business@tribunemedia.net
FRIDAY, JULY 11, 2025
$5.53 $5.09
$5.63
$5.51
$5.48
Super Value: Energy costs ‘out of hand’ in $200k spike
FTX Bahamas: $290m claims unpaid on KYC
t +VOF T KVNQ GPMMPXT .BZ T IJLF SUPER Value’s president is asserting that energy costs t /BTTBV 4U EPXO “seem out of hand” after the PUIFST VQ supermarket chain’s electricity bill increased by almost $200,000 in just two months. t /P GPPE QSJDF SJTFT Debra Symonette told Tribune Business that, following EFTQJUF QSPmUT FSPTJPO a 29.3 percent month-over-
t "XBJUJOH DSFEJUPS EFUBJMT GPS SFMFBTF t "SPVOE PG BQQSPWBMT JNQBDUFE t /PU SFKFDUFE CVU QVU CBDL JO SFTFSWFT
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
month jump in its electricity costs from April to May 2025, the company has now sustained a further 24 percent month-over-month rise in energy costs via its justarrived bill for June. This has resulted in a near-40 percent increase in power bills expenses for the 2025 half-year. Reiterating that the 13-store chain has no plans to increase food prices for consumers, despite the $194,184 increase in electricity costs in just two months, she confirmed that Super Value will meet with Bahamas Power
& Light (BPL) officials “shortly” to explain the bills it was receiving. Ms Symonette told this newspaper that Super Value was struggling to determine what had caused such a spike in energy costs. While the supermarket chain is analysing its electricity consumption patterns to determine if that is the source, she added that checks to see if power is “being lost through grounding” had proven negative. And, having invested in a business-wide solar energy
roll-out, she pointed to discrepancies between the BPL bills received for separate Super Value store locations. While its Nassau Street location had enjoyed a 2 percent decrease in electricity costs, its stores at Golden Gates, Robinson Road, Prince Charles Drive and East Street had seen their bills surge by between 64 percent and 75 percent. The Super Value president, noting that electricity costs were moving in the opposite direction to what many
Bahamian businesses and households had expected based on previous assertions from the Government, said that after the 29.3 percent jump between April and May “they’ve gone up another 24 percent from May to June”. “That makes it 39 percent over last year,” Ms Symonette told Tribune Business. “Year-to-date it’s gone up 39 percent over last year. This is despite us having solar and many items, such as eggs, being price controlled.” With increases of $79,563 and $114,621, Super Value’s monthly electricity costs have soared by a combined $194,184 in just two months to June 2025. “It cuts into the bottom line,” she added of the impact. “It will affect the profits, but we’re still trying to maintain our prices. It’s knocked $194,000 off the bottom line. You just wonder where it’s going to end. I think
SEE PAGE B5
Pintard blasts ‘off-books’ loans disguised as PPPs By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Opposition’s leader is voicing concern that multiple public-private partnerships (PPPs) agreed by the Davis administration are really “offthe-books” loans that further increase the $11.7bn national debt. Michael Pintard told Tribune Business that the Government is “not obeying the rules” set out in the PPP policy left in
place by its Minnis predecessor as he renewed Opposition concerns that it plans to “bypass Parliament and the budgetary framework” through placing $300m raised in The Bahamas’ recent sovereign bond issue directly into the National Investment Fund. Asserting that such a move would run afoul of both the Bahamian constitution and statute law, he also called on Prime Minister Philip Davis KC to explain what impact the borrowing of $300m would
have on the Government’s forecast $75.5m Budget surplus for the now-started 2025-2026 fiscal year. The just-released 2025-2026 annual borrowing plan makes no mention of the $300m generated by last month’s $1.067bn sovereign bond issue, and Mr Pintard told this newspaper that using it as seed capital for the National Investment Fund - as well as previous PPP deals - appeared designed to
SEE PAGE B6
MICHAEL PINTARD
‘Nothing exotic’ on $373m one-year bond conversion By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN banker last night said there is “nothing exotic” about the Government seeking to refinance 59 percent of its $632.5m Bahamian dollar bonds due to mature this year as Treasury Bills. Gowon Bowe, Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) chief executive, told Tribune Business that the Davis administration’s plans to convert $372.8m worth of one-year government bonds into Treasury Bills with the same maturity duration was designed to align The Bahamas with global standards. Acknowledging that the one-year bond had been
GOWON BOWE developed out of “necessity”, due to the lack of investor appetite for the Government’s longer-term debt paper, he added that the “conversion” to Treasury Bills will not change repayment or rollover
SEE PAGE B7
Online marketplace alert after victim loses $60,000 By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter jsimmons@tribunemedia.net THE Consumer Protection Commission’s chairman is urging Bahamians to proceed with “extreme vigilance” when using online trade and barter marketplaces after one victim was scammed out of $60,000. Senator Randy Rolle spoke out after the consumer watchdog issued a public advisory about unsafe transactions that occur when using social media platforms advertising products and services for sale.
Speaking to Tribune Business, he said the Commission (CPC) has received a growing number of complaints regarding such transactions in recent months and it is now concerned not only about the number of complaints but their value. “We don’t put out an advisory lightly. We’ve been following the trends and, over the past three months, we’ve seen a sharp rise in the number of complaints. And what is even more concerning is the value,” said Mr Rolle. “One person lost nearly $60,000, so this is very serious. This is people’s
SEE PAGE B5
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary has yet to pay some $290m in previously-approved creditor claims because it has yet to be supplied with the necessary Know Your Customer (KYC) verification. Steven P. Coverick, managing director at Alvarez & Marsal North America, a restructuring advisor to the now-renamed FTX Recovery Trust after it emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, revealed that a sizeable proportion of creditor claims submitted in the FTX Digital Markets proceedings have yet to be paid because the Bahamian liquidators are still awaiting the required documentation. He disclosed, in a June 27, 2025, affidavit filed with the Delaware Bankruptcy Court that “approximately $290m was previously considered to be allowed but became disputed claims primarily for failure to complete KYC in The Bahamas”. Tribune Business subsequently verified that the $290m figure is accurate but this does not mean that these claims have been rejected by the FTX Digital Markets liquidator trio Brian Simms KC, the Lennox Paton attorney and senior partner, and the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) accounting duo of Kevin Cambridge and Peter Greaves. Instead, this $290m is now sitting back in the claims reserve and will be processed once the creditors submit the necessary KYC verifications to prove their identity and that the relevant assets/monies claimed do indeed belong to them. According to the FTX Digital Markets liquidators’ last report to the Supreme Court, which was submitted in November 2024, the trio had accepted 38,647 of the 41,264 creditor claims submitted in the Bahamian proceedings
SEE PAGE B6