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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2020
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Cable lays-off 100 on top client uncertainty By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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ABLE Bahamas yesterday confirmed the temporary layoff of almost 100 staff as its top executive revealed that major corporate clients are warning âdailyâ they may stop using its services. Franklyn Butler, the BISX-listed communications providerâs chief executive, told Tribune Business that the likes of hotels, web shops and liquor stores were repeatedly sounding the alarm that they will not be Cable Bahamas customers âif the emergency
⢠Major accounts warn âdailyâ on disconnection ⢠Top executive: Survival key in unknown future ⢠John Bull also moves on temporary lay-offs
FRANKLYN BUTLER
orders extend much longerâ. Confirming that the lay-offs were designed to prepare Cable Bahamas and its affiliates for a post-COVID-19 future, Mr Butler said the groupâs action had primarily impacted workers employed at now-closed retail stores operated by itself and the Aliv mobile provider. Sales teams were also affected as Cable Bahamas moved to ensure its survival amid the loss of
major income-generating clients. The move, which involves 76 Cable Bahamas employees and 20 at Aliv, was announced as Tribune Business learned that John Bull, the luxury goods market leader, had informed hundreds of staff that it will also be temporarily laying them off with all store locations closed amid the pandemic lockdown.
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Whatâs the âgame planâ for economic revival?
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
THE government must âcome up with a game planâ for bringing The Bahamas out of COVID-19 lockdown and kickstarting economic recovery, a governance reformer urged yesterday. Robert Myers, the Organisation for Responsible Governanceâs (ORG) principal, told Tribune Business that the government needed to lift its head from the immediate health crisis to communicate a strategy for social and economic revival once the pandemic threat had passed. Warning that The Bahamas would immediately be threatened by other crises in COVID-19s immediate aftermath, Mr Myers said the government needed to bring both the private
⢠ORG chief: Business, citizns need timeline ⢠âFreaking outâ, âon pins and needlesâ with uncertainty
ROBERT MYERS sector and ordinary citizens on board and give them an understanding of when business and daily life will start to open back up. He added that all were âfreaking outâ, and âon pins and needlesâ, over continued near and mid-term uncertainty that could be
Super Value chief targets six months of food inventory By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net SUPER Valueâs principal yesterday revealed he is seeking to build six monthsâ worth of food inventories as he branded the extended shopping hours as a âreliefâ for both merchants and consumers. Rupert Roberts voiced optimism to Tribune Business that the extension to 10pm will âwork a lot betterâ and reduce the mammoth lines experienced by all New Providence food stores as Bahamians and residents raced to stock up ahead of the five-day Easter
weekend lockdown. Acknowledging that no rule book existed for managing the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Roberts suggested that the government had realised its shopping schedule had âsqueezed it to tight for consumers to get in and get out with what they needâ. âItâs a relief to extend the hours. Itâs a relief for us and relief for the consumer,â he told this newspaper. âBy and large the public have co-operated, but the ones that donât, the shorter hours cause them to have disrespect or a disregard for the social distancing.
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Co-ordinate for up to 3,500 COVID-19 masks every week
By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net SEAMSTRESSES and tailors yesterday said they can produce between 1,000 and 3,500 COVID-19 face masks per week with better government co-ordination. Phylicia Ellis, a fashion designer and seamstress, told Tribune Business: âI listened to the prime ministerâs presentation briefly, and from what I gathered they want to initiate and put money into the small businesses. By him directing money to small businesses, those small businesses can go on and hire people
to help create those face masks. âWith that being said it is good that they are taking this seriously, and they want to make moves with this initiative. But we have to ask ourselves: By the government making this move and pivoting in this direction, are we doing it just for doing it sake, or are we doing it because it makes sense?â Ms Ellis said her mask production depends on multiple variables, but she added: It depends on how many sewing machines I have at my disposal, and how many extra hands I will
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eased if the Minnis administration collaborated with all stakeholders on a likely timeline and strategy for returning The Bahamas to some semblance of normality. âIâd love to have greater depth on what the government is thinking,â the ORG chief told this newspaper. âWeâve heard a lot about the current situation but nothing with regard to how we get ourselves out of this thing. âWhat is the mid-term and long-term? Right now we donât fully understand the short-term plan. It would be nice to hear more on that from the Prime Minister rather than what weâre shutting down, or that weâre on
lockdown and quarantine. âWe canât make any real plans or contingency plans until we have a better understanding from the government on what is going on... Itâs time the government collaborated and communicated with the people in business and the citizens of The Bahamas to create a better understanding.â Mr Myers spoke out after Carl Bethel QC, the attorney general, suggested in the Senate on Monday night that the government was seeking to open the domestic, non-tourism sectors of the Bahamian economy within two to two-and-a-half
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Commission faces battle over brokerâs winding-up By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A FORMER Bahamian broker/dealer yesterday pledged to fight the Securities Commissionâs bid to place it in courtsupervised liquidation over concerns it asserts are âcompletely baselessâ. Guy Gentile, principal of Mint Broker International, told Tribune Business he still wanted âmy day in courtâ to challenge actions by the regulator that had âput us out of businessâ without due justification and cost up to 70 Bahamian jobs in doing so. The Securities Commission, though, has already persuaded the Supreme Court to approve Bahamasbased EY (Ernst & Young) associate partner, Igal Wizman, and his Caymanbased counterpart, Eleanor Fisher, as joint provisional liquidators for Mint Broker International (formerly named Swiss America Securities). Justice Ian Winderâs Order, dated March 19, permits the EY duo to take control of all Mint Broker Internationalâs assets, property and documents. It has also set May 19, 2020, as the date when Mr Gentile can seek to overturn the Order and Securities Commission action - at a full hearing on the latterâs winding-up petition. Should he fail, what remains of Mint Broker will be placed in court-supervised liquidation. Documents filed by the Securities Commission in support of the winding-up allege that it was motivated to take this action because Mint Broker is currently ânon-operationalâ and had failed to comply with the requirements set by the regulator for its voluntary dissolution. As a result, with Mint Brokerâs registration suspended, the Securities
Commission argued that the provisional liquidatorsâ appointment was essential to protecting âthe welfare of investors and/or clientsâ. Christina Rolle, the Securities Commissionâs executive director, alleged in the winding-up petition that Mr Gentile and Mint Broker had breached the Securities Industryâs Actâs section 73 through their âunilateral decision to voluntarily wind-upâ the broker/dealer that was formerly based at Bay Streetâs Elizabeth on Bay plaza. She argued that the law requires Securities Commission licensees to seek the regulatorâs approval for doing this, and multiple letters were sent to Mr Gentile and his business warning that âconditionsâ would be imposed for taking this course of action. These âconditionsâ included a complete transaction history involving the brokerage accounts that Mint Broker held with its main clearing house/ counterparty; a âfull reconciliationâ of all client accounts from the period dating from June 1, 2019, to closure; the provision of outstanding audited financial statements for 2017 and 2018; and âa detailed planâ for winding-up operations. These were supposed to have been submitted by 2019 year-end, but Ms Rolle alleged: âTo-date, despite the numerous requests from the Commission, Swiss America (Mint Broker) has failed again to comply with and/or provide all the requested information. âBy its letter dated February 4, 2020, the Commission formally advised Swiss America that by reason of its failure to provide all required information - and Swiss Americaâs current nonoperational status - the
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