Fourteen hundred purchase shares in B.E.L.
Last week the government announced that it had successfully sold its remaining shares in Belize Electricity Limited. Today News Five learned that around fourteen hundred Belizean organizations and individuals took advantage of the twenty-one day offering with the three largest purchases made by Belize Sugar Industries, the Development Finance Corporation and the Holy Redeemer Credit Union. The rest were bought by Belizeans from all walks of life. When the announcement of the sale was made in September, G.O.B. said it would earmark thirty percent of the available shares for sale to the public with the rest being offered to a strategic foreign investor which turned out to be Fortis Incorporated of Canada. Today the advisor to the Government for Electricity Matters, Louis Lue, told News Five the sale to the public represents increasing confidence in B.E.L. and no matter what the future brings, the government will continue to be a part of the running of B.E.L.
Louis Lue
“I think that the Belize public is now realizing that with their participation, private participation, the utilities should become more efficient because as it were they would be scrutinized, you know, by a larger number of people.
It’s important for the public to know that the government maintains a strong presence on the Board of B.E.L. It had eight directors, four of them resigned, four have remained. And one of those four is also the Chairman of the Board. No matter what happens with future sales the government has established itself.”
Through two offshore affiliates, Fortis purchased over thirty-four million dollars worth of shares or forty-two percent of B.E.L.’s total ownership. The shares were offered at a price of two dollars and seventy-five cents each. It is believed that the Carlisle Group, successor to Belize Holdings Incorporated may be interested in selling its twenty percent interest in B.E.L. If Fortis were to be the purchaser, they could own as much as sixty-two percent of the electricity company.
