Attempts at mediation between Barbados Sustainable Energy Cooperative Society Ltd (CoopEnergy Barbados) and the Barbados Agricultural Management Company (BAMC) have broken down. And, as has been done at every stage of the process, it will be up to the credit union membership to determine the next step.
Correspondence to members in the first update since January stated it was “clear that this opportunity for amicable settlement has now been closed by the BAMC and by Government” after a drawn-out process.
This was confirmed by CoopEnergy chairman, retired Lieutenant Colonel Trevor Browne, in a telephone interview yesterday. He told the DAILY NATION it became “a little bit clearer” that BAMC had simply changed its mind.
The two entities announced the partnership in December 2023 and the signing of a memorandum of understanding that was purported to not only breathe new life into the sugar industry, but provide renewable energy.
Browne said he could not speak to the details of the mediation process, which was confidential, but the parties met on three occasions before talks broke down.
“It isn’t as though they had some concrete issue that they wanted to have resolved. We were kind of hoping that that would be the case, that there was something they weren’t happy about or they didn’t like and they want, but it appears that they just changed their mind,” he explained.
Attempts to reach chairman of the Agricultural Business Company Ltd (ABC Ltd) – the BAMC’s name after divestment – Ambassador Dr Clyde Mascoll and Minister of Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Security Dr Shantal Munro-Knight were unsuccessful. Neither answered calls to their mobile phones or returned messages.
Meanwhile, Browne said the contract remained in place and, having sent out correspondence on the matter, he expected the credit union membership would meet in two to three weeks.
“We are a party to a signed contract. I wasn’t aware that we lived in the age where you could just sign a contract and then just unilaterally walk away from it. It really is not as simple as that,” he said.
“We would have committed quite significant resources and time and effort to this for Government to just walk away. Well, that’s for our members to decide, but basically that’s the issue that needs to be decided. We’re not saying that Government can’t change their mind. As I said in the update, obviously we can’t stop Government from changing their mind. We certainly don’t have the power to do otherwise, but the question is, is justice properly served by signing the contract, spending two years pursuing one and then just . . . going to walk away? . . . I guess that’s why we have courts.”
Meanwhile, a person with intimate knowledge of the processes at BAMC explained there was an internal project committee comprising the chairman, a representative of the board and senior management.
“Coop did provide a request for information, due diligence information and, at some point, that process was stopped . . . . This was even before the company transitioned, because the conversation had been going on, and the negotiation had been going on and they had sent a list of information, request for information.”
He said information was being uploaded to the data room when they were told to stop at a meeting. No explanation was given.
The source added: “So I think there was – in my personal view – a . . . position not to move forward on the transaction. Where that instruction came from, I have no clue; no idea.”
He added that no one buys a car before talking to their mechanic, which is what Coop was attempting to do in asking for financial disclosure.
“What I can say is that the credit union saw the value in the factory. The value was really not in the cane production or the sugar production; the value of the restructuring was in the renewable energy.”
He explained space had been carved out for the generation of 40 megawatts of renewable energy that was going to be built on more than 300 acres of land in the north. Discussions were going on with Barbados Light & Power Co. Ltd and that is what made it attractive to the credit union, “because they saw the value for their membership, they saw the value in electricity generation”.
(SAT)
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