business@tribunemedia.net
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2023
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Lease setback strikes PI lighthouse entrepreneur By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
• Chief Justice rules Crown Land deal not valid
A BAHAMIAN entrepreneur battling to restore Paradise Island’s lighthouse yesterday suffered a setback in his fight with the Government and Royal Caribbean after the Supreme Court found he does not possess a valid Crown Land lease. Sir Ian Winder, the chief justice, ruled that “regrettably” there was no binding lease agreement between Toby Smith’s Paradise Island Lighthouse and Beach Club and the minister thenresponsible for Crown Lands (ex-prime minister, Dr Hubert Minnis) because the latter did not execute the necessary paperwork by applying his signature. Mr Smith last night declined to comment when contacted by Tribune Business, so his next moves - including the likelihood of an appeal - are uncertain. However, the chief
• Not binding because Minnis did not execute
PARADISE ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE justice’s verdict potentially removes much of the leverage he held over both the Government and cruise giant as a result of the ongoing legal proceedings. His position would have been immeasurably strengthened had Sir Ian found in his favour, but Mr Smith now faces the prospect of having to negotiate with both the Government and Royal
Caribbean - and having to rely on their goodwill - for his project to survive and move forward in its present form in the absence of valid Crown Land leases. An appeal, though, would keep the two subject parcels - involving a collective five acres - tied up at least temporarily in the courts. Mr Smith had based much of his three-year legal fight
• Verdict boost for Royal Caribbean’s plans on a January 7, 2020, letter from Richard Hardy, acting director of the Department of Lands and Surveys, which was headlined “approval for Crown Land lease” over the two tracts he wanted. These covered a two and threeacre parcel, respectively, and included the lighthouse at Paradise Island’s western end
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Cable’s $10.69m profits swing amid refinancing drive on Aliv By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net CABLE Bahamas yesterday unveiled a positive $10.69m bottom line turnaround for the first half of its 2023 financial year despite encountering frustration over the pace of Aliv’s debt refinancing. Franklyn Butler, the BISX-listed communications
provider’s president and chief executive, told Tribune Business that it was aiming to improve profitability “quarter by quarter” after the three months to end-December 2022 delivered further net income to back up the prior period’s performance. While the $894,000 second quarter may seem relatively modest, it represented a more than $7m positive swing from the $6.261m loss incurred
during the same period the prior year. And, for the halfyear to end-December, it took Cable Bahamas’ profits above the $4m mark compared to a $6.69m loss in 2021. Key indicators were trending in the right direction, with revenue and operating income up year-over-year, while operating expenses, depreciation and amortisation and interest
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Bahamas liquidators set to access ‘elusive’ FTX data By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net FTX’s Bahamian liquidators believe they will soon gain access to critical records that have “so far eluded them” while avoiding the risk of costly and time-consuming legal battles in Delaware. Brian Simms KC, the Lennox Paton senior partner, in a February 6, 2023, affidavit argued that the co-operation agreement thrashed out between himself and his colleagues, and the FTX US team headed by John Ray, was the best mechanism for avoiding protracted delays in the winding-up of the collapsed
BRIAN SIMMS KC crypto exchange’s Bahamian subsidiary. Urging the Supreme Court to “sanction” the co-operation deal, which it now has, Mr Simms effectively said the agreement was the only way he and fellow provisional
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Digital provider calls for Bahamas CSME sign-on By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net A DIGITAL payments provider yesterday argued that the Bahamas should join the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) to break down barriers facing local firms seeking to expand into the region. Nicholas Rees, Kanoo’s chairman, told Tribune Business that The Bahamas not being a signatory to the CSME increases the cost for local firms wishing to do business in other Caribbean jurisdictions.
“We expect to be in multiple Caribbean islands. We are advanced in a number of Caribbean territories. We don’t want to name any territories as yet because we have provisional licenses in two additional territories, and we’re finalizing an acquisition in a further territory,” he said. Mr Rees said difficulties encountered in expanding to other Caribbean jurisdictions include a lack of “tax treaties”, which are “essential” among CARICOM countries. “The Bahamas does not fully benefit from those tax treaties that the other CARICOM members
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Fidelity targets $25m annual profits despite 2022’s miss • Merchant services to help drive increase • Net income near $22m if ‘one-offs’ stripped • CEO: ‘Core deposits’ increased by $20m By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net FIDELITY Bank (Bahamas) is targeting $25m in net profits for 2023 despite failing to achieve the same goal last year, its top executive revealed yesterday. Gowon Bowe, the BISX-listed GOWON BOWE lender’s chief executive, told Tribune Business he expected the bank’s buoyant merchant services business to drive increased returns for the full year after it was largely responsible for producing a 65 percent increase in fee and commission income to $6.145m in 2022. And, speaking after Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) unveiled its unaudited financials for the year to end-December 2022, he added that the $20.116m net income was likely to be adjusted upwards as a result of lower loan loss provisions than those shown yesterday. Explaining that the institution had taken a “conservative” approach to provisioning as it has yet to complete the associated modelling, Mr Bowe said this - combined with the stripping out of some $1.75m in one-off merchant acquisition and marketing costs - would take Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) close to being on par with 2022’s $22.17m profits. Asked about the bank’s bottom line ambitions for 2023, he told this newspaper: “We are projecting that $25m again. We feel we are
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