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Bahamian share offering for new water plant JV By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net BAHAMIAN investors will be able to purchase an ownership stake in a new joint venture entity holding several Out Island water plants via its upcoming share offering, it was revealed yesterday. Leon Lundy, minister of state with responsibility for the Water & Sewerage Corporation, told Tribune Business that WSCDesalCo will be formed to hold seven reverse osmosis plants set to be acquired from Aqua Design (Bahamas) via negotiations set to be completed by early July at latest. And he confirmed that WSCDesalCo will be structured
the holding company through a t 84$%FTBM$P UP “share offering”. CVZ TFWFO "RVB Mr Lundy told this newspaper %FTJHO GBDJMJUJFT that full approvals for WSCDesalCo’s creation are being issued t A)JTUPSJD FOUJUZ UP by Cabinet “right now”, and it CF KPJOU PXOFE CZ should be created and operational before year-end 2025. With JOWFTUPST TUBUF details still being finalised, he was unable to provide the timing of t 8BUFS $PSQ T any share offering, the likely price MPTT BU N that will be offered to Bahamians, the collective size of the public TVCTJEJFT and government’s stakes, or their SFBDI N respective values. as a private-public partnership (PPP), jointly owned by the Government and private Bahamian investors, who will be given an opportunity to buy into
‘Adverse’ land ownership not prevented in Freeport By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamian judicial system’s highest court yesterday ruled that acquiring real estate in Freeport by adverse possession is not prevented by the city’s founding treaty, related laws or regulations. The UK-based Privy Council, in dismissing an appeal over a land dispute, also found that there is nothing in the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, statute law or regulation that bars the Limitation Act, which sets the cut-off deadline by which legal actions must be launched, from applying in Freeport. It reached this conclusion in rejecting Raymond Meadows’ appeal over an eight-year land dispute with Keith and Dorothea Rolle involving a parcel of land located on Lunar Boulevard in the city’s Britannia area. The former had challenged whether the Hawksbill Creek Acts, the Building and Sanitary Code, and Freeport’s 2014 town planning and development regulations
impact the Limitation Act’s functionality. And Mr Meadows had also questioned whether the restrictive covenants, contained in both his and the couple’s conveyances confirming their respective land titles and ownership, represented “a contractual waiver of the accrual of rights by adverse possession under the Limitation Act’. The Rolles, on December 3, 2003, had acquired 28,000 square feet of ‘tract 19A’ on Lunar Boulevard. This was part of a larger 214.02-acre parcel, and the couple proceeded to construct a six-unit commercial complex on their property, complete with a ten-foot wide roadway and six-foot high wire fence. A certificate of occupancy was issued by the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) on March 18, 2005. All this occurred before Mr Meadows acquired his 1.305 acres, located immediately to the south of the Rolles’ property, on February 1, 2017. Upon completing his purchase, a survey of the land purported to show that the Rolles’ road and fence
Addressing the House of Assembly during the 2025-2026 Budget debate, the minister disclosed: “We’ve taken significant strides in ensuring the sustainability of our water resources, including the acquisition of seven
desalination plants in Eleuthera, Exuma, San Salvador and Inagua. “These plants will be transferred to the WSCDesalCo, a new public-private utility company that will be owned by Bahamians and the state. This is an historic move that will keep profits in The Bahamas and reinvest them in the nation’s people and environment.” Speaking subsequently to Tribune Business, Mr Lundy confirmed that the seven waterproducing plants referred to were those owned by Aqua Design (Bahamas), with whom the Water & Sewerage Corporation and the Government have had an increasingly acrimonious relationship that has spilled over into several Supreme Court battles in recent years.
LEON LUNDY Confirming that talks to acquire the plants from Aqua Design (Bahamas) are ongoing, the minister said: “We’re in negotiations, and it’s coming down to the final weeks of negotiations. We should have the remainder completed in
Fears safety reforms set to drive visiting boaters away By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net FEARS have been voiced that new safety measures proposed with the 2025-2026 Budget could prove a deterrent to small boats/yachts and drive them away from visiting The Bahamas. Maritime industry stakeholders warned Port Department officials that planned amendments to the Port Authorities Act, which impose a blanket requirement on all foreign-flagged vessels to be equipped with a fullyfunctioning automatic identification system (AIS) that is always turned on while in The Bahamas, do not match US and international laws and standards.
t "VUPNBUJD WFTTFM *% NPWF HPFT GVSUIFS UIBO 64 t 4FU UP ADPNQMJDBUF TJHOJmDBOU USBGmD UP #BIBNBT t 1PSU %FQU UBSHFUJOH TBGFUZ QSPmU AHPPE CBMBODF In particular, they pointed out that the US Coastguard only requires vessels 65 feet or longer to be equipped with an AIS. As a result, smaller yachts and boats - such as the many 35-foot Boston Whalers or centre consoles that frequently visit The Bahamas, and especially northern islands such as Bimini - would now be required to invest in outfitting themselves with this
system if the reforms pass as is. Apart from calls to change the Port Authorities (Amendment) Bill 2025, so that it aligns with US and global mandates by tying the installation and operation of an AIS system to a vessel’s length, maritime industry participants also suggested the language needs to be clearer to prevent definition discrepancies and
SEE PAGE B5 interpretation differences from afflicting the sector. Port Department officials were informed that the US ‘65 feet and over’ requirement only applies to commercial vessels, and “most of the boats coming to The Bahamas that are over 65 feet” do not fall into this category and are classified as ‘private’. However, The Bahamas in contrast treats those vessels that are chartering as “commercial” - directly contradicting their classification in the US. The concerns relate specifically to the Bill’s clause seven, which seeks to introduce a new section 40B into the Port Authorities Act that will “impose the duty on all foreign vessels in Bahamian waters to utilise an automated identification system at all times and the penalty of $1,000 for persons who do not comply”. The clause itself mandates that “every foreign vessel that is in Bahamian waters shall at all times be equipped with an
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National debt falls to $12bn as bond repurchase put at $700m
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By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
over which this nation has no control. Offering a tepid forecast for a sector long-branded as the “second pillar” of the Bahamian economy, and contributing 15 percent to the country’s annual gross domestic product (GDP) or output, the Central Bank said: “During 2024, indications are that expenditures tracking the financial sector’s contribution to the Bahamian economy rose modestly. “However, the sector’s overall activities remained subdued against a continuing backdrop of global regulatory changes and other externalities, which
THE Bahamas’ national debt fell back close to the $12bn mark at end-March 2025, it was revealed yesterday, amid suggestions that the Government had refinanced around $700m of its existing bonds. Sir Franklyn Wilson, the Arawak Homes and Sunshine Holdings chairman, told Tribune Business he had been informed by Wall Street contacts that The Bahamas had enjoyed “a good day” on the international markets after its week-long offer to repurchase up to $2.2bn of its outstanding bonds - spread across six issues - in exchange for cash drew strong investor interest. Disclosing that information he had received suggested the offer was “oversubscribed”, he added: “This is a very significant development for the country. When Wall Street talks about you like this, this is a different thing. This is no time for petty partisan politics. “The real key to this is the level of confidence. The Government keeps doing things. We have to get beyond this ‘junk bond’ status, and today is a step in the right direction. This is a significant day for the country, a significant day.” Neither Michael Halkitis, minister of economic affairs, nor Simon Wilson, the Ministry of Finance’s financial secretary, responded to Tribune Business calls and
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CENTRAL BANK OF THE BAHAMAS HEADQUARTERS
Financial sector’s economic impact ‘remaining subdued’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamian financial services industry’s economic impact “remains subdued”, the Central Bank revealed yesterday, with Bahamian banking jobs falling in 2024 while expatriate numbers increased. The industry regulator, in its annual assessment of the sector’s contribution to the Bahamian economy, said that while its overall spending rose “modestly” last year its near to medium-term outlook “remains mixed” due to ongoing international regulatory pressures plus other developments restricting business activity