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MONDAY, APRIL 8, 2024
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Soaring boat insurance ‘huge cost’ to Bahamas By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net ASTRONOMICAL boat insurance costs are having a “huge” impact on Family Island hotels and marinas through shortening the tourism season by a month and leaving many “empty” over the summer. Emanuel “Manny” Alexiou, the Bahamas Out Island Promotion Board’s president, told Tribune Business that whereas resorts and marinas used to be “busy through” to the early September Labour Day holiday in the US most boaters now depart this nation’s waters in early August and do not return until early to mid-November. He explained that, for many owners, insurance costs meant it was simply too expensive to keep their vessels in The Bahamas during hurricane season. Mr Alexiou, also the Abaco Beach Resort’s proprietor, revealed that one Carolinas resident had informed him he was moving his boat from The Bahamas to Georgia
• Vessel exodus cuts tourism season by month • Has ‘big impact’ on hotel, marina occupancy • Promotion Board places issue on ‘agenda’ this summer to save around $40,000 in insurance costs. Disclosing that insurance costs were an issue now on the Bahamas Out Island Promotion Board’s “agenda”, he told this newspaper that the impact represents a “big cost” to this nation’s resort, marina and boating industries in terms of
reduced business volumes and bookings during the summer months. “As for the boating industry, I think we in this survey found that airlift and related infrastructure were most, most important, and the high operating costs of doing business in The Bahamas and boat insurance, especially the fact most boaters have to leave at the beginning of August and not return to the beginning or end of November. That’s a big cost to The Bahamas in terms of occupancy,” Mr Alexiou said recently. Speaking subsequently to Tribune Business, he explained that owners face “add-on” insurance costs if they keep their vessels in this nation during peak hurricane season. This is because, “if the boat sinks or has major damage here, they will have to get to the US to fix it, so the extra cost of salvage and transportation adds on to it” and represent increased expenses that insurers factor into premium rates. “It’s a huge impact,” Mr Alexiou said of the now-typical August
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PM told GBPA’s owners: I have ‘no confidence’ in you By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Prime Minster personally told the Grand Bahama Port Authority’s (GBPA) owners that he has “no confidence” in their ability to “realise the promise and potential of” Freeport. Philip Davis KC revealed his blunt verdict on the Hayward and St George families’ capabilities, and those of the GBPA’s executive management, during a Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) branch meeting on Grand Bahama on Saturday night where he asserted: “Enough is enough.”
PHILIP DAVIS KC Tribune Business was sent an audio recording of the meeting, later widely circulated on social media, during which the Prime Minister said the “rubber
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Deltec’s big damage from FTX investor ‘Gatling gun’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN bank and its chairman have blasted aggrieved FTX investors for employing “a Gatling gun approach” that has inflicted “tremendous damage” on their financial services reputation. Deltec Bank & Trust, and Jean Chalopin, in an April 2, 2024, filing that again urges the south Florida federal court to dismiss a long-running class action lawsuit, both asserted that the former crypto exchange’s clients behind the claim had merely fired off “a barrage of baseless
conclusions” in the hope that something will stick. However, the Bahamian financial institution and its chairman argued that the claims “miss their mark completely” while again asserting that the Florida court lacks jurisdiction over them. They argue instead that the aggrieved investors should instead “reinstate” their action and bring it before the Bahamian judicial system. “Plaintiffs employ a Gatling gun approach to pleading - wildly firing a barrage of baseless conclusions and implausible inferences at the defendants
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GBPA: $200m in taxes far exceed Gov’t outlay By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) yesterday blasted the Government’s huge payment demand as ill-founded by arguing that the $200m tax revenues earned by the latter far exceed what it invests in Freeport. Freeport’s quasi-governmental authority, hitting back at the Davis administration’s $357m reimbursement claim, promised to “robustly defend” itself and its owners against such a demand and voiced optimism that it will be “firmly” defeated both in arbitration and, potentially, in the court system if required. In a statement that will likely further escalate the reignited battle with the Government, the GBPA accused it of making the demand “to force” the Hayward and St George families to sell their respective 50 percent equity ownership interests after
they rejected its offer to buy them out at a price which was under-valued or at “a considerable discount” compared to what they feel the business is worth. And, warning that a very public dispute between Nassau and Freeport will “prove hugely damaging” to the latter’s economy and investor confidence, just as Grand Bahama is poised to enjoy a $2bn investment pipeline, the GBPA sought to turn the tables on the Government as to who is to blame for the city and wider island’s ills. Prime Minister Philip Davis KC, at the weekend, tried to pin all the blame on the GBPA, the two families and its executive management, but Freeport’s quasi-governmental authority accused the Government of “systematically handcuffing” it by preventing it from acting as a “one-stop shop” investment approvals process and thus placing it at a competitive
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