business@tribunemedia.net
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2025
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CHRISTINA ROLLE
JUSTICE LOREN KLEIN
Commission to gain $10m for protecting FTX assets • Supreme Court approves regulator’s compensation • Was trustee for benefit of crypto exchange’s clients • First FTX payouts start today; recoveries at 120% By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE SUPREME Court has approved a $10m payment to the Securities Commission to compensate for safeguarding assets belonging to FTX victims in the wake of the crypto exchange’s November 2022 collapse. Justice Loren Klein, in a signed February 6, 2025, Order that was filed with the Supreme Court registry five days later, permitted the liquidators of FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary to pay out the regulator’s claim for administrative expenses incurred in protecting digital and other assets owned by the crypto exchange’s creditors over an 18-month period through to April 2024. “Pursuant to the Companies Act section 205 (3) and the fourth schedule, part one, paragraphs five and six, this honourable court sanctions the exercise of the joint official liquidators’ powers to cause FTX Digital Markets to enter into the administrative claims settlement agreement,” the Order, seen by Tribune Business, states. Describing the Securities Commission’s claim as an “administrative expense’, the Order said the $10m will cover “expenses incurred as a result of steps that the Securities Commission of The Bahamas took to protect digital assets on behalf of the FTX Digital
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‘Unjust disadvantage’ for Bahamian airlines By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A SENIOR aviation executive yesterday warned Bahamian airlines and charters will be placed at “an unjust disadvantage” by sixfold and greater fee increases proposed for this nation’s air navigation services regime. Anthony Hamilton, president of the Bahamas Association of Air Transport Operators, told Tribune Business that the changes suggested by the Bahamas Air Navigation Services Authority (BANSA) place an “inequitable burden” on local carriers by discriminating against them while, at the same time, favouring foreign carriers that fly through this nation’s air space without landing here. Speaking after Tribune Business revealed that BANSA’s rebalancing will shift the fee burden to flights that land
• Association chief hits at fee hikes’ inequitable burden • Fears mounting cost impact ‘catastrophic’ for locals • 35% air traffic union salary jump ‘overly burdensome’ and take-off in this nation, some 77 percent of which are operated by Bahamian airlines and charters, he added that the proposed amendments also discriminate against the smaller planes they typically use by imposing a higher per seat cost compared to larger aircraft such as Boeing 777s. And Dr Hamilton, who noted that the cost per seat is also higher for planes landing in/taking off from The Bahamas as opposed to aircraft simply flying over this nation, told this newspaper his
concerns extend beyond just the fee hikes to include BANSA’s “bloated” 207-strong workforce, a 35 percent average salary increase for air traffic controller union members, and how the costs underpinning its calculations were arrived at. As an example, he said BANSA’S audited financial statements for 2021-2022 and 2022-2023, which the Authority’s own February 2025 consultation paper says played a key role in determining the costs that the revised fees will have to cover, have
not been disclosed for public scrutiny. As a result, Mr Hamilton said it will be impossible for aviation industry stakeholders to determine if the costs and fees are justified. And, describing the salary increase for members of the Bahamas Air Traffic Controllers Union as placing an “astronomical burden” on BANSA, he added that the Authority’s weighted average cost of capital (WACC) - which starts at 11 percent and is projected to peak at 14 percent in the 2025-2026 fiscal year - appeared “overly burdensome” and cheaper capital sources needed to be accessed. “It’s going to be catastrophic for the domestic operators,” Mr Hamilton told Tribune Business if the proposed new BANSA fees, which are to be discussed at an industry consultation on March 5, are implemented
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Freeport’s Bazaar awaits update on Gov’t purchase By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net ONE of the International Bazaar’s 13 owners yesterday said it is awaiting an update on efforts to sell the property from the Government’s attorney, and added: “We’ve lost millions of dollars in that investment.” Darrin Woods, the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union’s (BHCAWU) president, indicated to Tribune Business that the Government’s bid to purchase the International
Bazaar may not be as far advanced as Ginger Moxey, minister for Grand Bahama, signalled at last week’s Grand Bahama Business Outlook conference. While the minister asserted that “purchase agreements have been made with... the Bazaar owners”, the hotel union has to-date just signed a Letter of Intent (LOI). And Mr Woods said he is now waiting for a reply to his request for an update on the property’s proposed sale to the Government from the latter’s legal representative
Chris Gouthro, an attorney with Gouthro & Company. “It’s amazing you would ask this question,” the BHCAWU president replied when contacted by this newspaper. “I just sent an e-mail to Mr Gouthro on Thursday or Friday asking the same question: Where it [the deal] is. I just sent him an e-mail asking if there was any update on it but he’s not replied as yet. “The only thing they did, which was last year, was send us a Letter of Intent for us to look at and sign. We’ve done. He [Mr Gouthro] said at that point the majority of
Norman’s Cay ‘sold out’ on SpaceX’s booster landing By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter jsimmons@tribunemedia.net A FORMER Bahamian rocket scientist with NASA yesterday asserted that “Norman’s Cay is sold out” with other nearby destinations also fully booked ahead of today’s SpaceX rocket booster return. Aisha Bowe, now the Ministry of Tourism, Investments and Aviation’s ‘space tourism’ adviser, said hotels and other accommodations near the landing site off the Exuma coast are fully booked. And, once Bahamian vendors start selling merchandise and provide new products that spin-off from this tourism niche, there will be a meaningful economic impact for this nation. “Norman’s Cay is sold out right now. The tourism has already started, and I offer that as a point to how far people are willing to go to get a great seat. That is not necessarily the most accessible place. It’s
AISHA BOWE not necessarily the most inexpensive place,” said Ms Bowe. “Once the Bahamian tourism industry, in my opinion, begins to create hats and mugs and merchandise, those things are going to sell out. Imagine that you’re on a cruise ship and you’ve just seen this rocket land, or you’ve just seen it. You go to the straw market in Grand Bahama or you go to the straw market in Nassau. Are you buying merchandise? Absolutely. You’re going to want
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GINGER MOXEY owners have signed with the exception of one or two that had not. Now I’ve just sent
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Ex-Governor: More competition vital among banks, workforce By ANNELIA NIXON Tribune Business Reporter anixon@tribunemedia.net A FORMER Central Bank governor yesterday challenged whether The Bahamas is willing to expose itself to the “risk” of greater competition from foreign workers as a means to boost productivity and drive down costs. Julian Francis, now chairman of BISX-listed Commonwealth Brewery, said “The Bahamas exists in a rigged system” and added: “It’s not just the US dollar we’re talking about, say, the availability of US dollars. It’s perhaps, much more importantly, labour because... the fact is that productivity in The Bahamas is dismally bad. And the only way you can change that is by competition. “People are not going to make an effort if they don’t feel threatened. And so you can imagine what happens to a government in The Bahamas which decides to let in,
without any kinds of controls at all or without any major controls, foreign labour. That Government is probably not going to last very long.” Agreeing that the cost of banking services is high, Mr Francis said it is “a complicated matter”. He called for policymakers to take into consideration the need for greater competition. “This increase in the net earnings of the retail banks is happening at a time when, of course, we know that the banks are shedding costs,” the exCentral Bank governor said. “They are reducing their footprint, they are adopting electronic tools to deliver the services. And this is a good thing... And you would think that it would actually bring the cost of these services down because all of a sudden the banks don’t need, and they tell us this, they don’t need offices all around the island.
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