Boyce clarifies that Coney Drive bldg belongs to GBPL
And there is a lot of noise coming from the new Telemedia management about the ownership of the N.D.F.B. building on Coney Drive acquired by Great Belize Productions. The obvious intention is to cast aspersions on a legitimate and transparent business transaction. Anyone with business sense would understand that the ownership the G.B.T.V. property cannot be under dispute. To put that matter to rest, as we have said, the detachment of G.B.T.V./Channel Five as a subsidiary of Telemedia, was done prior to the hostile takeover of the telephone company. Indeed Telemedia issued dividends to all its shareholders. This distribution included the GB Productions Limited which owns Channel Five and which was purchased by Telemedia in July of 2008. Months later it purchased the new home of Channel Five, the N.D.F.B. building as the Land Certificate documents will show. Former Chairman of B.T.L., Dean Boyce, explains in detail that the building belongs to Channel Five and not Telemedia.
Dean Boyce, Former Chairman, Executive Committee, B.T.L.
“When we bought the N.D.F.B. building, as you know, Channel Five was saying. look we’re on this very small location on Regent Street. We don’t have space to expand and do all the things to develop this into a true regional TV station that everybody in Belize is going to be proud of. Channel is a very good starting point—it’s known within the region, but we could do a lot more and that’s good for Belize. So we brought in N.D.F.B. building specifically for G.P.B.L. and on the title document it very clearly says G.B.P.L., Great Belize Productions Limited is the owner of the building. So that was always the intention. We have already put some plans together for the development of the building. We used an external architect and they developed the plans for that building. We’ve taken that company, we’ve distributed it to the former owners of the company so that everybody, there was some reference to the union and yes the union have their percentage share of G.B.P.L. and Channel Five, so they are a part owner in the company.”
All the original shareholders of Telemedia, on a pro-rate basis, were issued with dividends even before G.O.B. nationalized the telephone company. The transaction was legitimate and done to maintain the legitimacy and independence of this station. Simply put, Channel Five and the Coney Drive building were bought by Telemedia shareholders and have been retained by those same Telemedia shareholders. This is not a telecommunication company and cannot be of concern to government, unless of course, it now intends to also take over the independent media.
