The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Plans to ‘buy’ the Government out of its current 51 per cent majority ownership in the Bahamas second mobile operator are “still proceeding as planned”, with potential investors set to be approached next month.

Gowon Bowe, the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) accountant and partner, yesterday said the private placement of shares in HoldingCo was set to kickstart in September.

“That is still proceeding, and that is on the basis of a private placement and having the investor groups canvassed,” Mr Bowe explained. “That’s not a one-week or two-week exercise.

“August is really vacation month for a lot of the institutional investors as well as [Cellular Liberalisation] Task Force members and others.

“From that perspective, we would be proceeding with the placement document and getting that ready so that there would be the solicitation and engagement over the September time-frame.”

Mr Bowe and PwC are acting as financial advisers to the process. He added: “There is also the issue of timing and making sure that the money that the institutional investors have coming free is aligned with when we are soliciting the funds.

“It’s still proceeding. There’s a lot of work going on with NewCo getting  itself established. The main message is that NewCo is proceeding as it relates to getting its equipment up and running, and getting itself ready for its launch in line with its commitment. If they continue to follow along that path it just strengthens the attractiveness of the investment opportunity for the strategic investors.”        

HoldingCo, which will eventually be renamed, is the vehicle that will own the majority 51.75 per cent equity interest in NewCo 2015, the Bahamas’ newly-licensed second mobile operator.

It will be partners with fellow NewCo 2015 shareholder, Cable Bahamas, which despite owning a minority 48.25 per cent, has Board and management control after defeating all rivals to win the second licence.

“There is sort of a parallel exercise going on from a HoldingCo perspective,” Mr Bowe said. “One is making sure that NewCo honours it scommitments as it relates to HoldingCo’s obligations, and secondly  to get  the investor groups for HoldingCo.

“Those two are still in train. There is nothing that has thrown them off, but those are - if you will - simply investor relation matters that have to take place.”    

Cable Bahamas beat out Virgin Mobile (Bahamas) with a $62.5 million bid to acquire the wireless spectrum that NewCo will use to deliver its services to Bahamian commercial and residential consumers.

The long-term plan is that HoldingCo will act as a vehicle through which Bahamian institutional, and potentially retail, investor capital can be pooled to invest in public-private partnerships (PPPs) and other key infrastructure projects and assets.