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MONDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2022
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GB electricity costs 40% below rest of Bahamas By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net GRAND Bahama’s electricity costs will be 40 percent lower than Nassau’s and the rest of The Bahamas during the 2023 summer peak after the island’s utility locked in fuel costs at 12-14 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh). Dave McGregor, Caribbean chief operating officer for Emera, Grand Bahama Power Company’s 100 percent owner, told Tribune Business he hoped the difference in energy costs would steer investors towards the island and help revive its struggling economy. “If I were to believe the numbers we’re seeing out of BPL next summer, all things being equal, we’ll be 40 percent less cost than the rest of The Bahamas,” he asserted. “I’ve seen the numbers that BPL has pushed out for next June. If they are at 27 cents per kWh, and we’re at 12-13 kWh, that’s a huge difference and I hope that helps investors
• Utility locks in 2023 fuel costs at 12-14 cents • Almost half or 50% below BPL’s surging rate • GB Power: 80% hedged at $51 per barrel decide where to invest because Grand Bahama needs it.” GB Power’s fuel costs will be close to half, or 50 percent less, than BPL’s for the nine-month period between March and November 2022 based on what the latter unveiled recently. BPL’s fuel charge will hit 23.3 cents per kWh for the three months from March 1 to end-May 2022; 27 cents for the June to end-August period;
and 25 cents for September to endNovember 2022. These compare to the 12-14 cents per kWh charge that GB Power estimates it will have to levy on customers throughout 2023 after it managed to lock-in 80 percent of its fuel needs for 2023 at $51 per barrel via its continuing hedging strategy. The figures, and the differences with BPL, thus give New Providence residents and businesses - and those through the rest of The Bahamas - an insight into what might have been had the state-owned utility continued its hedging. Tribune Business previously revealed a December 9, 2020, e-mail from former BPL chief executive, Whitney Heastie, to the then-Board revealing that the hedging strategy executed via the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) had provided the foundation for an 11.5 cents per kWh fuel charge for all customers through to March 2024. “The hedges approved by the Board were finally executed as per
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The Bahamas’ top two life insurers downgraded By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas must “take concrete steps” to reverse the trend of sovereign credit rating downgrades after the country’s two largest life and health insurers saw their own financial strength assessments slashed as a result. Patrick Ward, Bahamas First’s president and chief executive, made his call before A. M. Best, the international insurance credit rating agency, on Friday downgraded both Colina Insurance Company and Family Guardian due to the latest sovereign
downgrade imposed on the The Bahamas by Moody’s. Pointing to the extra risk generated by the fact the both BISX-listed life and health insurers have business portfolios almost entirely concentrated in The Bahamas, A. M. Best cut the financial strength rating for both to ‘B++’ (Good) from ‘A-’ (Excellent). And the long-term issuer credit rating for each was also slashed to ‘bbb+’ (Good) from ‘a-’ (Excellent), with both parent companies - Colina Holdings (Bahamas) and FamGuard Corporation - seeing their own longterm issuer credit ratings to
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Union chief says: ‘Don’t encourage mediocrity’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A TRADE union leader says the labour movement “must not encourage mediocrity” in the workplace as he urged patience when over trying to achieve all goals in industrial negotiations. Obie Ferguson, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, told Tribune Business that while unions may “not get everything we want when we want it” they should adopt a strategy of “taking it block by block, corner by corner, piece by piece” until eventually all targets are
OBIE FERGUSON met by playing a long-term game. “People who work in this country legally, whether on a work permit or whatever, should be protected - not from mediocrity but, if their employer treats them
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No sanctions over price control ‘death warrant’ execution By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE GOVERNMENT last night backed down from imposing sanctions on food retailers and pharmacists who fail to enact the expanded price control regime - which one branded “a death warrant” - by today’s deadline. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Ministry of Health and Wellness, in statements issued nearsimultaneously and using almost identical language, said no “penalties” or enforcement measures will be levied against food stores, pharmacies and their wholesale suppliers during the “extended period” necessary to adjust inventory, margins and mark-ups to the new regime’s requirements. The move came after Prime Minister Philip
Davis KC was warned by Philip Beneby, the Retail Grocers Association’s president, that merchants would not implement the new price controls by today - as required by law under newly-signed regulations - because to do so would leave them facing “massive losses” and be akin to “signing a death warrant for our businesses”. Mr Beneby’s letter to the Prime Minister, which was being widely circulated on social media, added that the addition of 38 products to the price control regime would make “operations unfeasible” for small and mid-sized food stores since between 40-60 percent of their inventory will be covered by governmentimposed mark-ups resulting in these items being sold at a loss. Subsequently confirming that the letter is authentic,
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