port of Belize and all its property and settle pending legal awards that have been lingering for over a decade.
The Belize City Port and Acquisition Deeds Bill went to the House today and the Prime Minister presented it with all the bells and whistles. Jules Vasquez looks at the overall deal:
Remember these anti-government ads they aired from May to September of this year, several of them every night. An unprecedented flood of negative advertising. 60 ads in three and a half months spearheaded and sponsored by not the UDP, but by the Ashcroft alliance. The tactic was to publicly pressure government on the Portico deal, but also to force them to the negotiating table.
And by September 20th the government had had enough. It agreed; stop the endless stream of ads and they can start to talk. After two and a half months of negotiations, the final deal was announced today. In broadest terms, the government will pay the Ashcroft alliance a shade under 198 million Belize dollars for the Port of Belize and to settle outstanding arbitral awards plus interest in US courts. One of those awards date back to 2005. The other 2009.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"But today, we stand at the cusp of a resolution of all of this."
The prize in this is really the port of Belize, which goes back into public hands 22 years after it was privatized by a former Musa administration. The alliance valued it at 329.9 million Belize dollars, but the government paid 166.7 million for the port, plus 600 acres of adjoining lands for a total discount of 49%.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"We can confidently declare that at this price, and if the current profits of the port can be maintained as they will be, the profits can themselves finance the purchase. In other words, there will be no need for any taxpayer monies to pay for the purchase of this port and the 83.37 million dollars will not be paid upfront, nor will it be paid all in U.S. dollars."
"The seller has accepted an upfront payment of 38 million U.S. dollars, while the remaining 45.37 million U.S. will be paid, with four Belize dollar Treasury notes redeemable over five years."
And while the port is a prize, the footnotes are two long, outstanding arbitral awards in U.S. courts, one of them 14 years old. Plus the interest and legal fees. The outstanding amount is 204.8 million Belize dollars. But the government would pay just 15% of that, a at 30.6 million Belize dollars.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"So the settlement sum is a reduction from 204.9 million Belize dollars to 30.6 million Belize dollars. For every dollar we owed we will be paying 15 cents."
But was it really owed? A debt is only as good as the prospect of collecting it, which in this case was almost nil.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Though it would be, our emphatic preference to ignore these judgments and to pay not a single penny to the Ashcroft consortium. The painful fact is that the judgment awards have been recognized by federal courts in the United States, especially in Washington, D.C., and in New York."
The government is also paying $12 million to settle a pending suit by Walterloo under the UK Belize Investment Treaty. So the total settlement payment is 197 million dollars. A discount of 64% on the entire package. When you factor in that the Ashcroft alliance had all of that valued at 547 million Belize dollars. To seal the deal, the government has to pay 45 million U.S. upfront and the other 107 million Belize dollars in Belize Treasury notes over five years.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"So the seller gets less than half, 46% of the purchase price upfront and the remaining 45.54% in Belize dollars over the next five years."
And as substantial added bonuses. The deal will see the withdrawal of all Ashcroft claims and cases against government and the Christian Workers Union, including the lawsuit against the CWU, the injunction blocking ex-gratia payments to the stevedores and various claims against ministries of government. Plus, Waterloo and the Ashcroft alliance will abandon the idea of a cruise ship terminal in the Belize district.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"This brings down the curtain on the Ashcroft's consortium's attempt to involve itself in the cruise terminal sector, which decisively, while decisively advancing the goals of government's national cruise industry and national ports policy."
And apart from the almost 200 million Belize dollars he's receiving from the government. Ashcroft gets a development concession for the Radisson.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Belize Hotels Limited. The hotel's owner and an Ashcroft consortium affiliate applied for a fiscal incentive concession to support the 57 million dollars of fresh investments in the property. Cabinet, while viewing the investment favorably, had stayed the approval process. Given the various outstanding matters between government and the consortium. In response, B.H.L. proceeded with the rebuilt but withdrew its commitment to construct a conference center."
"Well, it has now been agreed that a conference center will be constructed and BHL will benefit from a fiscal incentive, such incentive not being at all unusual for a tourism investment of this magnitude."
