Felix Stubbs of Transworld (Bahamas) Limited told the Bahama Journal that he and his partners are concerned that it has been two months since final bids were submitted and there is no word on who the strategic partner will be.
“When you make that kind of investment to put in a proposal, you’d like to have some kind of answer to your proposal as quickly as possible,” he said.
“If an answer is not forthcoming then we need to be told so that we can do other things with our potential investment,” Mr. Stubbs added.
Tom Bain of the Bahamatel Consortium, another bidder, said that there is some frustration considering that the majority of his company’s materials were submitted in February and the remainder of it in June.
He said he believed that the government; the Tenders Commission and the Cabinet have had “plenty of time to review these materials.”
“It may seem as though it’s a fairly straightforward delay here [in The Bahamas] but in the outside world, it’s important to put these assets to work,” Mr. Bain said.
He said that he believed that the government was committed to privatizing BTC, but he felt that it was important to move once and for all and complete the process.
Mr. Bain said he realized that the government has many expectations in the privatization process as do bidders.
“I think it’s important that the two of them [the government and bidders] clear this hurdle, name the preferred bidder and get to the negotiating table,” he added.
Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham at a rally in Grand Bahama on Monday night made criticisms about the privatization of BTC and the bidders.
Mr. Ingraham said that only one major international telecommunications company-Deustche Telekom- submitted a bid through the Blue Telecommunications group.
He added that the German telecommunications giant, however, would only have 17 percent of the 49 percent of shares on offer, while the majority of shares would be held by the company’s financiers American financial institution Bank One with miniscule holdings going to a small group of Bahamians.
In an interview with the Bahama Journal, President of Blue Telecommunications and Detecon International Lindbergh Smith refuted Mr. Ingraham’s claim pointing out that Deutsche Telekom was the major shareholder in his company.
” I think Blue brings [a lot] to the table having the largest telecommunications company in the world as our partner and [being] a majority shareholder within this entity,” Mr. Smith said.
Mr. Ingraham also said that the other companies TransWorld (Bahamas) Limited and the Bahamatel Consortium had no telecommunications ties to The Bahamas and are only interested in making a quick profit.
He said that under the Free National Movement administration, the two companies would not have met the minimum requirements to submit bids for BTC’s privatization.
TransWorld’s representative, Felix Stubbs, said he found Mr. Ingraham’s remarks very surprising.
“Had he [Mr. Ingraham] done investigations, he would [have found] that the principals in Transworld communications have individually over 20 years’ experience in telecommunications and if that isn’t telecommunications experience, I don’t know what is,” he said.
Mr. Bain added that he believed that making a profit for BTC is exactly what the government wanted.
“I believe that this is what has been one of the major impediments for BATELCO in that it hasn’t traditionally been operated on a profit basis,” he said. ” Surely we want employees and management that are motivated in delivering…that’s the bottom line.”
The Tenders Commission had initially said that the preferred bidder for the 49 percent of BTC shares would have been announced on July 14. Around that time, an official statement was issued advising that the preferred bidder would be extended.
The Tenders Commission subsequently announced that the preferred bidder will be announced
By Julian Reid, The Bahama Journal
