Last night you heard the government's hard spin on the final price of the BTL Nationalization. Government's bottom line puts it at over 450 million dollars, the total for the shares and interest. But the government argues that the whole package is worth 775 million dollars - when one factors in the savings to consumers and taxpayers. But, not surprisingly, the PUP isn't buying it. And, for the opposition, it's not just a knee jerk rejection - the party held a press conference today to pitch a deeply felt position:
Hon. Julius Espat, PUP Deputy Leader
"Well if we look at what they have paid out, its approximately 557.5 million dollars which is about a little more than half a billion dollars and what the true value of the company is and you get that by the shares that they are putting the value to the company and the amount of shares that you have. So that's gives you the company approximately a million dollars. That leaves you with a loss of 450 million dollars approximately."
Hon. John Briceno, PUP Party Leader
"It is because of the Prime Minister hubris, arrogance and spitefulness that now we are saddled with 550 million dollars. Because Mr. Ashcroft didn't go to Dean Barrow and tell him to take over BTL and then pay me 550 million dollars. It is Dean Barrow decided on his own that he is the biggest and baddest man on the block and took over the company and then after so many years of them benefitting, certain people close to the Prime Minister have collected millions of dollars. You know that. They are the ones that benefitted. As I said who benefitted? Mr. Ashcroft benefitted, Barrow and his cronies and families benefit and we the Belizean people get stuck with the bill."
Hon. Julius Espat, PUP Deputy Leader
"Government paid $12.38 dollars approximately per share after you analyze this settlement and the value of the share is only 2.2675. That basically using their numbers. From what I have been listening, they are trying to sell Social Security Board those same shares for over five dollars."
Hon. John Briceno, PUP Party Leader
"There is no good reason other than being bullheaded why this issue should have been dragged out in the courts for over 6 years. There is no good reason why the Belizean people will now have to pay half a billion dollars for a company that is valued only 100 million dollars. As Jules aptly pointed out, Dean Barrow agreed to pay Ashcroft more than he was actually asking for. Sober minds would ask why the Prime Minister and his incompetent UDP give away so much of the people's money to buy puss inna bag?"
"BTL has been giving about 10 million in dividends annually. If you were to take that 10 million dollars annually to pay off this 550 million dollars that the government is paying out, or all of us, because we are going to pay for that. It's not the Prime Minister, we the tax payers. It would take us more than 55 years to be able to get back that 550 million dollars that we are investing in BTL."
"When you look at the red, because it's the UDP that has been managing it, or the Prime Minister's son that have been mismanaging this company, profits have been diving down. That as of 2015, the company made somewhere a little over a 17 million dollars. When they were claiming to do 42 million, they are actually only making 17 million dollars. And now the Prime Minister wants us to believe that this is such a great company that have been managed so well and it is going to be such a great investment that the dividends alone would be able to pay for this invest for this acquisition that he has done - that he has mismanaged. It shows his incompetence, his hubris and his arrogance and now all of that is not costing Dean Barrow you know, it is costing all of us."
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