JOE BLOW NEED NOT TO APPLY FOR CABLE BAHAMAS CELLULAR COMPANY SHARES
Dear Editor,
Angry Bahamians recently vented their frustration at their inability to purchase ordinary shares in Cable Bahamas NewCo Mobile company. Unfortunately, the average Bahamian “need not apply”. What many Bahamians thought would be an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of ordinary shares similar to when Cable Bahamas first went public 20 plus years will not be extended to JOE PUBLIC. Which means “ma boy” and “home gal” if you had thoughts of owning shares in the NEW CABLE BAHAMAS CELLULAR COMPANY you better “stay in your lane” and “sit small” because this is out of your league or find the $25,000 for the minimum purchase!
The purpose of a Private Placement Memorandum (PPM), by business owners of privately held companies is to attract a specific and special group of investors who have money. NewCo’s (PPM) will be conducted by Fidelty Investments. The requirements to qualify in the PPM is that the person must have a minimum of twenty-five thousands dollars ($25,000.00) in their bank account in order to purchase the preferred shares. This means that NewCo already has a select group of persons and companies targeted and interested to purchase those preferred shares in order help raise money for their company.
NewCo’s PPM should contain information of their business, financial information, legal structure and ownership information related to the offering itself, but the question should be asked: “Is there financial stability with this new company that’s just received the 2nd cellular license in the Bahamas…”. This is a company with no prior cellular history in the business and a checkered past as they have not fulfilled their obligation in Cable TV services, with so many islands throughout the country that do not have cable tv”. Surprisingly, a company that has no financial information and is struggling to get institutional investors i.e. pension funds and credit unions, is making an unrealistic pie in the sky comment on timelines. Particularly with a $20 million dollar “write-off” and loss in December 2015, due to its struggling US based operations.
Dave Burrows the Senior Vice President of Marketing at Cable Bahamas, in the Tribune article earlier this month said ” that Cable Bahamas would meet the onerous network roll-out schedule”. He also said “that we are very good in meeting targets and by year-end 2016, NewCo 2015 is obligated to provide reliable service to Eleuthera, Abaco, Bimini, Andros and Exuma.
And within eight months of June 30th, they have to provide coverage to 85% of Andros, plus 99% of Grand Bahama, Eleuthera, Abacom Bimini and Exuma.
By June 30th, 2017, NewCo is required to provide 99% coverage to Andros, Cat Island, Long Islands, San Salvador, the Berry Islands, Inagua and Ragged Island. As for quality indicators, NewCo2015 must have an AVERAGE CALL COMPLETION RATE OF GREATER THAN 99%, WHICH MEANS BAHAMAS THAT THE NEW CELLULAR COMPANY PROMISES LESS THAN 1% DROP CALLS ON THEIR NETWORK.
Bahamas all of these wild and crazy promises are coming from a company who failed to meet their initial promise in providing Cable TV service to 90% of the Bahamas. Islands like Bimini where you have to fax your receipt to their office in Nassau because they have no office on that island. Inagua where people have been left marooned with poor to no service on the island. Rum Cay and other southern islands who have never had cable tv service in their life are now expected to receive quality cellular service from Cable Bahamas.
Bahamas you have a better chance of seeing Michael Jackson moon walking in the Mall at Marathon this week or Bill Gates declaring that he is broke than to believe that the NewCo shares were meant for the ordinary Bahamian and they will fulfill their obligation to the public. DON’T GET SWING BAHAMAS. SOMETHING WITH THIS NEW COMPANY JUST DOESN’T MAKE SENSE. BUY AT YOUR OWN RISK!
Signed,
Derek Johnson
