Lord Ashcroft Says Sale of Utility Shares May Help

Michael Ashcroft

Lord Ashcroft also commented on the possible privatization of the utility companies.  In his view, while it will be difficult to get investors to purchase minority shares; the sale of utilities can be an opportunity for a solution to the Super Bond issue.

Lord Michael Ashcroft

“Would you invest in a company that is a minority in a government-regulated business when you have seen what the government has done already, not just to Telemedia, but to Belize Electricity Company? That when things don’t quite go their own way—and if I recall rightly, even the water company was privatized and all the government guarantees were not fulfilled and eventually they had to buy it back from the private sector; and I believe that was a British water company that actually bought it. It seems to me to be a difficult sell, unless of course they force Social Security Board to buy it. But I would suspect that even the Social Security Board might be a little weary, especially that at the moment it seems the Telemedia shares they were persuaded to buy seems to be underwater in valuation. But taking that valuation and taking the bondholders, the Government of Belize has said that the price paid for Telemedia, through this arbitration, will turn out to be a good investment. So to solve the bond problem and to solve some of the foreign currency problems, why doesn’t the Government of Belize go to some international agent—one of the big investment banks—and put the whole of Telemedia up for sale to the highest foreign bidder? And if the Prime Minister is right about the value, you can solve the bond problem, you can solve the foreign currency problem and you would have professional expertise running the major telephone company in Belize.”

We’ll have the entire interview with Lord Ashcroft on Thursday morning on Open Your Eyes.