More questions than answers on B.T.L. deal
The Government of Belize today confirmed what the Opposition announced yesterday: that is, the impending sale of majority ownership of Belize Telecommunications Limited. According to a release today from the Government Press Office, Michael Ashcroft’s Carlisle Group has agreed to sell its fifty-two point four-six percent interest in B.T.L. for a price of fifty-two million U.S. dollars plus an additional five million as a premium for Carlisle’s majority position. The actual share transfer will take place following a sixty-day due diligence period. Probably the most interesting thing about today’s announcement is what it doesn’t say. That is, while Innovative Communications of the U.S. Virgin Islands is mentioned as the eventual buyer of the shares, it is not spelled out that it is the Government of Belize that is actually purchasing the shares from Carlisle as an intermediary before reselling them to Innovative. That bridge financing is presumably coming from a large U.S. dollar loan that will be repaid when Innovative pays its money to the government. The release also makes no mention of the twenty-five percent stake in B.T.L. owned by the Belize Social Security Board. According to the U.D.P., these shares will also be sold to Innovative at the same price Carlisle is charging, less of course, the five million U.S. dollar majority premium. The attraction for government in the transaction is that it kills many troublesome birds with one stone. The sale of Social Security’s shares, which should bring in around twenty-five million in badly needed U.S. currency, will help government meet its foreign currency obligations, as well as provide the financial system with a way out of its present liquidity crunch.
Perhaps more importantly, the deal also gets Lord Ashcroft off government’s back. Ashcroft and B.T.L. had been driving hard for a level playing field with regard to the alleged privileged position occupied by B.T.L.’s new competitor, INTELCO. Ashcroft has described INTELCO as a “retirement plan for the boys,” and B.T.L. has refused to agree on a rate for interconnection between the two systems. The new owners will presumably prove more cooperative.
The question is whether they will also become more acquisitive. Innovative and its chairman, Jeffrey Prosser, are known as aggressive players and it is not inconceivable that part of the deal is for Prosser to purchase a major stake in INTELCO. Who actually owns INTELCO has never been publicly stated, and such a purchase would make good business sense… provided you are not a Belizean looking forward to lower phone rates.
