Financiers and analysts in the investment community are expressing concern that the Government of The Bahamas will be forced to accept a low price for 49 percent of the shares in the Bahamas Telecommunications Company.
The value of BTC has declined markedly since the previous government announced years ago its intention to sell the company.
Four companies have submitted tenders for the purchase of 49 percent of the shares of BTC.
The companies that made Monday’s 5 p.m. deadline, according to a press release from the Ministry of Finance, are the Bahamatel Consortium, Blue Telecommunications (Bahamas) Ltd and Detecon International GMBH, Cable and Wireless, plc and Trans World Telecom Bahamas, Ltd.
The Ministry of Finance is the body responsible for the acceptance of the Preliminary Bid Documents and will hand them over to the Tenders Commission. Prior to the deadline, BTC officials indicated that eight companies had expressed an interest in purchasing the minority shares of the company and had met the criteria to do so. But only half of that number made the deadline.
No specific reasons were given as to why the other companies did not submit their bids.
The procedure for the privatisation of BTC and acceptance of preliminary bids are governed by the Sales Process Rules, of 23 October, 2002 (amended) according to the release.
Ministry of Finance officials said that in accordance with the Sales Process Rules, the government-appointed Tenders Commission will evaluate the documents.
After the evaluation is completed, a short list of the pre-qualified bidders will be published. They will then be invited to undertake further due diligence and submit a final bid, the release said.
The government will remain the largest shareholder in the company, retaining 51 percent of the total shares.
By Julian Reid, The Bahama Journal
