Valley: Govt thinking of BWIA buyout

Trade Minister Ken Valley said yesterday he does not expect any further retrenchment at BWIA.

He was addressing a post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall. Valley said Government is looking at the BWIA situation in light of the clear reluctance of the private shareholders to put any more into the airline. He said Government was considering either buying out the shares of the private shareholders or getting other private interests to buy out the shares of the private investors at BWIA. He said one of the issues was that the current shareholders’ agreement limited the number of directors Government had on the BWIA Board to four. There are 12 directors on the Board.  He said if Government was considering greater ownership or changing the ownership structure of the airline, it would want a change in the shareholders’ agreement to reflect the ownership structure.

Valley, who met with BWIA representatives on Tuesday, said he wanted to share this information with the company and the unions and to ask for their continued support. He said that once Government had to put in any funding, the intention was to divest the shares of the private interests. Valley said Government’s interest in BWIA was based on its vision on how it wanted to position Trinidad and Tobago and the airport. Government currently owns 34.5 per cent of BWIA, but Valley said the most critical issue for Government was to continue ownership of  its golden share. He said Government believed the airline could be 100 percent privately owned. As long as it retained its golden share it meant that it could buy certain services as required. He cited for example the fact that Government had asked BWIA to fly to Costa Rica and Cuba and was subsidising the cost of these flights. Told that the problem of BWIA, like the crime situation, seemed to be a constant, Valley agreed. But he noted that just like crime, the country had “lost six years” when the UNC took over. He said BWIA was on the road to recovery when the UNC took office and this led to a set-back.