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Will Banco Atlantida Own BSI?
posted (July 22, 2011)
This afternoon in Belmopan - after the house meeting - high level meetings were held in the Cabinet room between Banco Atlantida, a potential investor in BSI, and principals of that company.

As we've reported, BSI is in dire straits; simply put, it can't pay its loans - and its got tens of millions of dollars of them.

Enter Banco Atlantida from Honduras which want to buy controlling interests in the troubled company - in what's called a debt for equity swap: basically it will pay off the most pressing debts and get an equal amount of control of the company in exchange.

That's the proposal - but it's complicated, because 81% of BSI is owned by a workers trust and they would have to agree to sell to Banco Atlantida.

And now there's another wrinkle. Today in the House of Representatives Opposition Leader John Briceno proposed another possibility: he says the Cane Farmers now want a stake in the company - and they'd like government to front the money. That didn't sit too well with the PM who's trying to land Banco Atlantida as safely as possible. Here's how their exchange went:,.,.

Hon. John Briceno, Leader of the Opposition
"The Prime Minister says that there is no option. That's what he said on Channel 7 and I quote, 'I think all of us must recognize the reality of the situation is, and to deal with Banco Atlantida.' The Prime Minister is being disingenuous, Mr. Speaker, because there is another option. There is a better option. Our own cane farmers have told the Prime Minister that they want to buy shares in BSI. The Prime Minister claims that his government cannot find the money to put into this industry, to give our own people so that our industry can remain Belizean. But Mr. Speaker, he pulled 70 million dollars out of the Social Security and Central Bank hat for BTL. So why can't the Prime Minister find 70 million dollars for the cane industry which is truly Belizean and has a direct impact on the lives of tens of thousands of Belizeans in the North? I repeat again we in the PUP will not allow the Prime Minister and BSI management to sell out BSI workers and screw the Belizean cane farmers. If we have to take to the streets we will."

PM Dean Barrow
"There is no question of anybody selling out the sugar industry in this country and if anybody wanted to sell out the sugar industry, it couldn't be me and the government - we don't own the sugar industry! What you are talking about saving the sugar industry, and you are talking about what? 70 million dollars? And surely this government can find 70 million dollars? Again, you parade your ignorance - there is nothing wrong with not knowing, but when you seek to make a virtue of ignorance something has to be totally unbalanced, you must be unhinged. BSI owes ING and SCIB 30 million, Belcogen, owned by BSI, owed another 30 million and we are talking about US dollars. So in terms of the indebtedness of BSI you are talking about 60 million US dollars, apart from the 10 million Belize that they owed us! But you are interlocutors, as the interviewers always ask you, what is your suggestion? What is your solution? You have none. You are incapable of any serious or deep thought and I am not going to be afraid to say that as of now that Banco Atlantida offer in principle is something that we must look at seriously. Right now Banco Atlantida is the only game in town. Why is the Leader of the Opposition going to suggest that the workers should hang on to the factory at all cost? When inherent in what he said is this truth and if you didn't make it clear, let me articulate it. They have not received a penny in dividends for their shareholding in 12 -13 years - not a penny in shareholdings. So you are saying that Banco Atlantida which is not looking to buy all the workers' shares: they want a majority ownership - they want 51%. This was in the political interest of the People's United Party. This you feel is a way of trying to revive your flagging fortunes or your non-existent fortunes in the north of the country where you are from. You want the industry to collapse because you think that as the industry dies so is your political career resuscitated."

Hon. John Briceno, Leader of the Opposition
"For the Prime Minister to come to the National Assembly and to accuse me that I want the sugar industry to fail is simply wrong and he says certain things in there because he has parliamentary privilege and does not dare to say it out here. As usual the Prime Minister doesn't attack the message, he attacks the messenger and he can continue attacking the messenger, it makes no difference for me because I am confident that the people of Orange Walk Central are once again going to give me that support whenever he decides to call elections. He can call it now if he wants and I could bet you that I am going to be re-elected by the people of Orange Walk Central. So he can continue the personal attacks."

Jules Vasquez
"Will you work to energize and mobilize cane farmers against a Banco Atlantida buy over?"

Hon. John Briceno, Leader of the Opposition
"I want to work and energize Banco Atlantida to come in and do the right thing - to make the monies available for the cane farmers so that they could expand their sugar crop or their cane fields. I want to ensure that Banco Atlantida can bring in more monies if that's what they want to do so that they could continue to invest along with cane farmers and the BSI employees."

There was no word from the Prime Minister's office this evening on how the meeting went. We hope to have that on Monday. And in the middle of all this there is another prickly matter. In his rebuttal, the Prime Minister mentioned that he had seen an email with the Leader of the Opposition's speaking points for this subject. The PM said that made it clear that the PUP hope to derail the negotiations and exploit its demise for political reasons.

The leader of the opposition then accused the Prime Minister of hacking into his email - which he says poses privacy risks for all Belizeans. This evening via text message the Prime Minister told us that there was no hacking involved; he says the email was leaked to him from within the PUP…

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