Telemedia ordered to issue half of dividends to S.S.B., G.O.B. and Central Bank

At a sitting in Trinidad, the Caribbean Court of Justice this morning heard an application by the Government of Belize in respect of a 2012 order on Telemedia dividends.  At the time, the CCJ declared that dividends were not to be paid out to the government of Belize, the Central Bank and the Belize Social Security Board. These dividends for 2012 had been declared in the sum of eleven point eight million dollars while for 2013, it is in the sum of twelve point three million dollars. According to a release from the B.T.L. Employees Trust, the CCJ without calling on the parties to present their arguments proposed that it vary its December seventeenth order to allow fifty percent of the declared dividends to now be paid to government, S.S.B. and Central Bank of Belize. The CCJ, however, decided that the remaining fifty percent of dividends be retained until the CCJ has determined the constitutionality of the nationalization of Telemedia. The CCJ was of the view that in making the 2012 order, it anticipated that a decision would have been delivered by the Court of Appeal on the second nationalization of Telemedia in 2011. The CCJ further indicated that it expects to be able to reach its own determination on the constitutionality of nationalization by next September.  All be told, the CCJ ordered that fifty percent of the declared dividends be paid to G.O.B., Central Bank of Belize and S.S.B.; the remaining fifty percent retained by Telemedia and no future dividends shall be paid out without an application of the CCJ. The order, restraining the Telemedia Board from dissipating any of the assets remains in place.