National Bus Company Set for March Merger

The Ministry of Transport says the new National Bus Company is now officially registered, and once shareholders sign off in the coming weeks, seventeen operators will merge under the company on March first. Those operators will hold thirty‑nine percent of the company, valued at nineteen point four million dollars. Government will take a forty‑five percent stake worth twenty‑two million, while the remaining fifteen percent, seventy point five million dollars in shares, will be reserved for institutional investors like insurance firms and the Social Security Board.

 

Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport

“Today and in the next few days, the legal stuff is going on. We in essence will have fifteen bus operators, thirty-one minus seventeen and the seventeen being one. We are talking a significant consolidation. So moving forward we anticipate that his consolidation will yield tremendous benefit to Belize. It will benefit form economies of scale where we can buy in bulk, fuel costs will go down further. This is for the present fleet of diesel buses. When we reach the point for which we have a transition period form March first to the end of August when we start get the electric buses in replacement of the diesel buses we will start to see a significant drop in the operational cost of the company.”

 

Reporter

“Many of the operators who are not participating are in the north. You said the door will stay open. How long does it stay open.”

 

Dr. Louis Zabaneh

“It will be up to them. We have heard varied reasons from the operators who are not participating. Some of them it is kind of natural, we want to see if the thing will work first. A part of it to be blunt is political. A couple of the persons say they are members of the UDP and will never support this.”