Justice Minister Cornelius de Weever and Finance Minister Perry Geerlings with representatives of LLA and the Cabinets of the Ministers look on.
PHILIPSBURG–Finance Minister Perry Geerlings said on Monday that the sale of St. Maarten’s 12.5 per cent share in United Telecommunications Services (UTS) means an additional cash flow for government which will be used mainly to pay off certain payment arrears, including possible retroactive payments to justice workers in the St. Maarten Police Force.
On Monday, September 9, St. Maarten’s 12.5 per cent share of UTS was acquired by Liberty Latin America Ltd. (LLA). The governments of Curaçao and St. Maarten held stakes in UTS of 87.5 per cent and 12.5 per cent, respectively. In March this year, LLA acquired Curaçao’s 87.5 per cent of UTS and the acquisition of the remaining 12.5 per cent now results in LLA owning 100 per cent of UTS.
Geerlings said in a press release that although the sale means additional cash flow for government, the goal of government is not to sell the assets of the country to generate additional income.
“Because of the decision of Curaçao to sell their majority share in UTS, St. Maarten had no other option than to sell their minority share for the most favourable price at this moment before dilution of shares would become a reality with the risk of the shares losing their value,” Geerlings said.
Other options than selling the shares of St. Maarten have been investigated by government. However, the sale of shares by St. Maarten turned out to be the best possible option considering the sale conditions and risks related to not selling the shares at this point in time.
The sale of the shares of St. Maarten took longer than the sale of the Curaçao shares because of the legislative process that St. Maarten still had to go through, where Curaçao already went through this process.
The deadline for the sale of the St. Maarten shares initially was set on June 1, by the buyer, but after conversations with the buyer some time was granted until the beginning of September to finalize the legislative process. During this period, Geerlings and his team worked hard, together with other government departments and the St. Maarten sales committee members, to negotiate the final terms of sale to be in the best interest of St. Maarten as much as possible and to have all proper documents in place before the set deadline by the buyer.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/91161-geerlings-uts-share-sale-additional-cash-flow-for-govt
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