The name Katalyst Developments Limited first came to the public’s knowledge on Monday, August 24, when the former board of directors of the Belize Telemedia Limited (BTL) announced that they were detaching Great Belize Productions and Channel 5—a Telemedia subsidiary since June 2008—through the mystery company, Katalyst.
Documents obtained by Amandala on Wednesday suggest that Katalyst Developments Limited is based overseas, in Tortola, the British Virgin Islands (the BVI, a British overseas territory in the Caribbean, northeast of the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico).
Katalyst has two owners: Thames Ventures Limited and Channel Overseas Investment Limited, and the owners of Thames are Southtown Ltd and Katalyst Development Limited of BVI.
Thames Ventures Limited is a Belizean company incorporated back in September 2003—three months before the Musa administration took over BTL from Michael Ashcroft’s Carlisle Holdings. Its registered address is 60 Market Square – the address of Ashcroft’s Belize Bank.
The directors of Thames are Northtown Limited and Southtown Limited—the same two companies which, as subsidiaries of Carlisle Holdings (now BCB Holdings Limited), quietly bought out several minority shareholders several years ago through Mercury Communications. (Mercury Communications held 10% in BTL as at the time of the government takeover on August 25, 2009.)
Northtown, Southtown and Katalyst all use the Craigmuir Chambers on Road Town in Tortola, in the BVI, as their address.