By NATARIO McKENZIE
Tribune Business Reporter
nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net
PRIME Minister Perry Christie yesterday indicated that the Government would likely reject terms sought by Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) for it to give up majority equity ownership in the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC), adding that talks between the two sides were in the final stages.
Speaking with reporters at a conference hosted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Ministry of Finance, Mr Christie refused to call the Government’s attempt to regain 51 per cent equity ownership of BTC a failure.
“The negotiations have reached a final position,” he said. “I have communicated with the chairman [of CWC] and I have indicated to him a final position in response to his letter to me, which indicated that we were near a settlement if I agreed on a particular proposition.
“I have indicated as much, and I have said that if there is no further response from him then we must then inform the Bahamian public of the position as it is, meaning that Cable and Wireless has not found it possible to concede the 2 per cent in circumstances acceptable to the Government.
“I want to give them an opportunity to reply to my letter. I’m told they are in the process of doing so, and I don’t want to say anything that could cause them to be influenced by that.”
It is unclear what the “proposition” is referred to by Mr Christie, although it could be CWC seeking an extension to the BTC cellular monopoly that is set to expire on April 6 next year.
Based on his comments, it appears that the Prime Minister wants to return to the original BTC privatisation model pursued until the 51 per cent majority sale was agreed with CWC by the former Ingraham administration.
This would see the Government regain 51 per cent majority equity ownership, leaving CWC with 49 per cent but still having management control. Which side will have a Board majority, and control, is unclear.
Mr Christie said yesterday: “They have been concerned about the control of BTC, but we told them that was never an issue; that we would not tamper with the management of BTC.
“Even when we were talking about having 51 per cent of the shares, we were conceding that the management would be to the minority shareholders. The only issues would be what price we would be prepared to pay for the 2 per cent. CWC has put forward some conditions and I have replied with respect to those conditions.”
Mr Christie, however, refused to label the protracted BTC negotiations a failure. “It’s not failed. I would expect that we are at the final stages of the negotiations. There is one letter to be written, and that letter is from them in response to me, and when I receive that I will tell you what the position is,” said the Prime Minister.
The Government’s four-member negotiating team features Arawak Homes chairman Franklyn Wilson; former BTC chief executive Leon Williams; ex-Ministry of Finance legal adviser Rowena Bethel; and ex-attorney general and key confidant of Mr Christie, Sean McWeeney.
They began face-to-face talks with their CWC counterparts back in October of last year, as the Christie administration forged ahead with plans to regain a controlling interest in BTC. The Government currently owns 49 per cent of the company, and CWC 51 per cent.
Comments
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 7 months ago
What utter buffoonery. Did he expect Cable Bahamas to hand over the goods for nothing. The price would be high, very high. This was known from the beginning why this colossal waste of time. Use the time to get that report out on the Cuban detainees...3 more years....
proudloudandfnm 10 years, 7 months ago
My God what a waste of time. I know what CWC's response probably was. You want it? Buy it all at today's price. Period. CWC has probably been saying that since day one.
4renbahamian 10 years, 7 months ago
There they go again trying to bullsht the people and we all know CWC told them where to stick that idea a long ago. No money no honey!
nationbuilder 10 years, 7 months ago
suk teet at this stupidness and at the media that keeps carrying this stupidness in the way that it does!!!
John 10 years, 7 months ago
Cable and Wireless has put the Bahamian people back in slavery. They have vendors and franchise owners working for peanuts while they export plane loads of 'profits' out of the country. PHONE CARD VENDORS are now only making 20 cents when they sell a $5 card. Persons bought into BTCs Franchises thinking it was a pot of gold, but mist of them will go belly up by the middle of next year becsuse BTC wants to HOGG all the profit for themselves. They cut their labour costs in their flagship stores by 50% by cutting their operating hours in half. They claim they did it to benefit the franchisees butt they know the overhead and operating expenses were eating up their profits. So they decide to let the franchise operators take the bullet for them
TalRussell 10 years, 7 months ago
Maybe PM Christie in his letter to Cable & Wireless Communications must have brought up the issue of, who it is that footed the bill for BTC pensions? Amazing for a BTC that the same Hubert regime thought was worthless just over a year ago, that the regime sold for it for a mere $220 million song and a dance price, how it is suddenly worth so much today? if only the reds had been unwilling to write-in a "shotgun" clause, there would not have been no need for the PM of Bahamaland to be asking the foreigners at BTC, to kindly return 2% of the outstanding shares to the people of Bahamaland. ?
concernedcitizen 10 years, 7 months ago
PGC rejected their terms which were "we will sell you back the 2% when hell freezes over or for the ungodly sum of a trillion dollars " geez i,m sure glad PGC rejected the terms ,,lmfao
John 10 years, 7 months ago
Bahamians must come to understand and appreciate the value of our country and stop allowing governments to sell us out, hook line and sinker to anyone who comes to this country with a briefcase and a foreign accent. I am sure Hubert Ingraham thought hecwas doing a very smart and ingenious thing when he made thecagreement with C&W so tamper proof, it would cost the Bshamian people their very souls to take the company back. Remember how the FNM members in parliment were banging on their desks when he announced how secure the agreement was for C&W? He was warned about this company but NO, HIA knew better. Before C&W 25% of their phone card revenue went to Bahamians, shared between wholesalers and retailers. Now that amount has been reduced to 9%. Five or six percent for the vendors and three or four percent for wholesalers. A waitress makes 15% waiting tables, in addition to their checks. C&W claims the reductions were necessary to reduce cell call rates to their customers. But some 3 years and counting and the rates remain the same.
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 7 months ago
There's nothing that I know of that obligates any company to share their profits with the citizens in their country of operation. Nothing. Agreements typically address hiring practices. If CW doesn't want to support the continuation of young girls in tight short outfits stuck in 1x1 corner prison cells or young men blocking up traffic on every street corner, I'm sure the police will be quite happy. They have been unsuccessfully trying to restore order in their operations for some time now
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 7 months ago
And I am not saying that a company under responsible management does not strive to be a good corporate citizen and invest in the local economy in some way. But CW is not obligated to subsidize phone card vendors. The current system of distribution is disorderly at best. A better framework should have been in place before it was implemented, it is now completely out of control and no one has the guts to reign it in for fear of reprisal from the phone card vendors union. Who knows what is being sold on street corners under the guise of phone card sales
concernedcitizen 10 years, 7 months ago
It is so ridiculous when people go on about companies take their profit out of the country .Those companies invest weekly with large payrolls which is the largest expense of any company ..
John 10 years, 7 months ago
Obviously the two comments above are grounded in ignorance. Firstly, while a compant may not be obligated to share their profits with the cistzens of their country, they are obligated, by law, to give a fair days pay for a fair days work. And only because they are a monopoly in the phone card business were they allowed to manipulate the prices they way they did. If you were to report to work tomorrow and your emp-loyer told you that your pay was being reduced from $250.00 per week to $90.00, you would understand what the problem is. It has nothing to do with girls in short and tight outfits. And vendors have to obtain permits to sell phone cards so if you know they are selling things other than what their permit allows then report them. Furthermore it is not only about the vendors on the street corners. Next time you purchase a phone card or get top up ask the person in the store how much profit they make selling the products. Ask them if there are any other products in their store they sell at that margin. Ask them if the margin they are selling at is covering the cost of selling the cards. And by the way C&W is not and never was subsidisiing phone card vendors. IN fact the reverse is true: Cable and Wireless wants the vendors to subsidise the sale of their phone cards. NINETY ONE CENTS of every dollar spent on a phone card goes back to BTC/C&W....don't allow ignorance cause you to muddy the waters of the cause of hard working Bahamians...why do you think C&W and Marlon Johnson would come to the press and address everything else but the phone card pricing?
concernedcitizen 10 years, 6 months ago
The rates are cheaper if you stop buying minutes like a crackhead and put a deposit and get a minute plan,,,iF I had a job making 250 .00 and they cut me to 90 ,i would find another job .CWC didn,t come here to be a social services ,its the public services jobs and unions that are making this country uncompetitive ,PGC knows it too ,why do you think he is going to privatize who produces the power..
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 6 months ago
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ThisIsOurs 10 years, 6 months ago
Sigh..A: phone card vendors are not employees of CW. They are employees of some retailer. B: you misunderstood my comment about "subsidizing". CW is in the game to make a profit like any other company, to that extent they will contract the lowest rate possible for the quality and terms of service that they want. You are suggesting that they have an obligation to pay a certain rate.. my dictionary defines that as a subsidy..
I don't believe I need to ask anyone why they sell phone cards in their stores...because I know the answers: either it makes sense because they are earning a profit OR its a service that attracts customers to their stores OR it's an added value service to existing customers
You did not just pull out the "but I have a permit to operate" card. It's quite clear from the past few months that the system that grants permits has no correlation with the system that checks that operations match what the permit allows..it's also quite clear that there is very little political will to address any messy problem in the country
John 10 years, 7 months ago
To give you another example: Wholesales make $3-4 on every $100 Top up they sell. One wholesaler in the family islands have to drive as far as 60 miles to service their customers. Gas on that island is around $6.00. So if she sells the customer $200.00 top up and makes $8.00 that does not even cover the cost of her driving over 100 miles to sell the cards.. Get the facts and not dwell on ignorance or emotion
TalRussell 10 years, 6 months ago
Careful now, if you don't want be accused of being just another Comrade socialist, you had better not to be advocating for opportunities that actually would permit Bahamalander's to want to hold decent paying jobs. Don't you know that It's one of the cardinal sins of the "Ten Commandments of The "Profits," to even think that you could possibly have a right to interfere with those who share the view, that it's an insult to question the social conscious of both foreign and local corporations. Sorry, Hubert didn't bother writing the two most important words into the BTC sale agreement ... Social conscious." But he sure has hell wrote into the sale agreement a whole lot about government footing the bill for BTC employee pensions. Didn't he?
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 6 months ago
Exactly...no company has an obligation to make certain that their downstream vendor makes a profit. But a company that is a good corporate citizen (as I said before) would take on various initiatives, outside of their normal business operations , to inject money into the local economy or assist with various social programmes
I see BTC sponsoring our Olympic and CAC athletes, Junkanoo, they just had a back to school event, they sponsored Chris Brown's invitational. They are doing more than a lot of companies.
concernedcitizen 10 years, 6 months ago
They pay a large amount of salaries every week and spent a lot of money in equipment and labor hours upgrading the system
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