business@tribunemedia.net
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2025
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Fidelity asserts no ‘one-year wonder’: Eyeing $20m profit • Alleges Govt directing new hires where to bank • Pre-Xmas borrowing surge failed to materialise By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BISX-listed bank is targeting a return to $20m profits for full-year 2025 despite falling narrowly short of its 2024 target after the traditional Christmas borrowing surge failed to materialise. Gowon Bowe, Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) chief executive, told Tribune Business that while the 2024 fourth quarter failed to meet expectations the lender is optimistic it can beat global banking industry standards by generating return on equity (ROE) of between 20-25 percent for the 12 months to endDecember 2025.
GOWON BOWE While the anticipated pre-Christmas credit rush failed to occur, he conceded this “may be a good thing” if Bahamians are becoming more prudent about over-extending themselves. And, with qualified new
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Bahamian airline fear over six-fold fee hikes By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net BAHAMIAN airlines are voicing fears they will be “strangled” by six-fold and greater fee increases proposed as part of adjustments to this nation’s air navigation services regime charges. Domestic carriers told Tribune Business that the Bahamas Air Navigation Services Authority’s (BANSA) new fee regime, which it is proposing to implement for the next four fiscal years through 20282029, threatens to further eradicate already-slim industry margins while deterring route expansion and fresh investment via a rebalancing that places the financial burden disproportionately on their operations. BANSA’s “cost base review and charges adjustment” proposal, dated February 2025 and which has been seen by this newspaper, is shifting the fee burden away from overflight fees - levies paid almost entirely by international carriers that fly through Bahamian air space without stopping
• Alarm at take-off/ landing charge rises of 294-679% • Operators say they will be ‘strangled’ by latest rise • Regulator shifts burden from foreign to Bahamians in this nation - to so-called origin/ destination charges. The latter are fees levied on planes that take-off and land in The Bahamas, and BANSA’s own consultation paper revealed that 77 percent of such flights between May 2021 and December 2023 were operated by locally-owned carriers or charters. All origin/destination charges are
proposed to suffer between four-fold and more than six-fold increases, ranging from a minimum of 294 percent to a high of 679 percent. In contrast, all overflight fee categories will enjoy reductions in both absolute dollar and percentage terms, with the latter involving cuts ranging from 36 percent to a maximum of 69 percent. The BANSA paper, citing the example of an ATR72-600, said the overflight fee rate will be reduced from $29.60 per 100 nautical miles to just $9.16, representing a 69 percent drop or a rate equivalent to 12 cents per passenger seat. And, for a Boeing 777, the Authority is proposing to reduce the rate for transiting Bahamian air space from $51.60 per 100 nautical miles to $33.01, which marks a 36 percent reduction. And, given that the rate will be spread over a greater number of seats due to that aircraft’s capacity, economies of scale kick-in with the charge per seat or passenger dropping to just eight cents. However, when it comes to the origin/destination charges (take-off and landing in The Bahamas), the
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Doctors targets lower costs in Health City’s $5m investment By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net DOCTORS Hospital shareholders were last night told to anticipate a dividend policy change in 12-15 months’ time as the BISX-listed healthcare provider unveiled a near-$5m investment from a premier Cayman provider. Dennis Deveaux, its chief financial officer, told Tribune Business that Health City Cayman Islands’ acquisition of 500,000 shares comes at an “an important strategic inflexion point” in Doctors Hospital’s bid to make healthcare more affordable and accessible while, at the same time,
cutting multi-million dollar bad debts that have builtup due to unpaid medical treatments. Affirming that Health City’s investment will drive service expansion and a lowering of costs, as well as greater collaboration that will see more Bahamians sent to the Cayman Islands for treatments Doctors Hospital does not provide, he added that exploiting synergies and driving economies of scale will be a key focus. And, as Doctors Hospital starts to “descend” from the rapid expansion and growth mode that it has been on post-COVID, Mr Deveaux signalled to this newspaper
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‘Chips are down’: Ex-Atlantis worker wins $121k for firing By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net AN EX-ATLANTIS table gaming supervisor has won $120,960 in damages for wrongful and unfair dismissal after he was fired over “irregularities” involving the handling and alleged theft of $500 casino chips. Jonathan Clarke, a 20-year veteran of the Paradise Island mega resort, was awarded $35,280 more than his original $85,680 claim after the Industrial Tribunal found “clear discrepancies” in Atlantis’ case against him while branding the casino surveillance footage it relied on as “inconclusive”.
As a result, Ingrid Cooper-Brooks, the Tribunal’s vice-president, ruled that both Atlantis and Paradise Enterprises, the latter being the subsidiary that holds the casino operation, had failed to achieve the standard of having “reasonable grounds” to believe Mr Clarke had “committed gross misconduct/theft” and thus justify his termination. And, having found he was wrongfully fired, she also ruled the former table gaming supervisor was unfairly dismissed because the “inconclusive” video was all Atlantis had to support the termination. Ms Cooper-Brooks thus awarded him $56,160 for
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