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KeyTech set to sell BTC

Lloyd Fray

The KeyTech Group of Companies (KeyTech) is to sell 100 percent of its interest in The Bermuda Telephone Company Ltd (BTC), which employs about 130 people, to Barrie OpCo Ltd — a company which was incorporated just last Thursday.

A KeyTech press release announcing the sale called Barrie OpCo Ltd “an investment group with extensive experience in the telecommunications sector”.

The Bermuda Registrar of Companies register shows Barrie OpCo Ltd as being incorporated on July 24, 2014.

Incorporation notices in the Bermuda Sun show a Roy Thomas Graydon applying to incorporate two local companies with limited liability on July 2, one called Barrie Holdings Ltd, and the second called Barrie OpCo Ltd. Wakefield Quin Ltd are listed as attorneys for the applicant.

KeyTech communicated it would not comment further until the transaction was complete. Bermuda Industrial Union president Chris Furbert had not commented by press time.

However, a BusinessWeek executive profile and biography of Mr Graydon — described in the press release as a director of the new company set to buy BTC — says the Richard Ivey School of Business MBA graduate was executive vice-president and chief financial officer of Rogers Telecom Holdings Inc, formerly Sprint Canada Inc, a Toronto-based company that focuses on data, e-business and voice services to business and homes, for about two years.

He went on to be president and chief executive officer of Aeroquest International, Inc, joining the company in 2005 and resigning in 2011, corporate releases show. Aeroquest, which appears to have a primary presence in Toronto, Canada, “collects and interprets data that reveals what is at and beneath the earth’s surface. Aeroquest applies the best available technology in its worldwide search for economic concentrations of mineral and petroleum resources and in the precision-mapping of the earth’s surface and objects upon it,” its website says.

Of the BTC acquisition, Mr Graydon is quoted in the press release saying: “We are thrilled to have this opportunity to invest in Bermuda. We are confident that an independent BTC has a bright future as a thriving part of the Bermuda telecommunications landscape.”

At the same time that KeyTech is selling BTC, it is entering into an agreement that it says will give it a controlling interest in Bermuda CableVision Ltd.

The holding company announced yesterday it is entering into an agreement for its subsidiary, WestTel Ltd, which does business as Logic in the Cayman Islands (Cayman) to acquire British Overseas Territory Cable & Telecommunications, Ltd (BOTCAT), a company incorporated in Cayman.

The press release announcing the agreement stated that BOTCAT owns WestStar TV Ltd in Cayman and has a significant interest in CableVision Holding Ltd in Bermuda. Following completion of the acquisition, it said KeyTech will have a controlling interest in Bermuda CableVision Ltd.

KeyTech CEO Lloyd Fray was quoted saying: “We are excited about these transactions as they are the right strategic fit for the long-term growth of the company. It allows our group to expand and focus its investments, in the best interest of all stakeholders, in both Bermuda and Cayman.”

The transactions remain subject to a number of conditions including regulatory approvals in Bermuda and Cayman, the press release also stated. CableVision declined to comment.

According to its website, KeyTech has invested over $100 million in Bermuda’s communications sector within the last five years. It is the parent company for Logic Communications Ltd, WestTel Ltd (trading as Logic), Cable Co Ltd, Bermuda Yellow Pages Ltd as well as BTC. Quo Vadis Holdings Ltd, CellOne and Bermuda CableVision Ltd are KeyTech affiliates.

Describing themselves as a “comprehensive communications provider”, they say: “Under the KeyTech umbrella, residential and corporate customers will find the voice, internet and data, directory and support and professional services they require and expect.”