Hydro Belize Deal Raises Hopes for Public Stake in Energy Future

The Briceño administration is dropped a staggering two hundred and fifty-six million dollars to take full control of Fortis Belize Limited, soon to be rebranded as Hydro Belize. That includes three major dams and a stake in B.E.L. So naturally, the big question is, what’s the plan? And when it comes to divesting those shares, will everyday Belizeans get a fair shot at owning a piece of this energy giant, at a price they can actually afford?

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“All of these things are going to be done, but it is going to be for and on behalf of our citizens of this country.”

 

Reporter
“And no percentage will be set aside for the average Belizean.”

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“Of course, that’s the whole idea. We don’t have the percentage, we just remember we are just finalizing the, the entire deal. The idea is that for us to be able to have, I hope we can get thousands of British citizens to invest one thousand dollars and five thousand dollars and ten thousand so that they could also be of that. To me, that is the goal, to have as many Belizeans as possible to be able to invest and the same thing we want to do with the Port of Belize, when we start the new building of the new port container and Cruise Port. I’m looking at see if we can set aside, probably, we don’t have the final numbers but at least like ten percent that we could offer to our citizens.”

 

Reporter
“Do we make known the beneficial owners of the hydro Belize Limited?”

 

Prime Minister John Briceño
“Of course, is going to be public knowledge is going to be you can go to the registry.”

 

Reporter
“We can’t go to the registry, PM, unu close that off. I understand that it will be Social Security, but they can’t buy up the full asset. So we have to have strategic investors.”

 

Prime Minister John Briceño
“Remember, remember how this is going to be done as we said. It’s going to be broken off in two parts. We’re hoping I think it’s about thirty-five percent to be sold off as shares of the total figure. That’s about what, what one hundred and sixty, somewhere around that, one million Belize dollars. And then the other part is going to be debt. And so, we’re hoping then that Social Security can buy debt and can buy into the shares of the company. So we need to be able to find, solid investments for, for Social Security and so we see this as being one of them, as one, a solid investment where we can get good returns.”