$50M National Bus Company Set to Launch ‘For the People’

Belize’s Ministry of Transport is set to launch the National Bus Company on March 1, a $50 million venture designed to consolidate the country’s public transport system.

The government will hold a 45.76% majority stake, while 17 participating bus operators will collectively hold 39.15%. Institutional investors, who have expressed interest and include insurance companies and the Social Security Board, would hold the remaining 15.08%.

The company’s valuation relied on a combination of discounted cash flow and asset-based methods, said auditor Emil Pinelo. “The auditors were assigned bus operators by region, and so we engaged individually with bus operators, having them sign non-disclosure agreements, engaging with them, and again, having them provide us with very sensitive financial data for their bus operations for us to be able to make a proper assessment,” Pinelo said.

Operators stand to benefit under the new structure, with projections indicating profits could rise by around 30%. Consolidated operations, bulk purchasing, and electronic payment systems are expected to cut costs and reduce cash-handling inefficiencies.

Pinelo added, “Bus operator’s expertise will also be considered throughout this process…  The increasing revenues and reduction in pilfering would clearly translate into more earnings for those bus operators being part of this exercise. ”

Some critics have raised concerns about future governments potentially altering the public transport sector. Transport Minister Dr Louis Zabaneh addressed this, saying legislation will protect the company’s road service permits. “It is very possible that in the next 30 or 40 years, when there’s another government, that then maybe you’d have a setting that they could reconsider… But not without cause,” he said.

Zabaneh confidently added that public support would safeguard the initiative that aims to improve efficiency, profits, and passenger experience while modernising Belize’s bus sector.

“At the end of the day, it is the people who will protect their National Bus Company because they would have been the ones who would have benefited from it and that they elect, 50 years from now, a new government to ensure that their interests are protected in whatever changes are made,” Zabaneh stated.

Full story tonight at 6 o’clock on News 5 Live.