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Lawyers write Net Vasquez over allegations

A week ago, the Barrow administration compulsorily took over Belize Telemedia, the largest utility company in the Jewel. Since then, numerous deceptive statements have been coming out of the new board of directors headed by Nestor Vasquez. Vasquez is in control of the day to day operations of Telemedia along with Anwar Barrow, the son of the Prime Minister. Vasquez has been making duplicitous statements, in particular, to his own station, that there is a debt owing to Telemedia arising from the acquisition of the Coney Drive property, the former N.D.F.B. building. The law firm Courtenay Coye and Company, attorneys for G.B.P.L./Channel Five, today wrote to Vasquez to cease making allegations that imply that quote "something is untoward in a perfectly legitimate transaction." The letter to Vasquez is explicit and the facts are that on October seventh, 2008, a land certificate for the property was issued to G.B.P.L., that Telemedia provided the funds to purchase the property on behalf of its subsidiary by way of Katalyst Developments Limited. Vasquez is also told that on August twenty-third, Telemedia acquired forty-seven thousand, six hundred and eighteen new ordinary shares in Katalyst and that the Board of the company authorized the payment of a dividend to shareholders which was in excess of eight million dollars representing the value of G.B.PL. and the property. Straight as that, and this morning our breakfast show, Open Your Eyes, was broadcast live from our new headquarters on Coney Drive. It is all part of the future development of this station.

http://www.channel5belize.com/archive_detail_story.php?story_id=25164

Former Executive says Telemedia worth $300 Million U.S.

And still on the issue of the hostile take over of the telephone company, in his announcement to the House of Representatives, Prime Minister Barrow said that he intended to re-Belizeanize it. But in follow-up interviews, Barrow contradicted himself and said he would make it available for sale to international carriers. Now that the theatrics in the House are over, just how much will government be able to get for the company? According to Telemedia's former Executive Committee Chairman, Dean Boyce, the value of the company went up to around three hundred million US over the past two years because of investments. This is not easy money to come by, in particular by local investors, and we all know that government is cash strapped. So what will the shareholders and the Hayward Charitable Trust be prepared to accept? We asked Boyce about this last Friday when we sat down with him for a detailed interview.

Dean Boyce, Former Chairman, Executive Committee, B.T.L.
"If the company had just been nationalized, anybody wanting to buy it is going to be saying, well where do I stand? I don't see how you can now get the sort of price that you could then and this isn't a result of anything that Telemedia shareholders have done. It's a result of what the Government has done and the Telemedia shareholders will rightly say, we want you to give us the value of the company as it should be before you have taken action. Because for what we know, the government might have done this deliberately, destabilize the market, so that it will then be sold off at a very low price just to give us a smaller amount of money, which isn't acceptable practice. It's also not sensible. You've got to bear in mind the country would have got three hundred million U.S. dollars. That was going to be given to all of the shareholders. It's already been very clearly stated who those shareholders were and what those investments would be. So you would have had three hundred million. Let's suppose the government now sells it for a hundred million-just for argument's sake-and they say that's the market value cause that's what we've got for it. We will go to court, the Trust will go to court because they're going to say look, it's your fault we've lost two hundred million. Let's suppose the court says you're right, you owe two hundred million. The government's going to have to pay us two hundred million out of their pockets; the one hundred million-whoever's bought it is going to be rubbing their hands saying thank you very much, I've got a nice cheap business here. So I can't understand the logic of how we got to where we are."

http://www.channel5belize.com/archive_detail_story.php?story_id=25165

Telemedia Profits dipped because of exorbitant taxes

It is still not clear if telephone rates will go down or if GOB will allow the introduction of VOIP, what is said is that profits dipped in 2008 at Telemedia. Boyce told News Five this resulted from the exorbitant taxes Telemedia had to pay, the highest in the region, and that there was a general decrease in international calls.

Dean Boyce, Former Chairman, Executive Committee, B.T.L.
"There were a lot fewer calls, international calls for example, although that could have been the impact of other things but the economy is certainly a big factor. The big reason where there would be a reduction in profits is because the business tax payments have increased by fifty percent, in 2009 versus the previous year. We had an agreement with government, so we thought, that was set up back in 2005 and it said we will bring your tax down to sensible levels. The levels we are currently paying are typically five times higher than a normal telephone operations would anywhere else in the world, including the region because of the way they were calculated. The expectation was that if the country was to get reduced tariffs in line with other countries, then you need to make the conditions here in Belize similar to what they are in other countries-taxation is a big one. So the government agreed that by 2008, it was a three year period, they would bring the tax down to similar levels comparable to other countries. And, first of April 2008 came along and we started to pay what we thought was supposed to be the correct tax. And we were paying twenty five percent for revenue by the time we got to this year and we paid all the penalties, all the interests, all the other payments up to twenty five percent of revenue and now we've been up to date for a few months."

http://www.channel5belize.com/archive_detail_story.php?story_id=25166

Boyce says company was willing to negotiate with G.O.B.

And what about the Accommodation Agreement reached between Telemedia and the government in 2005? Boyce said the company was always willing to negotiate with government on this sensitive issue, but he felt government never really intended to work out things.

Dean Boyce, Former Chairman, Executive Committee, B.T.L.
"We have in the past, on more than one occasion, said to the government that we'll give up the Accommodation Agreement, we'll give up the return, Minimum Rates Return, give up the shortfall. What we wanted to do was sit down, go through the detail of the industry so that they properly understood the various detailed dynamics to work a way forward so that the government can achieve what it wants to achieve, which is free internet for schools, allowing prices and full universal service across the whole country, not just Belize City, but all the other areas. And B.T.L. could make the investment secure in the knowledge that somewhere down the line we weren't going to have major problems with the government and all our investments will be undermined. So, we were quite prepared all the way through to sit down and discuss that and start again. The document that came through just before the nationalization was because we had heard about the nationalization. They had clearly decided that they would not, in any shape or form, honor it going forward. So, we really had no alternative, but to say okay, we will consider that as now been terminated. But just bear in mind that the agreement was in two parts-it provided some assurance to B.T.L., but it also was the base for all the development work that the government wanted-the row of services, the price reductions and so on. So, we gave up the one side, but similarly we've also got the other side, which the government would then no longer be able to achieve and all the investments that we had made to date based upon the contract that we had in place, we would still be saying to them, look you've got to try and work something out on this because we've spent tens of millions of dollars that we wouldn't otherwise have spent. So, we've been prepared all the way along to sort of start again. Our problem was I don't believe there was ever a real will to discuss anything with us. I think there were other motives."

http://www.channel5belize.com/archive_detail_story.php?story_id=25167

The Truth About Centaur & Channel 7

Why has Channel 7 been taken off Centaur's Cable service in Orange Walk? You may have heard versions of it on Michael Ashcroft's Channel 5 and John Briceno's CTV-3 on Friday night. But tonight, we'll tell you the real story and the back story. But first to brush away the rumours. Some have tried to play it as a high handed manoeuvre by new BTL Chairman Nestor Vasquez who is also the Channel 7 owner. Indeed BTL - at Channel 7's request informed CBC cable that they could no longer include Channel 7 on their service which is routed through to Centaur Cable in Orange Walk and Corozal.

Channel 7 was within all rights to do this; the signal is ours, after all. But that's not why we did it. We did it to defend a commercial interest: Tropical Vision owns a cable company in Orange Walk called Northern Cable that competes against the Briceno's Centaur Cable. Presently that company Northern Cable is the only one offering Channel 7 in Orange Walk as was the case between 2000 and 2008.

Of course, Centaur can still get Channel 7 - in fact they are legally obligated to do so as it is re-transmitted over-the-air on Channel 10 in Orange Walk - but that station is owned by Gaspar Vega, so we don't expect John Briceno's family's cable station to carry it anytime soon.

And while Channel 5 and CTV-3 were eager to blow up the story on Friday, odd that we didn't hear them say anything about what's been done to the Lanza Family who own Baymen North Limited in Corozal Town. Baymen North competes against the Briceno's in that northern Town and over the past two and a half years they have been repeatedly told that they cannot carry Channel 5 in Corozal because Centaur has the exclusive rights to do so.

Unlike Channel 7 which owns a cable company in Orange Walk and competes directly against the Briceno's - Channel 5 has no commercial interest to defend in Corozal so really there's no reason why only Centaur should be able to carry it. But in the context of all the co-mingling of ownership we've seen between the Briceno's and Ashcroft, the common cause between Centaur and Channel 5 is perhaps understandable.

Bottom line is though, when it's convenient for the Briceno's Centaur Company to insist on exclusive rights to a Channel - as they do in Corozal - that's business - and now that Tropical Vision/Channel 7 has done the same thing in Orange Walk - to defend its own interests - it becomes a news story ON Michael Ashcroft's Channel 5? Odd.

For this company the situation is simple. We want all cable subscribers in Orange Walk to see the signal. So they can either switch to Northern Cable, or those who subscribe to Centaur can demand that their cable provider carry Channel 10 which shows Channel 7 News.

http://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=14918