Billion-dollar B.T.L.? Prime Minister Says It Can Happen by 2030
As we reported on Thursday night in our interview with Prime Minister Dean Barrow following a meeting with the Belize National Teachers Union, he appeared not to be concerned by the one hundred and fifty million dollars in domestic borrowing the Government must undertake to repay the former owners of Belize Telemedia Limited for the nationalization of the company. In fact, attorneys for the Government and Dunkeld Investments and the Employees Trust will report to the Caribbean Court of Justice next week Thursday, September twenty-ninth about whether any settlement has been reached with regard to the Settlement Agreement. But Prime Minister Barrow has clung insistently to the notion even though there has been a yearly decline in profits, that B.T.L. will make back that money and more in terms of profits – as much as a billion dollars in the next fifteen years or so. Here is his latest forecast:
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“Bottom line, we are now free and clear in terms of our ownership of B.T.L.; I repeat that that is a company that will more than be able to pay this bill, this debt that we have to incur for its ownership; and over the long haul, we are going to come out ahead. Generations to come, the ownership of B.T.L. is forever; we showed you – or maybe not you – we made the point that in terms of the profits, the future profits that are expected, certified by the accountants on both sides, B.T.L. is looking for the rest of the period that was constituted by the Accommodation Agreement at making – I can’t remember the number, but it was around a billion dollars in profits; that was going to 2030, three or whatever it is; so, over the long haul, we will not just – the earnings from B.T.L. will not just pay for what we have to borrow now, but will see us come out indubitably and resoundingly on top. This is a good deal; this is not like the Superbond, where you owe one point one billion dollars and you get nothing for it and you have nothing to show for it; this is an asset that even now, even now, is worth well over half a billion dollars, and as I said, in terms of the prospects for the profits that the company will make, we are well clear – we are well ahead of the game, we are well clear in terms of coming out resoundingly, overwhelmingly on the plus side of the equation.”
The Prime Minister’s son, Anwar Barrow, presides over the Executive Committee of B.T.L. and has overseen six years of declining net profits, although the company claims it is expecting an upturn this year. The company’s Annual General Meeting is yet to be held.
Fool is talking, but not fool is listening. The battle over the ownership of BTL has nothing to do with its financial performance.
And please, don’t come to us telling us that BTL is for the people, therefore we must support it. We are not buying that bull**it. It is common knowledge that you are using BTL to enrich your family members, instead of running the business the way any good business is supposed to be run.
Sometimes I wonder if you really think the people are fools, or if it is that you are just obsessed with the idea of finishing your government term, and not have early elections. Yes, early elections would tarnish your political accomplishments. You would not want to go into the horizon like that. But people are not seeing what your eyes are seeing.