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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2022
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Arawak port beats Q1 profits target by 56% • Net income $1.2m above forecasts • And revenue ahead 23% or $1.73m • Company eyes 11% annual profit rise
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net NASSAU’S main commercial shipping port is targeting an $808,000 year-over-year increase in net profits for its 2023 financial year after first quarter net income exceeded forecasts by some 56 percent. Arawak Port Development Company (APD), the BISX-listed owner and operator of Nassau Container Port, gave shareholders a boost ahead of this week’s
annual general meeting (AGM) by revealing that profits for the three months to end-September 2022 were almost $1.2m ahead of projections. It attributed the bottom line performance to increased import activity driven by The Bahamas’ continued economic reflation after fully emerging from COVID-related restrictions, with higher revenues generated in storage fees, twenty-foot equivalent (TEU) container throughput volumes and vehicle imports.
The Arawak Cay-based port operator also disclosed that it is projecting a 10.9 percent increase in full-year net income to $8.226m - a target that again seems in danger of being beaten if the first quarter trends persist for the full 12-month period to end-June 2023. But, despite revenues for the three months to end-September tracking 23 percent or $1.728m ahead of forecast, with TEU volumes for the period almost 4 percent over budget, APD management said they are being “extremely conservative” in not
FTX implosion threatens perfect ‘40 of 40’ in financial crime fight By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE BAHAMAS’ bid to achieve full compliance with all global antifinancial crime standards before year-end may have been endangered by the implosion of the FTX crypto currency exchange, it can be revealed. For one of the two outstanding standards, on which The Bahamas was hoping to achieve fully “compliant” status this month after remedying previously-identified deficiencies in its supervisory regime, relates directly to regulation of the digital assets industry. A Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) discussion paper, dated September 20, 2022, recommended that The Bahamas be upgraded from “partially compliant” to “compliant” on both its antimoney laundering/counter terror financing regulation of both the digital assets sector and non-profits
• Bahamas set to be upgraded on digital assets regulation.... • Nation was hailed for ‘sound understanding of sector risks’.. • But that was two months before crypto exchange’s collapse (charities, advocacy groups and the like) when the body meets to ratify such a move at its end-November meeting. The CFATF paper, produced less than two months before FTX’s spectacular collapse into provisional
liquidation in The Bahamas and Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US, even hailed this nation’s digital assets regulatory regime. Of the improvements made, it said: “All of which would suggest that The Bahamas has acquired a very sound understanding of the digital assets/ digital asset services providers sector and its associated risks.” Part of The Bahamas’ efforts to enhance its regulatory regime involved a “risk assessment” undertaken by the Securities Commission on the digital assets space. “The Commission notes that the risk assessment finding is that the risk of fraud and scams was low,” the CFATF document noted. That verdict could soon be subject to reappraisal given the ongoing criminal (police) and regulatory probes in The Bahamas and elsewhere into whether “misconduct” was involved in FTX’s spectacular week-long collapse. No such findings
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Don’t let FTX woe ‘arm enemies’ of Bahamas By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE OPPOSITION’S leader yesterday warned that the Government’s silence over the FTX crypto exchange’s implosion could “arm enemies of The Bahamas” with ammunition to inflict more damage on its financial services industry.
Michael Pintard told Tribune Business the Davis administration’s failure to “speak definitively” on the company’s collapse, and the actions The Bahamas has taken to protect investors, risks creating a “vacuum” that will be filled by the likes of the European Union (EU) and Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Devel-
opment (OECD) spinning “their own narrative”. Both bodies have never hesitated to target and ‘blacklist’ The Bahamas in the past, and the Free National Movement (FNM) urged this nation to “guard” against allowing the duo and their fellow travellers using the FTX situation to further their
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MICHAEL PINTARD
Workplace dispute stirs at Pharmachem By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A WORKPLACE dispute is brewing at a Freeport manufacturer over assertions that plans to implement a 12-hour shift system could put impacted staff “at risk” and amount to a “unilateral variation” of their employment terms.
Obie Ferguson KC, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president and labour attorney, in a November 11, 2022, letter warned Pharmachem that requiring one person to cover a 12-hour shift represented “a health and safety concern” and alleged it could lead to liability under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
Purporting to represent the electrical and instrument staff at the bulk manufacturer of pharmaceutical drugs, Mr Ferguson argued that the proposed shift system would lead to employees working more hours and less receiving less pay. Randy Thompson, Pharmachem’s chief executive, and to whom Mr Ferguson’s letter
was addressed, confirmed to Tribune Business the company is implementing a new shift system. However, he declined to comment on the letter or respond to the TUC chief on the basis that it would be “premature” to do so as the change has yet to happen.
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THE NASSAU Container Port at Arawak Cay. projecting any major increase in imports related to multiple foreign direct investment (FDI) driven construction projects in 2023. “For the 2023 fiscal year, we are budgeting gross revenue of $30.619m or 2.2 percent more than the prior year’s actual gross revenue,” APD told investors in its annual report. Full-year revenues
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VAT’s ‘real’ 15% rise since January’s cut By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE DAVIS administration last night said real VAT revenues increased by 15.1 percent year-over-year following the New Year’s Day rate cut with the deficit for the 2022-2023 fiscal year’s first quarter slashed by $116.4m. The Ministry of Finance, unveiling the Government’s financial performance for the three months to endSeptember 2022, sought to further enhance its case that the VAT rate reduction from 12 percent to 10 percent - together with the elimination of a host of ‘zero ratings’ and exemptions - had delivered increased revenues with a measurement that stripped out inflation’s impact. Arguing that its reforms had improved “equity in the domestic tax structure”, the Ministry of Finance added: “Inflationary pressures continued to intensify over the quarter, marking
July 2022 prices as the highest recorded in The Bahamas in recent years. Accounting for the 7.9 percentage change in inflation year-over-year, real VAT receipts grew 4 percent over the quarter and 15.1 percent over the nine months following the policy change. “Despite the reduction in the nominal VAT rate, revenue outturn from VAT receipts grew period-overperiod by 11.9 percent ($35.2m) to $330.5m for the first three months of fiscal year 2022-2023. The same total increased over the first quarter of fiscal year 2021-2022 by $160.7m (119.3 percent) when compared to the depressed fiscal year 2020-2021 figure of $134.7m. “Representing 23.4 percent of the Budget target, improved first quarter VAT collections are attributed to improved economic conditions as compared to the year prior during the early stages of the
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