B.E.L. reports solid results in 2002

Coming off the worst week of blackouts in a decade, the timing could not have been worse for Belize Electricity Limited. But tonight at the company’s annual general meeting, B.E.L. will prefer to look toward a brighter future. With their recent problems hopefully behind them, shareholders will actually hear some good news. Energy sales increased by eight point six percent in 2002, while revenues were up five point seven percent to ninety-six million dollars, profits rose to thirteen million dollars or forty-seven cents per share, and an annual dividend of twenty cents per share has been declared. B.E.L. was privatised in 1992. Fortis of Canada owns sixty-seven percent of the shares, the Belize Social Security Board owns twenty-six percent, while smaller shareholders control the remaining seven percent. Tonight’s meeting gets underway at seven at the Queen’s Room of the Princess Hotel. And while the company bigwigs are in town they will head out west tomorrow for the official groundbreaking of the much-debated Chalillo hydroelectric project.