Houston to head new LIME Bahamas operation
Published:Friday | April 8, 2011 | 12:00 AM
LIME has officially added a fourth market to the Caribbean grouping, with the closure of the acquisition deal on Wednesday for the controlling stake in Bahamas Telecommuni-cations Company (BTC) by parent Cable and Wireless Communications Plc (CWC).
CWC paid US$210 million to The Bahamas government for the 51 per cent equity in BTC, acquiring in the process some 123,000 fixed-line customers, 388,000 mobile customers and 19,000 broadband customers.
LIME Caribbean said Wednesday that it had immediately installed Cable and Wireless veteran Geoff Houston as chief executive officer of the new country operation, while David Kelham is to take up the position of chief financial officer.
Houston, who up to last year ran LIME Jamaica, has 24 years of experience in the telecoms sector, 19 of which have been with CWC.
The sale of the BTC holdings to Cable and Wireless has been the subject of controversy inside The Bahamas, forcing Nassau to defend the deal last month. Still, LIME Caribbean chief executive David Shaw thanked Bahamians as well as the government for "giving us this opportunity" to acquire the asset.
"Most importantly, we want to welcome BTC staff to the CWC family. They have done an excellent job in difficult circumstances over the past few months and remain the lifeblood of this business," Shaw said Wednesday.
"Geoff and David bring a lot of experience to the executive team and will help cement this new partnership. I would like to thank Kirk Griffin for his support during the due diligence process. I am pleased that he has agreed to stay on as an adviser to the business and the board."
BTC is the exclusive mobile operator in The Bahamas and leading provider of fixed-line and broadband services. Financial information provided on BTC dates up to 2009 when the company earned total revenues of B$361 million, and reported EBITDA of B$101 million and net income of B$48 million. Its gross assets totalled B$371 million.