The government has amended the telecommunications legislation so that Bahamians could participate in the bidding process to purchase the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC).
This comes as the next phase in the privatisation of BTC started today for the purchase of 49 percent of the company’s shares being advertised in the local papers and in the Financial Times of London and the Wall Street Journal of New York.
Today’s opening of the bidding process comes five years after the privatization process kicked off.
Minister of Works and Utilities Bradley Roberts made the announcement yesterday at a press Conference at the Churchill Building .
“I wish to announce that the telecommunications sector policy has been amended by the Government of The Bahamas specifically at section 5 (3)1 which seeks to encourage Bahamians to participate in the process,” Minister Roberts said.
The bidding process, however, will not be discriminatory on the basis of nationality, he said and the government reserves the right to reject any and all tenders.
A special committee will be formed to review the tenders from qualified bidders.
Through this committee, the Government will make its decision as to the suitable entity for the purchase of the telecommunications company, said James Smith, Minister of State for Finance. “If it (the strategic partner) is a telephone company, we would expect it to have at least 300,000 subscribers or have a turnover of about $300 million,” he said.
A company smaller than BTC would therefore not qualify as it would lack the capability “of adding value to BTC and bringing a sizeable investment to modernise and enlarge its capacity to deliver telecommunications services,” Mr. Smith added.
Mr. Smith said that participation in the bidding of BTC will be transparent and circumscribed by a set of rules.
“Interested bidders will receive certain documents on paying an appropriate fee. They will go back and complete those documents and then submit a price to the government indicating their intent for the company in terms of a three or five year development plan and financial plan etcetera,” he said.
If a strategic partner is found, the monopoly that BTC has on cellular phones will last for only one more year and for fixed line services, the monopoly will be continued for two years.
The government intends to retain the majority 51 percent of shares of the company for an unspecified period of time.
December 6 is the cut off date for interested parties to communicate an intention of purchase to the government. The final date for the submission of preliminary bids is January 10, 2003.
Mr. Smith said that he expected the whole process to be completed by the end of the first quarter of next year.
By Julian Reid, The Bahama Journal
