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TUESDAY, MAY 23, 2023
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Bank shrugs off $2.8m fee rise to ‘beat target by 54%’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net COMMONWEALTH Bank yesterday revealed its $19.58m first quarter profits “exceeded expectations by 54 percent” despite having to contend with a more than one-third year-overyear increase in licence fees. Tangela Albury, the BISXlisted lender’s vice-president and chief financial officer, told Tribune Business that its 2023 full-year figures will be impacted by “non-controllable additional
expenses” driven by the reimposition of Business Licence fees on the commercial banking industry. But, while this will increase Commonwealth Bank’s annual operating costs by some $2.8m, she voiced confidence that the bank will hit both its second quarter and 2023 full-year financial targets after profits for the first three months were aided by signs of renewed growth in its core lending business. Ms Albury, revealing that loan delinquencies in its key consumer credit segment have now fallen below 5 percent of the
total outstanding portfolio, also expressed optimism that Commonwealth Bank will be able to “maintain dividend payments” of $5.9m per quarter throughout 2023 as COVID-19’s devastating financial impact starts to slowly recede into the past. Speaking after the bank’s 2023 first quarter profits declined by almost 35 percent year-over-year, falling to $19.58m from $30.406m in 2022, she explained that the latter figure was almost entirely driven by the “v-shaped” pandemic rebound which enabled it to recover or write-back some
$17.403m in loan loss provisions during the early part of last year alone. Loan loss provision recoveries dropped by 72.5 percent yearover-year, declining to a more regular $4.817m, which meant Commonwealth Bank had to rely more on interest income and fees from its core lending business to drive growth. These helped push 2023 first quarter profits to a level some $5.5m higher than the $14.1m historical average achieved over the past five years.
• Commonwealth eyeing ‘all areas for growth’ • Consumer loan delinquency cut below 5% • Business Licence return drives SEE PAGE B2 38% fee rise
Craig Flowers and FML PI Wendy’s: Bank restriction face winding-up petition expired almost 50 years ago By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter jsimmons@tribunemedia.net FML’s ex-chief operating officer has filed a Supreme Court petition to have the web shop chain wound-up as his five-year legal battle with Craig Flowers escalates into a new phase. Newspaper advertisements published yesterday disclose that Deyvon Jones’ winding-up petition, which was filed with the Supreme Court on May 10 this year, is due for hearing before Sir Ian Winder, the chief justice, on June 23, 2023. Mr Jones declined to comment yesterday when contacted by Tribune Business, while Mr Flowers was said to be in meetings all day and was unavailable to speak. As a result, the reasons for the petition’s filings, its prospects of success and whether it will go to a Supreme Court hearing or be settled beforehand could not be ascertained. Mackay and Moxey, attorneys for Mr Jones, referred this newspaper to the Supreme Court registry to obtain any legal documents. Mr Jones, and Mr Flowers and FML, have been embroiled in a long-running legal battle over the
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
CRAIG FLOWERS former’s departure from the web shop chain that has resulted in both Supreme Court and Court of Appeal judgments. Mr Jones obtained a partial success at the Court of Appeal, which ordered FML and his former boss to pay him $120,000 plus interest over a dispute stemming from alleged “irregularities” designed to inflate staff earnings. The appellate court, by a two-one majority ruling, found that FML’s former chief operating officer should receive the four months’ unpaid salary due to him. With a 6 percent annual interest rate applied to this sum from late March 2018, the total payment due is now close to $170,000,
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Corporate tax ‘driven’ by revenue demands By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE GOVERNMENT’S corporate income tax proposal is “driven” by the need to increase revenues and could “be a gateway” to further progressive reforms that ultimately include a personal income tax, a governance reformer said yesterday. Hubert Edwards, the Organisation for Responsible Governance’s (ORG) economic development committee head, told Tribune Business that the Government is
“strategically leveraging” the need for The Bahamas to comply with the G-20/OECD’s 15 percent minimum global corporate tax rate to “inject greater equity” and fairness into the taxation system. While the first of four options would only levy 15 percent corporate income tax on Bahamas-based entities that are part of multinational groups generating annual turnovers of 750m or more, and are thus caught by the G-20/ OECD initiative, the other three propose different
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THE ONLY firm restriction governing how the disputed ex-Scotiabank location on Paradise Island can be used expired almost 50 years ago in 1975, Tribune Business can reveal. The so-called “restrictive covenants”, which have been obtained by this newspaper, show the site acquired by the Wendy’s and Marco’s Pizza franchise owner was limited to use as a bank branch and related offices for only a five-year period dating from the original conveyance of the property. The conveyance is dated November 9, 1970, which means the restriction expired more than 47 years ago at the end of 1975. The revelations shed new light on the battle initiated by Atlantis and its fellow Paradise Island resorts and developers to bar Aetos Holdings, the Wendy’s and Marco’s Pizza owner, from converting the former Scotiabank branch - which it has
TANGELA ALBURY
WENDY’S acquired and now owns - into a restaurant destination featuring both brands. The mega resort has teamed with the Ocean Club and Comfort Suites, as well as Hurricane Hole’s developer, Sterling Global, in a bid to overturn the permission granted by the Town Planning Committee for Aetos Holdings to “change the use” of that location from a bank to fast-food restaurants. However, the
• ‘Nothing to prevent restaurant operating there’ • Hotel objectors had chance to buy themselves • Atlantis: Approval ‘unlawful’ - no public meeting “restrictive covenants” governing how the location is to be used do not appear to provide an iron-clad case by themselves for that decision to be overturned. One well-placed source, speaking with knowledge of the covenants, told this newspaper: “There’s nothing there to prevent a restaurant from operating there. The only restriction placed with regard to use of the property was in that 1970 conveyance when, for the first five years, it had to be a bank branch.”
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‘Anyone who wants diesel able to buy it’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net FOCOL Holdings chairman yesterday voiced optimism that “anyone who wants to buy diesel on this island can get it” even though “the majority” of petroleum retailers were said to have stopped sales of this fuel. Sir Franklyn Wilson, whose BISX-listed wholesaler operates under the Shell brand, acknowledged to Tribune Business that all parties in the petroleum industry were “no doubt disappointed that things have not been resolved faster” when it came to addressing the industry’s issues - particularly its price-controlled fixed margins - with the Government. Speaking after numerous dealers, in an act that appeared to be spontaneous rather than pre-planned, stopped selling diesel in a longthreatened first step to take action if their
SIR FRANKLYN WILSON demands were not met, he argued that there was no supply shortage and all those needing this fuel for their vehicles can get it. “The fact of the matter is that I am satisfied anyone who wants to buy diesel on thus island can get it,” Sir Franklyn told this newspaper. “No one who wants to buy diesel cannot find it on this island. Anyone who wants to buy diesel on this island, I am satisfied they can get it.”
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