Bahamas defends decision to re-nationalise telecom company

Prime Minister Perry Christie is defending the decision of his administration to regain majority control of the Bahamas Telephone Company (BTC) that had been sold by the former Hubert Ingraham government to the British telecommunication giant, Cable and Wireless in 2010.

The US-based international credit rating agency, Moodys Investors, said that regaining majority shares will not only drive up government debt but raises questions about just how the new administration will go about acquiring the majority ownership. Moody's said it would cost the government US$250 million to regain majority shares.

But Christie told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) during a meeting in Miami late last month that the challenge is to be able to convince Cable and Wireless that it would be in their interest to sell the shares.

According to the Prime Minister, we acquiring BEC will be able to give the people of our country a very clear indication that we are making the right decisions with respect to our national institutions, whether it's BEC, whether it's BTC, whether it's water corporation or whether it's Bahamas Air.

The Ingraham government had sold majority shares in BTC after indicating that between 1966 the year of BTCs creation and 1992, it recorded profits of US$125.7 million with the government receiving US$10.56 million in dividend payments.

He said that BTCs earnings for 1993 to 2010 totalled US$430.4 million and that during the same period US$151.4 million was paid to the government in dividends as compared with US$10.56 million paid between 1966 and 1992.

Ingraham said that the process leading to privatisation had not been hurried or taken casually and that great damage would have been done to the countrys image and reputation if, after two attempts, it failed to privatise BTC.

Prime Minister Christie said he is hoping that the British telecommunication company agrees to revert to being a minority shareholder with 49 per cent with the management.

He said the government's bid to renationalise BTC is about driving the economy forward, stimulating the job market and creating economic opportunities.

" I expect to continue to do so in the immediate future because the intention is to bring relief to our economy and Moodys should be ecstatic about that and I presume whenever I have the opportunity to sit with them I will be able to so communicate, he added.

CMC