On Friday October 15th, after much anticipation from potential investors and the general public, government announced the sale of shares in Belize Telemedia Limited. The sale of shares in the company will be to the tune of 44.54% of the share capital. According to the prospectus, that is some 22,069,687 shares at a price of 5 dollars each. Those shares were officially made available on the 15th of October and the offer will last up until the 31st of December.
While the shares are being offered for sale it is noteworthy that only Belizean investors are being accepted to purchase shares. Those investors could either be Belizean individuals or Belizean Companies both at home and abroad. The prospectus states that the government “reserves the right to accept or reject application to purchase shares in whole or in part.” So seriously has the government taken that the sale of shares be done specifically to Belizeans, that during the launch the Prime Minister, Hon. Dean Barrow assured the public that due diligence will be done for every company that is interested in purchasing shares to protect it from companies masking themselves to purchase shares for individuals who do not fit the criteria.
There are other ways also in which the government will ensure that Belizeans receive as much benefit from the share offering. Among measures that will be taken to ensure optimum returns on investment, government will be reducing the Business Tax currently placed on BTL from 24% to 19%. Added to that, the normal 15% tax that dividends attract will be removed so that investors “benefit in a meaningful way.”
While the sale of shares is being made as attractive as possible to ensure that Belizeans both at home and abroad purchase shares, there is the issue of pending litigation with the former owner of Telemedia. During his address the Prime Minister quickly put that to rest explaining that anyone who invests in shares will be insulated from litigation. He explained that whatever litigation that is pending will be with by the Government of Belize. The company and its shareholders will bear no responsibility in any litigation proceedings.
That aside, government is also looking at the sale of shares to quasi-government organizations. The point was made that among those quasi-government entities that may purchase shares in BTL will be the Social Security Board. While a decision has yet to be made on that, it is now common knowledge that the single most productive investment that SSB has made was one where it purchased shares in BTL. Also announced at the launch was that there are other potential buyers including interests from Mexico, Taiwan and Digicel in Jamaica. Another key entity that may be one of the shareholders in BTL are the employees themselves for whom government has reserved ten percent of the shares. The shares will be sold to them at a discounted rate and added to that they will be in a position to place one director on the company’s board.
Coming to the composition of the board, under the company’s newly constituted Articles of Association the government will hold a ‘Special Share’ which will entitle it to name two directors to the board of BTL. The share is iron clad and will in no manner be able to be transferred to anyone else.
All those measures being put in place will ensure that BTL remains in the hands of the Belizean public and that profits derived from the company will remain within the country and for the benefit of Belizeans.
