The long saga of BTL nationalization started in August of 2009, and after 8 years of costly battles in court, it's almost over. That's because the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Netherlands has just about finished its review of the takeover. As we told you last night, the arbitrators found that the value of BTL's shares was around five dollars and fifty cents, which is about halfway between the 10 Belize dollars per share the Ashcroft Alliance was claiming and the one dollar and fifty cents Belize per share government was claiming. That amounts to more than 200 million Belize dollars – which is in addition to sums already paid.
Today, the Prime minister told us that the arbitration panel has not made a final decision, but has offered an outline of their findings:…
Rt. Hon Dean Barrow - Prime Minister of Belize
"While it's not final it's a clear indication of what is likely to be the end result that is true they've come down in a little under the midpoint valuation which is good for us and 60% of what they are indicating the award is likely to be is going to be attributable to the accommodation agreement. So since as you know I had agreed with Lord Ashcroft any portion of the award that is attributable to their accommodation agreement will be in Belize Dollars and must be spent in this country on projects to benefit the people of Belize; that also is good news. All that will go out is 40% of the award our US dollars liability is therefore limited to that."
Jules Vasquez
"Where will the government find the money?"
Rt. Hon Dean Barrow - Prime Minister of Belize
"You know that we already in fact raised the legal limit on treasury bills so we're going to do domestic borrowing."
"Look, we knew we would have to pay, we took the company and we knew we would have to pay given where the Ashcroft Alliance was in terms of their valuation. If this holds I have to consider it a victory for the government and people of Belize."
Jules Vasquez
"However when you add up the 225, the 97 for the loan as well it is a victory if you call it that at a very high price sir."
Rt. Hon Dean Barrow - Prime Minister of Belize
"Well that's a matter of opinion. It's not cheap but the company is doing very well and we think that in the long term there's hardly a price that you can put on sovereignty and the return of patrimony."
Jules Vasquez
"Do you concede at least that it was a tactical error to not have challenged that accommodation agreement at the LCIA or whichever European arbitration that faced; which at the time the government put up no challenge."
Rt. Hon Dean Barrow - Prime Minister of Belize
"It made no difference because we challenged it in this arbitration proceeding and they ruled on it. They in fact found that while the then administration might not have had any legal and constitutional authority to be in fact contracting for these huge tax giveaways without first going to the national assembly; they found that the administration had "apparent authority." That since the attorney general offered them an opinion insisting that in fact the administration was entitled to do this, the petitioners, the former owners could not be prejudiced by having relied on what the then administration said was entirely legal, signed off on by the attorney general."
"They ruled even in the face of the CCJ decision – which, though not entirely on all fours was very similar, same argument. Look unless you go to the house, and they said we've heard the CCJ but in our view because that administration represented warranted that it had the authority, how is anybody treating with them to no different? There you go."
This evening, government issued a release saying that the current ruling is only a draft, and that GOB had been awaiting the final ruling before publicizing the details.
It confirms that the draft findings have put the value at $5.60 Belize per share. Government argues that of this 5.60, quote, "only 40% or $2.24 is directly attributable to the share value which is only $0.80 cents more than what GOB offered. "
The release adds that government has already paid $65M towards compensation. But, there's still another twist: government and the Social Security Board had loaned the Ashcroft Allied Sunshine Holdings $20M for the purchase of shares back in 2005 and those loans were never repaid. The release says that because of this the compensation payment will be reduced by another $20 Million.
The release concludes, quote, "GOB views this draft decision as a net win for the Government but repeats that this is not the final decision of the Court." End quote.
Email
Print