TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016
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$3.78 Labourers few for landscaper’s 25% business increase By NEIL HARTNELL Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A NEW Providencebased landscaping firm has increased staffing levels by almost 60 per cent to cope with post-Hurricane Matthew demands, its principal yesterday estimating business levels were 20-25 per cent higher than normal. But Robert Myers, head of Caribbean Landscape, lamented that too few Bahamians were taking advantage of the unexpected
* COMPANY EXPANDS STAFF 60% TO COPE POST-MATTHEW * BUT MANY NEW HIRES TAKE ONE PAY CHEQUE AND WALK * CHAMBER CHIEF EXPECTS 30% BUSINESS RISE FOR SOME employment opportunities offered by his company and others in the storm’s wake. He told Tribune Busi-
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$3.98
$4.02
$4.04
Gov’t ‘strongly warned’ against storm relief tax By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
T
he Government was yesterday “warned very strongly” against implementing new or increased taxes to fund Hurricane Matthew relief, the Chamber arguing such a move will be “counter-productive” to the Bahamas’ recovery. Gowon Bowe, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation’s (BCCEC) chairman, told Tribune Business that it had informed the Ministry of Finance that such a move would be “a poor decision” - especially given the timing.
* CHAMBER: ‘COUNTER PRODUCTIVE’ TO ECONOMY REBOUND * ‘VERY DAMAGING’ TO THOSE NEEDING RELIEF THE MOST * ‘WON’T YIELD’ MAJOR INCREASE IN REVENUES Apart from further depressing the economy just when many businesses are struggling mightily to recover from Matthew’s impact, Mr Bowe said new or increased taxes would hurt most the very people the Government wants to help - ordinary Bahamians. The Prime Minister yesterday floated the idea that the Government could impose a new, or ‘special’, tax to help finance storm-related repairs, restoration and relief, suggesting any
such move would have “minimal impact on people”. “I think the Ministry of Finance has raised that as a potential option to the Prime Minister in his role as Minister of Finance,” Mr Bowe told Tribune Business. “We certainly, from the business community perspective, have cautioned very strongly against that,
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Matthew ‘another PM tells Sarkis: ‘We won’t help’ over Baha Mar nail in coffin’ for * TELLS ORIGINAL DEVELOPER: ‘ENGAGE’ WITH CHINA * SLAMS HIS ‘EXTRAORDINARY STATEMENTS’ IN OFFER LETTER new auto dealers * AGAIN HINTS AT ‘BETRAYAL’ FEELINGS ON CHAPTER 11 By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
THE Bahamas Motor Dealers Association’s (BMDA) president yesterday expressed fears that Hurricane Matthew will be “another nail in the coffin for new car sales”, with its impact carrying through into the 2017 New Year. Fred Albury told Tribune Business that the storm’s impact on consumers, and their disposable incomes, was likely to make an already-bad situation “horrible” for struggling new car
* STORM’S CONSUMER IMPACT TO EXACERBATE SALES DROP-OFF * BMDA CHIEF FEARS BAD WILL BE ‘HORRIBLE’ INTO 2017 * SEEKS HELP FROM POLITICIANS WITH ‘BIG CAHUNAS’
dealerships. The Auto Mall’s principal said that with most Bahamians focusing on home repairs and restoration in
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Chamber chair: $150m bond ‘very ‘difficult’ at once By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE proposed $150 million Hurricane Reconstruction Bond is likely to be “multi-tiered” to appeal to different investor groupings, the Chamber’s chairman said yesterday, expressing concern over whether the target sum could be raised in one shot. Gowon Bowe told Tribune Business that the bond issue was likely to be divided into tranches, each with its own interest rate coupon and maturity date, in a bid
* ‘GIANT EFFORT’ MIGHT REQUIRE SPREADING OUT * HURRICANE DEBT OFFERING PROBABLY ‘MULTI-TIERED’ * BANKS SAID READY TO COMMIT $80-$90M IF TERMS RIGHT to satisfy the different requirements of commercial banks and insurance companies. He explained that while the banks would likely seek a shorter maturity (the time
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PRIME Minister Perry Christie’s office last night effectively told Sarkis Izmirlian he was ‘on his own’ in seeking to reacquire Baha Mar, as it hit out at the “extraordinary statements” attached to his latest offer. Mr Christie’s office, in a statement, said it felt “compelled” to mount another defence of how the Government had handled the dispute surrounding the $3.5 billion development, and efforts to remobilise the project. The statement made clear that the Christie administration will not intervene on Mr Izmirlian’s behalf with the China Export-Import Bank, Baha Mar’s secured creditor, and encourage it to listen to his latest offer. “If, as he states, Mr Izmirlian is in a position to, and wishes to work with, China Export-Import Bank to deliver Baha Mar for the Bahamian people, then he should engage seriously with Perfect Luck and its advisors,” the Prime Minister’s Office said. “If he is in a position to make a credible proposal to acquire Baha Mar from Perfect Luck, then he is free to do so.” Perfect Luck Holdings is the special
PM CHRISTIE
IZMIRLIAN
purpose vehicle (SPV) created by the China Export-Import Bank to purchase Baha Mar’s real estate assets out of receivership, which is the first step towards completing the project’s physical construction prior to its sale to the ‘ultimate buyer’. Meanwhile, the original Baha Mar companies have been placed into full liquidation under the supervision of
the Supreme Court and the former provisional liquidators, Bahamian accountant Ed Rahming and his UK colleagues. Combined, these two developments threaten to cost Mr Izmirlian and his family their total $800-$900 million equity investment in building up the Baha Mar project over the past 13 years. The Prime Minister’s Office, making clear it was responding to Mr Izmirlian’s decision to ‘go public’ with his latest acquisition offer, said the original developer’s letter/press release “contain some extraordinary statements”. Although it did not specify what the administration found “extraordinary”, last night’s statement said: “Normally the Government would not respond to such a letter and statement, but so far as it impacts on what the Government has achieved, which is well documented, in ensuring that
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