As we told you in our top segment, it's been a day of confusion for BTL shareholders; first their dividend checques were paid, and then suddenly they weren't, the decision of the Caribbean Court of Justice.
They couldn't get the checques at the Annual General Meeting in September, and now there is an air of uncertainty surrounding the issue because the court order will not be lifted until the CCJ fully hears the this application to extend the conservative order.
And when that hearing is completed, there is a chance that the CCJ could rule in the favor of Boyce and BCB, which would mean that no dividends will be paid until the CCJ makes the decision.
So tonight, and for the next few weeks, the company remains in limbo unable to do anything with that money.
This evening at the soft launch of the BTL 4g service, 7News caught up with the Executive Chairman of BTL.
We asked him about the decision to issue them today. He told us that he and other board members were blind-sided by this decision when they were informed that they must retract the checks that the issued:
Nestor Vasquez, Executive Chairman
"Yesterday I heard the good news that the Court of Appeal had refused the Ashcroft Alliance the application they for an injunction regarding the dividends. Now we at board level had known all along that the CCJ in latter part of September they ruled that the payment of dividends should be deferred until not before the 14 of December. So incompliance with that when the AGM was held before hundreds of shareholders were present - when that item came up on the agenda I made it very clear that the dividends would not be declared at this AGM because we want to comply with the ruling of the CCJ and I read it out; we said it must not be declared or paid before the 14 of December. So now when we heard the news yesterday that they who wanted to have a further deferral of the payment of dividends were refused then all I had to do was to comply with the decision of the board rule was taken on Monday this week that we would have waited the decision of the Court of Appeal and if it turns out in our favor then we would go along and comply with the decision of the Caribbean Court of Justice to pay it on the 14th and that's what we did, so this morning I went to the Central Bank to pay them their dividends. They have waited for months for it and when I act with compliance with ruling of the CCJ I have to believe that I am doing the right thing. What happen later on in the morning today - I find it amazing. And for that reason I believe that the dividends which we must pay in accordance with the articles of association with the company. The government does not tell us when to pay and how much to pay and what to pay - no man. They have no authority on that. We have a board of management and we unanimously agreed on Monday that we would act in accordance with the ruling of the CCJ depending on how the Court of Appeal would rule - they ruled in our favor and we act in accordance with the ruling of the CCJ that they made from September and now they tell me now later today that the government must refund the cheque that I paid."
"We acted correctly in accordance with the article in compliance with the ruling of the CCJ and its amazing to me how that could come about."
Daniel Ortiz
"At this time have all the cheques for the dividends been retracted?"
Nestor Vasquez, Executive Chairman
"Yes, the cheques we issued this morning were retracted. You have to remember that we can't make out all the cheque because we have just a little under 1,500 shareholders, so I was going to start make out the rest. I have instructed the staff to work Saturday and Sunday to pay the rest of shareholders 1,400 of them beginning Monday. But the big shareholders you can pay them easy; the Government, Social Security Board, Central Bank - we can do that easily. I issued that today, there is no problem making out three cheques, but 1,500 would take us some time, but I prepared for that only to find out that the CCJ says it should not be paid."
According to Chairman Vasquez, there are currently more than 1300 small shareholders who have absolutely nothing to do with this litigation, but are being affected by it.
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