business@tribunemedia.net
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2022
$5.95
$5.97
$6.07
$5.87
BISX-listed fund targets asset-doubling to $100m SAM BANKMAN-FRIED
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BISX-listed fund is reviving ambitions to “more than double” total assets to over $100m by “looking more aggressively” for property acquisitions following its recent preference share refinancing. Michael Anderson, RF Bank & Trust’s president, told Tribune Business the $8m recapitalisation has given the Bahamas Property Fund the “balance sheet strength” required to resume its growth strategy following a long period of inactivity. The investment bank chief, who acts as the Fund’s administrator, said the elimination of long-term bank debt and growing rental income through improved occupancies at its flagship Bahamas Financial Centre property have provided the combination of borrowing space and cash flow to fund potential purchases if the right properties become available. Besides the Bahamas Financial Centre, the Fund’s portfolio has remained three-strong for largely a
• Property Fund ‘aggressively’ seeking acquisitions • Targeting 90% occupancy at the Financial Centre • Downtown parking solution ‘not simple transaction’ decade with Paradise Island’s One Marina Drive and Providence House on East Hill Street comprising the other two. Total assets at end-September 2022 stood at $41.179m, and Mr Anderson said the Fund is now poised to dust-off long-held ambitions to expand this to $100m. “I’m still looking to get to $100m,” he told this newspaper. “We’re looking to more than double the size of the fund if we can find suitable
MICHAEL ANDERSON properties. We actually now have the capital to move forward with various transactions we’re looking at in terms of potential property acquisitions. “We’re starting to look more aggressively; we’re not in actual negotiations, but we’re starting to look more aggressively at opportunities than we have been. One of the key benefits to getting the capital structure sorted out is the opportunity to acquire assets as well as the payment of dividends.”
SEE PAGE B8
Food price control negotiations silent By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net NEGOTIATIONS with the Government over expanding price controls on the Bahamian food distribution industry have gone silent for more than two weeks much to the sector’s relief. Philip Beneby, president of the Retail Grocers Association (RGA), which represents more than 130 food store operators, confirmed to Tribune Business yesterday the industry had received no response to its last 1,000-product strong proposal since sector representatives met Cabinet
ministers on Tuesday, November 9. Since then, the Government’s agenda has likely been dominated by Tropical Storm Nicole, which ultimately became a hurricane, plus the Grand Lucayan sale’s collapse and the ongoing fall-out caused by the implosion of its flagship digital assets investor, the FTX crypto currency exchange. “I think it’s a good thing that it’s gone quiet. That’s why nobody is saying anything,” Mr Beneby confirmed to this newspaper. “Nothing has been said subsequent to that meeting. That’s correct. They
SEE PAGE B7
S&P’s ‘shot in the arm’ exposes growth fears By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net STANDARD & Poor’s (S&P) has given The Bahamas “a shot in the arm” while further exposing that “additional taxation” will almost certainly be needed to hit the Government’s fiscal targets, a governance reformer warned yesterday. Hubert Edwards, head of the Organisation for Responsible Governance’s (ORG) economic development committee, told Tribune Business the rating agency’s decision to maintain The Bahamas’ ‘B+’ credit rating and ‘stable’ outlook had provided “a
HUBERT EDWARDS level of validation” that the Davis administration’s economic and fiscal policies are on the right track. However, both he and Kwasi Thompson, former minister of state for finance in the Minnis
SEE PAGE B5
KWASI THOMPSON
Bahamas ‘under attack’: Do more to combat FTX By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A FORMER finance minister yesterday argued that not enough is being done to protect The Bahamas’ integrity - and that of its entire financial services industry - which is “under attack” from all sides over FTX’s implosion. Kwasi Thompson, minister of state for finance in the former Minnis administration, warned in the House of Assembly that the country’s failure to properly defend itself from international criticism over the crypto currency
exchange’s collapse was enabling outsiders to promote the narrative it was a “poorly-regulated jurisdiction”. Fearing that this could deter high quality investment from seeking out The Bahamas, he added that “if we do not tell our story others will tell it for us”. The east Grand Bahama MP added that the attacks were not coming from “rinky dink persons”, but individuals of the calibre of a former Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman - a status that gives their views
SEE PAGE B4