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Investment in OC-BVI | 12 Months Ended
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Dec. 31, 2011
Investment in OC-BVI | 8. Investment in OC-BVI The Company owns 50% of the outstanding voting common shares and a 43.5% equity interest in the profits of Ocean Conversion (BVI) Ltd. (“OC-BVI”). The Company also owns certain profit sharing rights in OC-BVI that raise its effective interest in the profits of OC-BVI to approximately 45%. Pursuant to a management services agreement, OC-BVI pays the Company monthly fees for certain engineering and administrative services. OC-BVI’s sole customer is the Ministry of Communications and Works of the Government of the British Virgin Islands (the “Ministry”) to which it sells bulk water. Substantially all of the water sold by OC-BVI to the Ministry was initially supplied under a Water Supply Agreement dated May 1990 (the “1990 Agreement’) and was produced by one desalination plant with a capacity of 1.7 million gallons per day located at Baughers Bay, Tortola (the “Baughers Bay plant”). As discussed later in this Note (see “Baughers Bay dispute”), the BVI government assumed the operating responsibilities for the Baughers Bay plant in March 2010. During 2007, OC-BVI completed, for a total cost of approximately $8 million, the construction of a desalination plant with a capacity of 720,000 gallons per day located at Bar Bay, Tortola (the “Bar Bay plant”). OC-BVI began selling water to the Ministry from this plant in January 2009 and on March 4, 2010, OC-BVI and the BVI government executed a definitive seven-year contract for the Bar Bay plant (the “Bar Bay Agreement”). Under the terms of the Bar Bay Agreement, OC-BVI delivers up to 600,000 U.S. gallons of water per day to the BVI government from the Bar Bay plant. The Bar Bay Agreement includes a seven-year extension option exercisable by the BVI government and required OC-BVI to complete a storage reservoir on the BVI government site by no later than March 4, 2011. OC-BVI has not commenced construction of this storage reservoir due to the BVI government’s failure to pay (i) the invoices for the water provided by the Bar Bay plant on a timely basis; and (ii) the full amount ordered pursuant to a court ruling relating to the Baughers Bay dispute (see discussion that follows). The Company provided OC-BVI with a $3 million loan to fund part of the construction costs for the Bar Bay plant. Principal on this loan was payable in quarterly installments of $125,000 with a final balloon payment due on August 31, 2009 and interest on the loan was due quarterly at the rate of LIBOR plus 3.5%. In August 2009, the Company amended the terms of this loan with OC-BVI, increasing its balance to $2.8 million by converting $800,000 in trade receivables due to the Company from OC-BVI. Under the terms of this amendment, the interest rate on the loan was increased to LIBOR plus 5.5% and the maturity date for the amended final balloon payment of $1,550,000 was extended to August 31, 2011. The Company and OC-BVI further amended this loan in January 2010 to increase the interest rate to LIBOR plus 7.5%. This loan was fully repaid in August 2011. Summarized financial information of OC-BVI is presented as follows:
|  | December 31, |
|  | 2011 |  |  | 2010 |
Current assets |  | $ | 2,726,046 |  |  | $ | 1,942,418 |
Non-current assets |  |  | 7,436,845 |  |  |  | 8,235,140 |
Total assets |  | $ | 10,162,891 |  |  | $ | 10,177,558 |
|  | December 31, |
|  | 2011 |  |  | 2010 |
Current liabilities |  | $ | 2,109,284 |  |  | $ | 3,378,917 |
Non-current liabilities |  |  | 2,218,519 |  |  |  | 2,387,606 |
Total liabilities |  | $ | 4,327,803 |  |  | $ | 5,766,523 |
|  | Year Ended December 31, |
|  | 2011 |  |  | 2010 |
Water sales |  | $ | 4,925,108 |  |  | $ | 7,173,903 |
Gross profit |  |  | 2,453,878 |  |  |  | 4,309,711 |
Income from operations |  |  | 1,833,056 |  |  |  | 2,891,240 |
Net income attributable to controlling interests |  | $ | 1,926,597 |  |  | $ | 2,848,102 |
The Company’s investment in OC-BVI is comprised of the following:
|  | December 31, |
|  | 2011 |  |  | 2010 |
Equity investment (including profit sharing rights) |  | $ | 6,634,598 |  |  | $ | 6,362,523 |
Loan receivable - Bar Bay plant construction |  |  | - |  |  |  | 1,450,000 |
|  | $ | 6,634,598 |  |  | $ | 7,812,523 |
The Company recognized $838,652 and $1,235,146 in earnings from its equity investment in OC-BVI for the years ended December 31, 2011 and 2010, respectively, and a loss of ($1,025,968) from its equity investment in OC-BVI for the year ended December 31, 2009. For the years ended December 31, 2011, 2010, and 2009, the Company recognized approximately $317,500, $656,000, and $324,000, respectively, in revenues from its management services agreement with OC-BVI. In addition to the Company’s loan to, and equity investment in, OC-BVI of approximately $6.6 million in 2011 and $7.8 million in 2010, the Company’s recorded value of the OC-BVI management services agreement, which is reflected as an intangible asset on the Company’s consolidated balance sheet, was approximately $571,000 and $714,000 as of December 31, 2011 and 2010, respectively (see Note 10). Baughers Bay dispute: In October 2006, OC-BVI notified the Company that the Ministry had asserted a purported right of ownership of the Baughers Bay plant pursuant to the terms of the 1990 Agreement. Under the terms of the 1990 Agreement, upon the expiration of the initial seven year term in May 1999, the agreement would automatically be extended for another seven year term unless the Ministry provided notice, at least eight months prior to such expiration, of its decision to purchase the plant from OC-BVI for approximately $1.42 million. In correspondence between the parties from late 1998 through early 2000, the Ministry indicated that the BVI government was prepared to exercise the option to purchase the plant but would be amenable to negotiating a new water supply agreement, and that it considered the 1990 Agreement to be in force on a monthly basis until negotiations between the BVI government and OC-BVI were concluded. Occasional discussions were held by the parties since 2000 without resolution of the matter. OC-BVI continued to supply water to the Ministry and expended approximately $4.7 million to significantly expand the production capacity of the plant beyond that contemplated in the 1990 Agreement. Early in 2007, the Ministry unilaterally took the position that until such time as a new agreement was reached on the ownership of the plant and the price for the water produced by the plant, the Ministry would only pay that amount of OC-BVI’s billings that the Ministry purported constituted OC-BVI’s costs of producing the water. Payments made by the Ministry to OC-BVI since the Ministry’s assumption of this reduced price were sporadic. On November 15, 2007, OC-BVI issued a demand letter to the BVI government for approximately $6.2 million representing amounts that OC-BVI claimed were due by the BVI government for water sold and delivered plus interest and legal fees. In response to OC-BVI’s demand for payment, the BVI government issued a letter dated November 19, 2007 that reasserted its claim that ownership of the Baughers Bay plant had passed to the BVI government and rejected OC-BVI’s claim for payment. On November 22, 2007, OC-BVI’s management was informed that the BVI government had filed a lawsuit with the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (the “Court”) seeking ownership of the Baughers Bay plant. OC-BVI counterclaimed that it was entitled to continued possession and operation of the Baughers Bay plant until the BVI government paid OC-BVI approximately $4.7 million, which it believed represented the value of the Baughers Bay plant at its expanded production capacity. OC-BVI took the legal position that since the BVI government never paid the $1.42 million to purchase the Baughers Bay plant, the 1990 Agreement terminated on May 31, 1999, which was eight months after the date that the Ministry provided written notice of its intention to purchase the plant. On July 4, 2008, OC-BVI filed a claim with the Court, and on April 22, 2009 amended and increased this claim, seeking payment for water sold and delivered to the BVI government through May 31, 2009 at the contract prices in effect before the BVI government asserted its purported right of ownership of the plant. The Court held a three-day trial in July 2009 to address both the Baughers Bay ownership issue and OC-BVI’s claim for payment of amounts owed for water sold and delivered to the BVI government and on September 17, 2009, the Court issued a preliminary ruling with respect to this litigation. The Court determined that the BVI government was entitled to immediate possession of the Baughers Bay plant and dismissed OC-BVI’s claim for compensation of approximately $4.7 million for the expenditures made to expand the production capacity of the plant. As a result of this determination by the Court, OC-BVI recorded an impairment loss of approximately $2.1 million during the three months ended September 30, 2009 for fixed assets associated with the Baughers Bay plant. However, the Court determined that OC-BVI was entitled to full payment of water invoices issued up to December 20, 2007, which had been calculated under the terms of the original 1990 Agreement, and ordered the BVI government to make an immediate interim payment of $5.0 million to OC-BVI for amounts owed to OC-BVI. The Court deferred deciding the entire dispute between the parties until it could conduct a hearing to determine the reasonable rate for water produced by OC-BVI for the period subsequent to December 20, 2007. On October 28, 2009, the Court ordered the BVI government to pay OC-BVI at the rate of $13.91 per thousand imperial gallons for water produced by OC-BVI subsequent to December 20, 2007, which amounted to a total recovery for OC-BVI of $10.4 million. The BVI government made a payment of $2 million to OC-BVI under the Court order during the fourth quarter of 2009, a second payment of $2 million under the Court order during July 2010 and a third payment under the Court order of $1 million in February 2011. On October 28, 2009, OC-BVI filed an appeal with the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeals (the “Appellate Court”) asking the Appellate Court to review the September 17, 2009 ruling by the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court as it relates to OC-BVI’s claim for compensation for expenditures made to expand the production capacity of the Baughers Bay plant. On October 29, 2009, the BVI government filed an appeal with the Appellate Court seeking the Appellate Court’s review of the September 17, 2009 ruling of the Court that the BVI government pay OC-BVI the reasonable rate for water produced by OC-BVI for the period subsequent to December 20, 2007. The BVI government is requesting a ruling from the Appellate Court that the BVI government should only pay OC-BVI the actual cost of water produced at the plant. In March 2011, the BVI government filed an application with the Appellate Court for a stay of execution of the judgments of the Court in order to defer any further payments of amounts under the Court order until such time as the Appellate Court rules on the appeal. On September 30, 2011, the Appellate Court conducted its hearing of the arguments of both parties under their respective appeals. While the Company anticipated that the Appellate Court would issue its ruling on these appeals by the end of 2011, no ruling has been issued to date. The Company has not been informed when to expect the Appellate Court to issue its ruling. Under US GAAP revenue is generally realized or realizable and earned when all of the following criteria are met:
| • | persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists;
| • | delivery has occurred or services have been rendered;
| • | the seller’s price to the buyer is fixed and determinable; and
| • | collectability is reasonably assured.
Effective January 1, 2008, OC-BVI changed its policy for the recording of its revenues from the Baughers Bay plant from the accrual to the equivalent of the cash method due to an inability to meet all of the above revenue recognition criteria. As a result of this adjustment to OC-BVI’s revenues, the Company recorded losses from its equity in OC-BVI’s results of operations for all fiscal quarters of 2008 and for the first three quarters of 2009. Any cash payments made by the BVI government on Baughers Bay related invoices were applied by OC-BVI to the remaining balance of outstanding accounts receivable that arose from billings for periods prior to and including December 2007 and thus were not recognized as revenues. Sufficient payments had been received from the BVI government as of September 30, 2009 to repay the remaining accounts receivable balances relating to period prior to December 31, 2007. OC-BVI continues to apply the equivalent of the cash method with respect to the recognition of revenues from Baughers Bay. Consequently, OC-BVI does not recognize as revenues any amounts to be paid to OC-BVI as a result of the Court ruling until such amounts are paid by the BVI government. To date, the BVI government has paid OC-BVI $5 million of the $10.4 million awarded by the Court. In February 2010, the BVI government announced that it had signed a 16-year contract with another company for the construction and operation of a water plant that will provide potable water to the greater Tortola area and (the Company believes) will replace the current production of the Baughers Bay plant. In March 2010, OC-BVI vacated the Baughers Bay plant and the BVI government assumed direct responsibility for the plant’s operations. The Company accounts for its investment in OC-BVI in accordance with the equity method of accounting for investments in common stock. This method requires recognition of a loss on an equity investment that is other than temporary, and indicates that a current fair value of an equity investment that is less than its carrying amount may indicate a loss in the value of the investment. To test for possible impairment of its investment in OC-BVI, the Company estimates its fair value as of the end of each fiscal quarter. In making this estimate, the Company calculates the expected cash flows from its investment in OC-BVI by (i) estimating the expected cash flows from OC-BVI’s contract with the BVI government to supply water from its Bar Bay plant; (ii) identifying various possible outcomes of the Baughers Bay litigation and estimating the expected cash flows associated with each possible outcome; and (iii) assigning a probability to each Baughers Bay outcome and associated expected cash flows based upon discussions held to date by OC-BVI’s management with the BVI government and OC-BVI’s legal counsel. The resulting probability-weighted sum represents the expected cash flows, and the Company’s best estimate of future cash flows, to be derived from its investment in OC-BVI, which are present-valued to estimate OC-BVI’s fair value. After considering the impact of the September and October 2009 rulings of the Court and the decision by the BVI government to enter into the agreement with another company to build a new plant to serve Tortola, the Company determined that the carrying value of its investment in OC-BVI exceeded the estimated fair value for our investment in OC-BVI and therefore recognized impairment losses aggregating approximately $4.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2009. Based upon the estimated fair value determined as of December 31, 2011 the Company concluded that no impairment loss was required to be recognized on its investment in OC-BVI during the year ended December 31, 2011. This conclusion assumes that the BVI government will fulfill its obligations under the contract for the Bar Bay plant and that OC-BVI will collect all of the $10.4 million awarded by the Court (of which only $5 million has been received to date). Should the BVI government be successful in its appeal to reduce the $10.4 million Court award, the Company will be required to record charges that will reduce its earnings by an amount approximately equal to 44% of any reduction of the $10.4 million previously awarded by the Court. If the Appellate Court ultimately overturns the ruling of the Court or the Appellate Court reduces the amount awarded to OC-BVI under the Court order, or the BVI government fails to honor the terms of its agreement for water supplied by OC-BVI’s Bar Bay plant, the actual cash flows from OC-BVI could vary materially from the expected cash flows the Company used in determining OC-BVI’s fair value as of December 31, 2011 and the Company would be required to record an additional impairment loss to reduce the carrying value of its investment in OC-BVI. Such impairment loss would reduce the Company’s earnings and could have a material adverse impact on its results of operations and financial condition.

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