The Tribune

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By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Government’s negotiating team will hold its first face-to-face negotiations with Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) in “the third week” of October in their bid to regain a majority 51 per cent Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) stake, Tribune Business was told yesterday.

Yet one member of its four-man negotiating team, businessman Franklyn Wilson, yesterday declined to comment on a Standard & Poor’s (S&P) report that suggested the Government was looking at using ‘a third party entity’ to help it regain majority ownership.

Suggesting that this was something that should be discussed behind closed doors in a negotiating room, and not in public, Mr Wilson said of the S&P report: “I’d prefer not to comment on it.

“The fact of the matter is that we believe these talks are of sufficient national importance to the country that it be done in private. These are the types of things that need to be discussed in private.”

Tribune Business revealed yesterday that the Government was exploring whether “a third party” could take a minor stake in BTC and thus return the company to majority Bahamian ownership.

“The Government is considering buying back a majority stake or having a third party take a small stake so that the Government regains control,” the S&P report said.

The Wall Street rating agency would likely have been told about the ‘third party’ idea from the Government itself, given that it will have met in Nassau with numerous Cabinet ministers and officials prior to writing its report.

It is unclear whether the Government’s four-person BTC negotiating team will have put such a suggestion to CWC yet, but the ‘third party’ option - having an entity other than the Government buy a stake in the telecoms carrier - was previously floated in Tribune Business by columnist and financial analyst, Richard Coulson.

Exactly how the ‘third party’ option will work was not detailed by S&P, and it is possible the Government will not yet know itself. The likeliest, and most transparent mechanism, would be for the Government and CWC to both agree to sell a small percentage of their existing shareholdings to the Bahamian public via an initial public offering (IPO). This could be arranged in such a way that, post-IPO, the Government and Bahamian ‘third party’ collectively end up owning 51 per cent, with CWC retaining 49 per cent.

Meanwhile, Mr Wilson said the Government’s four person negotiating team - featuring himself, former BTC chief executive Leon Williams; ex-Ministry of Finance legal adviser Rowena Bethel, and ex-attorney general and key confidant of Prime Minister Perry Christie, Sean McWeeney - would have their first face-to-face talks with their CWC counterparts in Nassau in 
“the third week of October”.

Suggesting that CWC had “some giants” in their team, Mr Wilson added: “It’s an important matter in the national interest, so we wouldn’t be going into this lightly.

“It’s been consuming a large amount of time. We understand the importance of it, and are taking it very, very seriously.”

Saying that it was positive neither side was telling the other to “go to hell”, Mr Wilson added: “We intent, from our side, to be very congnisant that the national interest is involved, and we’ll be very respectful. We look forward to it, and will do the best we can.”