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Commonwealth hails $63.5m Superwash ‘bites profit amid 91% claw back fall bullet’ on $1.25m By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net COMMONWEALTH Bank yesterday hailed its “second most profitable” year-ever through $63.5m in net income that was generated despite a near-91 percent drop on COVID loss provision write-backs. Tangela Albury, the BISX-listed lender’s vice-president and chief financial officer, in written replies to Tribune Business questions said its bottom line - which exceeded prepandemic performance - had in 2023 been driven by its core banking business and loan book growth with “double digit” rises in interest and net-interest income. One-off factors, such as the recovery of COVID loan loss provisions, were chiefly responsible for Commonwealth Bank posting its record $75.491m
in upgrades
• Second-best year not reliant on loan loss recovery • But non-interest expenses 9% higher than forecast • Deposit insurance premiums to double to $800,000 annual profit in 2022 - a result boosted by more than $25m in writebacks. But, despite that latter number shrinking to just $2.339m in 2023, Ms Albury said the consumer credit specialist beat its net profit forecast for the year by “double digits”. Speaking after the bank’s full-year audited results were unveiled, she added that the $63.5m bottom line was achieved despite significant cost and expense pressures
that saw Commonwealth Bank exceed its projected non-interest expenses (excluding loan loss impairments) by 9 percent or $7.6m. Besides the return of a $3m annual Business Licence fee, the BISXlisted lender was also faced with an increase in general insurance costs due to a hardening reinsurance market that drove premiums higher across the Bahamian property and casualty market and
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
TANGELA ALBURY surging energy costs due to Bahamas Power & Light’s (BPL) efforts to reclaim under-recovered fuel costs. Ms Albury disclosed that such pressures are set to continue in 2024, with its premium paid to the Deposit Insurance Corporation to insure all bank deposits up to $50,000 in value set to double to $800,000. Despite this, she revealed that interest and
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GBPA bracing for arbitration notice By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) is bracing for the Government to formally initiate arbitration proceedings as early as this week after talks failed to break the deadlock over the latter’s $357m demand. Tribune Business understands that last-ditch talks involving attorneys representing both sides made little headway in resolving the dispute over whether Freeport’s quasi-governmental authority owes such a sum, representing how much the Government
alleges it has spent in the Port area over and above tax revenues generated by the city between 2018-2022, to the Public Treasury. “The next step is to get a formal notice of arbitration, which I suspect the Government will serve on the GBPA this week,” one source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said yesterday. The Government team at the talks, which took place during the middle and end of last week, was headed by Ryan Pinder KC, the attorney general, while the GBPA was represented by Fred
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‘Improper conduct’ attorney is rescued from strike-off By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN attorney, twice found guilty of professional misconduct and whose law firm was once placed into receivership, was last week saved from being disbarred by the Court of Appeal. Domek D. Rolle, who saw receivers appointed over a $167,722 debt owed to a client, was rescued from being struck-off the roll of practicing attorneys on the basis that the Bahamas Bar Council’s disciplinary tribunal did not permit him to present a “plea of mitigation” before deciding his punishment.
He was the subject of two Court of Appeal verdicts, both of which upheld Bar Council disciplinary tribunal findings that he was guilty of “improper conduct”. The first case was brought by Scott Deal, who had alleged that Mr Rolle “misappropriated” $167,722, or 28 percent, of $595,000 that he was supposed to be holding in trust for him from the sale of a property in Harbour Island. The Court of Appeal ruling recalled how Mr Rolle “continually made excuses” for why the $167,722 balance could not be paid to Mr Deal, “primarily blaming it on banking problems”. The latter initiated a Supreme
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SUPERWASH has decided to “bite the bullet” by investing more than $1.25m this year to-date in upgrading multiple locations as it bids to “stay ahead of the game” on customer service. Dionisio D’Aguilar, the 11-strong laundromat chain’s principal, told Tribune Business that three out of four targeted sites have now seen their previously “extremely shabby” parking lots totally repaved as it seeks to elevate the customer experience at all sites. Revealing that some $750,000 is being invested in the repaving, with the location at the Carmichael Road and Faith Avenue junction the only one one waiting to be worked on, he added that Superwash also spent around $500,000 earlier this year replacing all the equipment - including washing machines and
DIONISIO D’AGUILAR dryers - at its Gibbs Corner location. Describing depreciation as “a real expense” for his capital-intensive business, Mr D’Aguilar told this newspaper that the laundromat operator is sticking to its policy of replacing machines when they reach the end of their depreciable or useful life. He added that the Charles Saunders Highway location will be the next to undergo a full equipment replacement
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