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Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow- Prime Minister
"We paid to City - City Global Markets, top drawer firm with respect to sovereign debt restructuring. We paid a one percent fee, one percent of the bond face value, we paid that as their success fee and that amounted to $5,265,021 US, paid to City Global Market...I'm sorry?...US, $5,265,021 US. We had to pay, as I said, the bond holders committee fees and expenses to engage them in the exercise under the indenture we were obliged to be saddled with their costs. And we had to pay them $2,785 US. We had to pay a bond holder consent fee in the amount of 25 bases points or a quarter of one percent of the face value of the super bond. And so that amounted to $1,316,255 US. We had to pay our local consultant Hallmark advisory, serving as the advisory on the overall debt team coordinator, 17 bases points or $884,000 US dollars. There were other costs payable, and these were payable not withstanding the outcome of the process: legal fees for Belize's counsel Cleary Glottlieb Steen and Hamilton LLP, in the amount of $547,347 US; costs for the superbond trustee, the Bank of New York Mellon, $42,640 US; tabulation and information agency fee $41,656 US; legal fees for the trustee totaling $25,000 US. So the total costs of the operation $10.9 million us dollars, a little over 2% of the face value of the bonds or 208 bases points. When the PUP, the now opposition, reprofiled in early 2005 US $57 million, we are talking about 1.1 billion dollars. They reprofiled US $57 million dollars related to the BTL share purchase, the cost to them was 5% of the face value of that $57 million or $3 million US dollars. The PUP paid 57% more than the entire cost of our superbond operation they paid $17 million US in their 2004-2005 sale/re- acquisition /resale of the btl shares, $17million dollars in costs and fees that resulted in their giving back btl to the Ashcraft Alliance. And then madam speaker, they paid 10 million US dollars to RBTT to reprofile only $76 million dollars in mortgaged backed loans in 2005. That's 13% of face value, paid at a point where it was clear that ultimately an overall debt restructuring was imminent. And final point of comparison, $6million us paid for absolutely no benefit to Belize in the now infamous US/Yen swap signed by the PUP's Ralph Fonseca in 2002. So madam speaker, there is an absolutely no comparison both in terms of the extent of fees we have paid and in terms of the returns we have been able to procure for what the outlay was."