LIME’S CEO Drexwell Seymour says he is excited about the telecommunications deal between BTC in the Bahamas and Cable & Wireless and looks forward to the Bahamas being a part of the Caribbean through this deal.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham told the House of Assembly that there is no stopping the BTC deal.
A few hours after the government concluded its agreement to sell 51 per cent of its shares in the Bahamas Telecommunications Company to Cable and Wireless, Mr Ingraham told Parliament the company’s employees should try to adjust to this new reality as soon as possible.
He said: “The sale is proceeding. We want to ensure employees benefit from the sale. We want employees to use every opportunity they have to engage with new bosses who are going to be there. It is not possible to stop it.”
The transaction, worth $210 million, plus $7 million in stamp tax, is still subject to parliamentary and regulatory approvals which are expected to be concluded by April 4.
Mr Ingraham said: “We should not delay progress in this area any further. The duly elected government of the Bahamas is satisfied this is the best transaction for the Bahamas. The democratically-elected government of the Bahamas is fully satisfied this is the best transaction for the Bahamas. We will not be derailed by any minority group in the society.”
Signing the deal on behalf of the government yesterday was the Treasurer, Eugene Cartwright.
Thanking the Advisory and Privatisation Committees for their hard work on bringing this deal to fruition, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said his party is not one of monopolists, and was happy to finally bring to an end this privatisation exercise of BTC which began in 1992.
“We are satisfied that we have found the right partner for the Bahamas; that telecommunications and communications generally will be improved, that cost will be lowered, and that we will be on the cutting edge of technology,” Mr Ingraham said.
The Prime Minister noted that they would lay copies of the Memorandum of Understanding with Cable and Wireless on the table of the House of Assembly yesterday and post copies on the worldwide web. The government, he added, will also wait for URCA, the communications regulatory body, to undertake its processes on the MOU which he said should take no longer than 30 days. This action, Mr Ingraham said, will commence before debate on BTC’s sale will take place in the House of Assembly.
“After that, the government will move in Parliament, the Privatisation Bill, the Amendment to the Communications Act and the minor amendments to the Utilities Regulation Act. We expect that the transaction will be finalised on April 4th of this year.
“While we have in the documents some earlier dates as possible dates, we have determined that we are going to give maximum opportunity for people to say whatever is laid on their hearts to say, whatever suggestions they have.
“From the government’s point of view we are absolutely satisfied we are doing what is best for the Bahamas and for the Bahamian people,” Mr Ingraham said.
Cable and Wireless CEO David Shaw thanked the Prime Minister for his trust in the signing of this contract, and noted that Cable and Wireless will work hard to understand the culture and needs of the people of the Bahamas from a telecommunications aspect.
“So alongside running BTC in a way that puts the business at the heart of the community, we also need to put the customer at the heart of BTC, and that will mean change. We have to complete the network upgrade so that you can deliver new services, particularly in this world of data that we are now in. We have to introduce new innovation and new products, whether that is TV, music, or mobile commerce, or faster broadband, we have to deliver what our consumers and businesses want.
“We have to lower prices, whether that is domestic or roaming, and we have to improve service so that customers can access BTC in many more ways than they can today and provide them better services to the business community as well as social telecoms with the government will be an important part of the mix. The world of telecoms is changing and we need to ensure that BTC is at the forefront of that change.
“Now I know that some people may be nervous about a new owner at BTC, and at Cable and Wireless we know that it is our job that in the long run we both want the same thing – a healthy competitive enterprise focused on providing the best service to the Bahamian people and fulfilling careers for our Bahamian colleagues,” he said.
Mr Shaw said it was a privilege and an honour to sign off on the deal and he thanked the Prime Minister for giving them this opportunity, vowing they will not let him down.
