The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian-led group that previously made no secret of its intentions to bid on this nation’s second cellular licence appears to have become part of the Virgin Mobile (Bahamas) group, Tribune Business can reveal.

Junkanoo Mobile, which last November launched a public relations and advertising campaign to promote its credentials, appears to have joined a bid that, well-placed sources say, includes a key player in the ill-fated Bluewater Holdings group, which sought to acquire the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) under the first Christie administration.

Tribune Business can reveal that Junkanoo Mobile’s spokesperson, Franklyn Winder, was the Virgin Mobile (Bahamas) representative who attended the opening of the first round bids at the Cellular Liberalisation Task Force’s offices on Wednesday afternoon.

All three bidders, who also include Cable Bahamas and Digicel, were allowed to each have only one representative present at Wednesday’s bid opening.

This strongly suggests that Junkanoo Mobile, about which almost nothing was known apart from Mr Winder’s name, has become part of the Virgin Mobile (Bahamas) bid.

This newspaper yesterday passed a message to Mr Winder through his public relations adviser, seeking comment. While informed that the former BTC executive had received the message, and was consulting his partners on whether to respond, nothing was heard before press time last night.

Prime Minister Perry Christie strongly hinted yesterday that the Virgin Mobile (Bahamas) bid was effectively a consortium of investors, saying: “We are told there are alliances between [Virgin] and a Bahamian group.”

Multiple sources, meanwhile, suggested that a major player in the Virgin Mobile (Bahamas) bid was John Gregg, the former NTL executive who was a key investor in the Bluewater Holdings bid to buy BTC.

Its offer effectively ‘died a death’ with the 2007 general election that saw the Free National Movement (FNM) restored to office, and the Ingraham administration was fiercely critical of the deal that its predecessor had been negotiating with Bluewater.

The group, which was represented by now-deputy prime minister Philip Davis when he was in private practice, eventually won compensation from the Government for the deal’s break-up via arbitration.

Several Tribune Business sources yesterday suggested that while Cable Bahamas and Digicel were well-known entities, it was unclear who the investors behind Virgin Mobile (Bahamas) were.

They explained that it was not necessarily ‘the Virgin Mobile’ and Sir Richard Branson behind the bid, as the company tended to operate as a ‘franchisor’, licensing its brand for use by independent owners in different countries.

While Virgin Mobile sometimes took equity stakes, and provided management and equipment support, it did not necessarily majority own all worldwide operations that use its name.

A former Chamber of Commerce president, meanwhile, yesterday said it would “be very hard” for the Government not to award the second cellular licence to a Bahamian bidder, which naturally led it towards Cable Bahamas.

“I’m glad to see they’re finally moving ahead with that,” Dionisio D’Aguilar told Tribune Business. ‘It took them 100 years to get to this point.

“I think it will be very hard for them to not give it to a Bahamian bidder. I think it will be very difficult to not give it to a Bahamian company, and that leads to Cable Bahamas.”

He added: “If the bidder is 100 per cent owned by Bahamians, there is no need for the Government to insist on owning 51 per cent at the start.

“The Government should not be owning anything. They should sell the licence, and use the proceeds to pay down debt. Why should the Government put up the money, when people have put up the money. Government need to get out of their minds this need to control everything.”

Expressing scepticism that the Government would achieve its May licence decision target, given that it had yet to reach a decision on the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) after several missed targets, Mr D’Aguilar predicted it would take two years to determine the cellular licence winner.