BTL Says Smart Acquisition Will Be Paid Off Without Borrowing

Belize Telemedia Limited has issued a release indicating that it will not borrow money to finance its proposed eighty-million-dollar acquisition of Speednet Communications Limited. The company is also assuring the public that the purchase will not require any additional investment from the Social Security Board. In a release issued after yesterday’s Board meeting, BTL said the investment will instead be repaid from Speednet’s own operating cash flows. Based on the company’s current projections, the eighty-million-dollar investment has an estimated discounted payback period of approximately four-point-two years.  BTL’s Board approved the proposed purchase of one hundred percent of Speednet’s issued share capital, but the transaction is not yet final. Love News understands, however, that a final approval is subject to the satisfactory completion of continued due diligence and the negotiation of appropriate warranties, representations and other contractual protections for BTL.  Once those negotiations advance to the definitive agreement stage, the Share Purchase Agreement will be presented to the Board for a separate review and final approval before it is executed.  BTL says the acquisition would reduce the unnecessary duplication of telecommunications infrastructure, strengthen network reliability and redirect resources toward technological modernization. Our newsroom further understands that BTL’s management had already secured support from a majority of its workers. An employee survey conducted in January attracted responses from 327 employees, or sixty-two percent of those likely available to participate. Of that number, 257 employees, representing seventy-nine percent of respondents, supported the proposed acquisition. Seventy employees, or twenty-one percent, opposed it.  The survey results were reportedly reviewed and signed off by representatives of BTL’s Audit Department, Human Resources and the Belize Communications Workers Union Executive.