Prime Minister Gaston Browne is trying to avoid a possible road block in the reorganization of LIAT by obtaining a loan from the Caribbean Development Bank to purchase two LIAT ATR Planes.
“The Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley and Prime Minister [Ralph] Gonsalves [of St. Vincent and the Grenadines], they would have written to the Caribbean Development Bank requesting that they sell the three planes and to apply the proceeds, on a proportional basis, in reducing their re-fleeting loan with the Caribbean Development Bank,” Prime Minister Browne told Pointe FM yesterday.
He said that plan is now faced with a bit of difficulty.
“But Caribbean Development Bank has indicated that in order for them to do that, they will have to call the re-fleeting loan; and because there are certain cross guarantees as well, it means that the other LIAT loans as well, they will be in cross default and they would have to call those.”
“In the case of Antigua and Barbuda, it would mean that we would have to find about US$25 million, which clearly we don’t have,” Browne said.
“We have since written to the Caribbean Development Bank to ask them if they could look at the possibility of extending a certain amount of money to Antigua and Barbuda so that we can payout St Vincent and the Grenadines and Barbados for the two planes that they would have owned out of the three.
“So, they will get back to us. I’m not too sure if they have the appetite for that but at least we’re trying to see if we can step up with some additional borrowings and to try and resolve the issue amicably,” Browne added.