By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

Prime Minister Perry Christie has indicated his government wants the winning bidder for the second celluar licence to offer shares to the Bahamian public, something that might force it to follow suit with the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC).

Although his administration cancelled plans by its predecessor to sell a 9 per cent BTC stake via an initial public offering (IPO), Mr Christie told Tribune Business that his government will revisit the issue after a second cellular license is issued.

He implied that it would create an asymmetry in government policy if it mandated the winning bidder for a second cellular licence sell shares to the Bahamian people, while at the same time it clung on to all its equity in BTC - the newcomer’s major competitor.

“The Bahamian people own 49 per cent,” the Prime Minister said on the sidelines of a recent event highlighting his government’s official claim of regaining the majority economic interest in BTC.

“I’ll very clearly say that the Government suspended the FNM’s intention to sell 9 per cent of its shares to raise money. We are going to watch carefully the liberalisation process where a new provider will come in, and the Government does not anticipate in that sense that we will end up being owners of that, even though we have a particular view that we’ve put to theTask Force on how the shares in this new liberalised company ought to be structured.

“We have to wait until a new cell provider comes in, and it settles, to determine the course of action going forward. One question is to what extent do we sell shares to individual Bahamians from BTC, because we would’ve just had Bahamians buy into the liberalised company, and then to what extent and what factors ought to come into consideration in our determining after the first cell license is given, whether or not there should be a second.”

Requiring the second cellular licence holder to offer shares to the Bahamian people may create problems for the likes of Digicel, which has always been tightly privately held and has never issued equity via IPOs.

Mr Christie said he expects a Task Force, haeded by former financial secretary Ruth Miller, to spearhead the cellular market liberalisation process. He added that the Government would not move quickly on this, after reclaiming the majority economic interest in BTC.

“I have appointed a task force on liberalisation,” he said. “At the point now, perhaps they will put out requests for proposals where those who wish to apply and be considered for cellular licenses will in fact become a part of the process.

“The question for the country is this. We anticipate that when the requests for proposals are offered, and when the Task Force has made their assessments of the applications as to their qualifications for going forward, that Randol Dorsett, as chairman of URCA, and his team will then conduct an auction as to who will pay what for what they are applying for.

“The cumulative assessment will then be made after that as to who will be the proper entity to receive that license. Time is of the essence, and having put this chapter behind us and noting that BTC is taking all of the steps to prepare itself for competition, for me it is safe to say to the Task Force and to URCA that it is a process that the Government expects you to get underway and to move with alacrity to ensure.

“I gave a timeline that I expect that, after the Request for Proposals (RFP) have gone out and you have people apply, you shouldn’t take more than six months to get this process to a point where we could finish.”

Nonetheless, Mr Christie could not give an exact date for when the Task Force will launch the cellular liberalisation process.

“The Task Force determines the specific date for when proposals go up,” he said. “I know they are very close, that they’ve been settling legally all of the issues connected with the offering and then, I imagine, very shortly, imminently it’ll go to the newspapers.”

Mr Christie said that in liberalising the Bahamian mobile market, his government wants to explore issuing a third telecommunications license by 2016.

“Not that we will (give a third licence),” he said, “because the market will determine that, but it will be provided for that the Government will have the luxury of being able to provide a third cellular license by 2016.

“So time is precious in this process. BTC is not going to be a company that limits itself to the Bahamas. In the fullness of time BTC, as a Bahamian-owned entity, its aspirations are unlimited. When (CWC chief executive) Phil Bentley said he shared with me and dared to dream, I’m not even dreaming any more.

“I’m speaking to the future of BTC in the context of the confidence I have inits leadership that we are going to go out there.”

This appears to be a hint that Mr Christie wants BTC to expand beyond the Bahamas’ borders, with Haiti a likely target given the underwater fibre optic cables connecting both nations. Whether such a strategy will conflict with CWC’s other regional interests remains to be seen

Mr Christie also spoke about BTC’s expected move into the television market. “What we want to ensure as long as we’re shareholders, is that everyone in the private sector wants to compete, but we want to ensure we do the very best we can to reach the entire Bahamian population,” he explained.

“I am looking forward to as early as December [BTC] beginning [its] trial runs with television, and I’m understanding that you’re going to break out in places like Andros and Eleuthera because it really means that when Chris Brown’s mother came to me and says I cannot watch my son run in my home, and I live in Winter’s Bight and others can’t see it, I assume then you are going in there to research the basis to provide all the homes in Eleuthera with the ability to watch Chris Brown, an Eleutheran, run anywhere he is running in the world so long as it is being televised.”