Bahamas takes control of BTC from Cable and Wireless

The Bahamas has regained control of the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) with the country’s Prime Minister Perry Christie indicating that the agreement with the British telecommunications company, Cable and Wireless (CWC) “is undeniably more beneficial to the Bahamian interest, in all aspects, than the construct agreed by the former administration in 2011″.

Cable and Wireless, under the former agreement, had acquired 51 percent of the Bahamas Telecommunications Company shares for a cash consideration of US$204 million.

But as he addressed the ceremony over the weekend to mark the transfer of the 2 percent shares, Christie said that the new accord is in keeping with a promise his administration made during the campaign for the last general elections to regain majority stake in the Bahamas Telecommunications Company through lawful means.

“The negotiations ran for the better part of a year, primarily, I am made to understand, due to Cable and Wireless’ focus on global restructuring efforts in such wonderful places as Bahrain, Macau and Monaco, amongst others. As we would have heard from media accounts Cable and Wireless’ restructuring was with a view to concentrating on the company’s future growth in Latin America and the Caribbean.”

Christie said that the outcomes of the negotiations were memorialized in a Memorandum of Understanding and that in January the two sides had reached an agreement for the re-transfer of the 2 percent of the shares in Bahamas Telecommunications Company that were held by Cable and Wireless, to a Foundation to be established by the government. -(CMC)