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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 2025
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Insurer: 95% of customers to see no property increase By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN insurer says 95 percent of its clients will suffer no increase in their property coverage premiums for 2025 amid hopes prices may reduce finally reduce next year if global losses stay below $110bn. Anton Saunders, RoyalStar Assurance’s managing director, told Tribune Business that just 5 percent of customers spread across the six Caribbean territories in which it operates will experience an increase in their all-perils catastrophe costs this year due to the need to bring them up to “book rate” - the premiums it typically charges for the sum insured. “We have made an assessment that we are not increasing our
rates that are our book rates,” he explained. “Once they are at book rates we are not increasing any premiums. The normal rates charged in 2024 will be the same rates charged in 2025 except there are some people in our portfolio not at that rate. “So some people will be adjusted to book rate. That’s like 5 percent of the properties on our books, and it’s a very minimal number of people. That’s in all territories for Royal Star. There will be no increase rate increases except for those persons. “Unfortunately, we were not able to decrease rates because reinsurance prices are still high, but we think if nothing else happens in the world and we stay below $110bn in catastrophic losses in 2025, then we believe there will be some reduction in 2026.”
Bahamian property and casualty insurers, due to their relatively thin capital bases, have to purchase huge quantities of reinsurance annually to enable them to underwrite the multibillion risks present in this nation. This means that the premium prices Bahamian households and businesses pay for coverage are largely determined by what reinsurers charge. Stung by recent multi-billion dollar losses from major hurricanes hitting the US and Caribbean, as well as other catastrophic event payouts, many reinsurers have either pulled out of the region altogether or reduced the capacity and availability of coverage here. The reduction in reinsurance supply has resulted in Bahamian insurance premiums increasing in cost
by as much as 20 percent since 2022. However, Mr Saunders said he and RoyalStar are “cautiously optimistic” that reinsurance rates will start to ease next year - and more capacity will return to the Bahamian and Caribbean market - if major loss payouts are avoided this year. If that occurs, then the peak premium rates encountered by Bahamian businesses and households may start to ease in 2026 - but only slightly. “For us, we were more relieved that we didn’t go through the hectic reinsurance programme we did for 2023 and 2024,” the RoyalStar chief told this newspaper. “In 2025, it was more stable, more predictable. yes, we wanted a decrease, but understood where the reinsurers were coming from, so we were satisfied.....
Merchant surprise as candy, sugary drinks not in VAT cut
‘Virtually impossible’ for GBPA to act as independent regulator
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
A SUPREME Court judge has ruled it is virtually impossible for the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) to act as independent regulator for the water monopoly it owns as he backed the need for third-party oversight. Justice Loren Klein, in a March 31, 2025, verdict “declared” that the Grand Bahama Utility Company and/or the GBPA “may only impose such fees and charges as are reasonable” in accordance with the 1966 reforms to the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, Freeport’s founding treaty. His ruling, made in the context of a dispute between Grand Bahama Utility Company and the troubled Lucayan Towers South condominium
A CABINET minister yesterday hailed the decision not to give candy and sugary drinks a 50 percent VAT rate cut despite the initial confusion this caused for food store merchants. Dr Michael Darville, minister of health and wellness, told Tribune Business that the late move - which took retailers by surprise - is aligning tax policy with efforts to tackle The Bahamas’ chronic noncommunicable diseases (CNCDs) crisis by encouraging consumers to switch to healthier foods without imposing any new or increased levies on them. Pointing out that the VAT rate on candy and sugary drinks, such as original Coca-Cola and other sodas, is remaining at the original 10 percent, he added that cutting to 5 percent on all other edible foods will help drove “consumer behaviour changes” that benefit The Bahamas’ long-term health. However, Debra Symonette, Super Value’s president, told this newspaper that
DR MICHAEL DARVILLE the supermarket chain was yesterday afternoon still awaiting clarity on whether candy and sugary drinks were to attract the new 5 percent VAT rate or stay at 10 percent. The Government’s initial listing placed them among the products set to enjoy a 5 percent rate, but subsequent promotional material left them at 10 percent alongside prepared foods. “I would say on the most part,” the Super Value chief said, when asked how smoothly first-day implementation of the new VAT food rate had gone. “There are some things that we
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By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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t A$BVUJPVT PQUJNJTN SBUFT DPVME FBTF JO t (MPCBM DBUBTUSPQIF MPTT NVTU CF VOEFS CO t 4VNNJU DIJFG MFTT DPOmEFOU PO QSJDF TMBDLFOJOH “If nothing happens, if everything is at the normal reinsurance catastrophe and loss cycle, then we think [rates will ease in 2026]. What we will see is a bit more capacity coming back to the region which will put pressure on demand and supply so prices will stabilise more or start coming off-peak. “If nothing significant happens, then traditional reinsurers will start coming back to the
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t +VEHF CBDLT UIJSE QBSUZ PWFSTJHIU GPS 'SFFQPSU VUJMJUJFT t 3VMFT (# 6UJMJUZ (#1" NVTU TFU ASFBTPOBCMF DIBSHFT JUSTICE LOREN KLEIN t #PUI MBDL ABCTPMVUF EJTDSFUJPO “reasonable” has broader application to the rates UP MFWZ GFFT UIFZ XBOU charged by the likes of complex over an allegedly unpaid $418,541 water bill, also criticised both the GBPA’s failure to give its Hawksbill Creek Agreement responsibilities legal “footing” through enacting bye-laws and the Government for not “pressing” Freeport’s quasi-governmental regulator to do this. Justice Klein ruled that such inaction, in failing to give statutory effect to the GBPA’s power to charge Freeport businesses and households “reasonable
rates” for the provision of water and other utility services, is contrary to the “principles of good management and administrative law” especially given that Grand Bahama Utility Company holds a monopoly. The ruling, over an action begun more than six years ago in December 2018, immediately sparks questions over whether the Supreme Court declaration that utilities charges in Freeport must be
the Grand Bahama Power Company. The provision of electricity services, which was also the GBPA’s responsibility under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, has since been privatised and outsourced via GB Power’s spin-off and sale to private interests, with the utility now 100 percent owned by Canadian electrical giant, Emera. Complaints that GB Power’s rates are too high, and that businesses and
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Opposition: ‘No $183m roadworks’ in west GB By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Opposition’s chairman yesterday demanded that a contract to overhaul west Grand Bahama’s roads be “terminated” by the Government, adding: “I don’t believe there’s $183m worth of roadworks there.” Dr Duane Sands, speaking out after it was revealed
that a Bahamas Striping group affiliate had been awarded the work without competitive bidding, questioned to Tribune Business how Bahamians can get “value for money” for their tax dollars without the presence of rival offers from other contractors. Arguing that the project, designed to overhaul 98 miles of road, needs to be re-bid, he asserted: “The maths does not add
DR DUANE SANDS
MICHAEL PINTARD
up. It ain’t math-ing. I don’t even believe there’s $180m worth of roads in Grand Bahama. I’m not being facetious or simple. I have driven up and down out there. Unless they are planning on paving every
single inch of west Grand Bahama, I don’t see where there’s $180m worth of roadworks to be done. “The fact this administration seems hell bent on
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Balmoral Club submits new condo hotel plan By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter jsimmons@tribunemedia.net THE Balmoral Club has submitted a revised application to the Town Planning Committee seeking approval for a sixstorey condo hotel at its Sanford Drive location. The proposed 30-unit development will again be located at the north-east portion of the existing Balmoral Clubhouse with parking to be located at
the southern side of the property. Plans include a basement for housekeeping, storage and parking, a ground floor hotel lobby, expanded terrace and public washrooms, three storeys of condo hotel units, a roof-top terrace and 91 parking spaces. The Balmoral Club received initial site plan approval in February 2022 for a four-storey detached hotel, which was appealed by the Balmoral Phase 1 Condominium Association and the Balmoral
Homeowners Association. In October 2023, the Balmoral Club developers submitted a new proposal for an eight-storey condo hotel with 50 residential units, which was denied by the Town Planning Committee. The developer appealed and the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board, in a December 19, 2024, verdict found that the Town Planning Committee’s decision to reject the eight-storey, 50-unit condo hotel “lacks the requisite
reasoning” given that it had previously approved a smaller-scale version of the development at the same location. The Committee, in its original late 2023 decision, rejected the Balmoral Club’s expansion plan because it was “incompatible” with land use and development trends in the gated Sanford Drive community. However, the Board, chaired by attorney Dawson Malone,
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