How Much Mark Espat’s Firm Got Paid for Superbond Consultation

Dean Barrow

Around twenty-one million Belize dollars was paid out to settle the final costs of the re-arrangement of the Superbond Three point O, which took about five months to negotiate. The figure was announced by Prime Minister Dean Barrow in an official statement during today’s meeting of the House of Representatives. It was in response to claims of handsome sums being paid to local consultants in addition to what was paid to the Government’s chief legal counsel and associates in the re-structuring. According to Prime Minister Barrow, only one local consultant, Hallmark Advisory, the concern of Economic Ambassador Mark Espat was paid in relation to its work on the Superbond. That payment was close to two million dollars.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

“We paid to Citi Global Markets, top drawer firm with respect to sovereign debt restructuring – we paid a one percent fee, one percent of the Bond’s face value, we paid that as their success fee, and that amounted to five million, [two hundred and sixty-five thousand, two hundred and one] U.S. dollars. We had, as I said, to pay the Bondholder Committee’s fees and expenses – you engaged them in the exercise under the indenture, we were obliged to be saddled with their costs, and we had to pay them two million, seven hundred and eighty-five thousand U.S. dollars. We had to pay a bondholder consent fee in the amount of twenty-five basis points or a quarter of one percent of the face value of the Superbond; and so that amounted to one million, three hundred and sixteen [thousand], two [hundred and] fifty-five U.S. dollars. We’ve had to pay our local consultant, Hallmark Advisory, serving as the advisor and the overall debt team coordinator, seventeen basis points or eight hundred and eighty-four thousand U.S. dollars.”

Other fees paid were mostly legal and other expenses to the international trustee and legal advisers.