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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2022
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Bank’s nine-month $58m beats full-year profit goal By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
• ‘Extraordinary’ $11.7m investor payout unveiled today • Commonwealth rebound driven by COVID reversals • Aims to ‘match or exceed’ prepandemic profit in ‘23
COMMONWEALTH Bank is targeting its growing deposit base for new borrowers after hitting its 2022 full-year profit goal in just nine months through a $58.22m bottom line. Tangela Albury, the BISXlisted bank’s vice-president and chief financial officer, told Tribune Business it will today declare an “extraordinary” four cents per share dividend to shareholders after enjoying a more than $72m year-overyear positive swing on its profit performance. However, the reversal from a $23.923m loss for the nine months to end-September 2021 has been achieved almost solely through the reversal of loan loss provisions booked during COVID-19. The pandemic’s end enabled Commonwealth Bank to reverse,
or unwind, some $21.679m worth of such impairments during the period to end-September 2022 compared to the $74.846m in provisions it took during the same nine months of the prior year. This represents a $96.5m positive swing that has driven Commonwealth Bank’s 2022 profit rebound. However, to ensure this rebound is sustained the BISX-listed lender must generate higher growth in its core consumer/personal loans business, yet its net credit book expanded by just over $10m during the first nine months of this year to $777.855m.
Gross interest income for the nine months to end-September 2022 actually fell by 11 percent year-over-year, dropping from $100.305m in 2021 to $89.319m this time around, while net interest income dropped by a similar margin - 12.3 percent - to $76.514m. Acknowledging that post-COVID provisioning reversals will eventually ease, Ms Albury said Commonwealth Bank will again focus on “organic loan book growth” as profits return to “normal” pre-pandemic levels. Predicting that the institution will “match or exceed”
THE Securities Commission was yesterday investigating the crisis that has left The Bahamas’ flagship digital assets investor on the brink of collapse after a rival crypto currency exchange walked away from a rescue deal.
Christina Rolle, the regulator’s executive director, could not be reached for comment but well-placed Tribune Business sources confirmed it was “very closely monitoring and investigating” the situation that at press time last night appeared to have left FTX’s continued existence - and multi-million dollar Bahamas expansion plans - in ever-growing peril.
TANGELA ALBURY pre-COVID profit levels in 2023, she added that the recent Moody’s downgrade of The Bahamas’ sovereign creditworthiness “will not have any material impact” for Commonwealth Bank even though it holds $551m in government debt securities that could be exposed to an impairment charge as a result.
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FTX Digital Markets, one of the crypto currency exchange’s subsidiaries, is a Securities Commission licensee and Digital Assets and Registered Exchanges (DARE) Act registrant. This is what brings it under the Bahamian regulator’s purview after a day of fast-paced developments that saw rival exchange, Binance,
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CHRISTINA ROLLE
Dorian tax breaks extension ‘no brainer’ following Nicole By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net EXTENDING the Hurricane Dorian tax breaks in their existing form was yesterday branded “a no brainer” by Abaco residents, who argued that to do otherwise would be “pretty heartless” after the latest storm to strike the island. Ken Hutton, Abaco’s immediate past Chamber of Commerce president, emphasising that he was saying nothing different from his successor, Daphne Degregory-Miaoulis, told Tribune Business that extending the island’s Special Economic Recovery Zone (SERZ) order past
KEN HUTTON the December 1 expiry was vital to “restoring business confidence” given that some who were flooded by Hurricane Nicole may be tempted “to throw in the towel”.
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Nicole: Tourism suffers no ‘overwhelming shrinkage’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE BAHAMIAN tourism industry has not suffered a “material” reduction in bookings and guests despite nowHurricane Nicole striking Grand Bahama and Abaco, a senior hotelier said yesterday. Robert Sands, the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association’s (BHTA) president, told Tribune Business that while there had been some “shrinkage” due to the late-season storm it had not created “an overwhelming impact” and the industry was moving
forward with preparations for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. “I think there’s no question that this late season storm has interrupted what has so far been a smooth, uninterrupted rebound of our tourism season,” he said. “We’ve certainly seen some diversions of cruise ships and certainly seem some early departures of guests at a number of hotels and airports, not so much because they are closed but flights have been cancelled. “We’ve seen some reduction in arrivals at this time, but I can say confidently that it’s not been an overwhelming impact. There’s
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Sarkis warns: I’ll reveal ‘illegal kickback’ proof • Set to present ‘damning evidence’ at Baha Mar trial • Says he lost billions but CCA got $700m ‘windfall’ • Contractor mulled ‘shutdown’ just before deadline By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
Bahamian regulator probing FTX woes By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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SARKIS Izmirlian is doubling down on allegations of “shocking evidence” that Baha Mar’s main contractor “paid illegal kickbacks to the family of Bahamian officials” as part of a SARKIS IZMIRLIAN plot to seize Baha Mar and establish “Chinese control”. The Cable Beach mega resort’s original developer, in filings with the New York State Supreme Court last Friday, raised the temperature in his $2.25bn fraud and breach of contract claim against China State Construction (CCA) by threatening to reveal the “damning evidence” if the dispute makes it to a full trial. Mr Izmirlian, whose family live at Lyford Cay, did not name the families or officials who he was referring to. However, the legal documents suggest their identities may be revealed - along with evidence of the alleged bribes and corruption - before the New York courts should the case reach that stage. In a blistering opening salvo over their bid for “partial summary judgment” against CCA and its affiliates, the Baha Mar founder and his BML Properties vehicle said that despite failing to complete the multi-billion dollar project on time and on budget when he was in charge, the Chinese state-owned contractor was retained to complete the mega resort
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