01282021 BUSINESS

business@tribunemedia.net

THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 2021

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Baha Mar’s 2021 revenues ‘40% less’ than pre-COVID

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

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AHA Mar’s president yesterday said 2021 revenues are forecast to be “40 percent less” than pre-COVID levels as it prepares to recall 700 staff for the March 4 opening of its Rosewood and SLS hotels.

Graeme Davis told Tribune Business that the strength of both resort brands, especially their high-end market positioning and extensive customer databases, had given the Cable Beach mega resort confidence they could overcome continued travel market uncertainty around new US protocols that have

• Some 700 staff recalled for Rosewood, SLS openings • But no decision on Melia; resort gets $100m upgrade • Slow demand ramp-up anticipated through Easter

GRAEME DAVIS already produced “some cancellations” in guest bookings.

Acknowledging that Baha Mar expects a slow, rather

than swift, ramp-up in business volumes and occupancies once the two hotels open in time for Spring Break and Easter, Mr Davis said their re-opening represents “a very positive step forward” as they will combine with the Grand Hyatt’s pre-Christmas return to provide work for a combined 2,500 employees.

However, he revealed that no decision has yet been taken on when Baha Mar’s Melia Nassau Beach resort will be re-opened and its staff recalled. Mr Davis, though, disclosed

that some $100m is presently being invested in a full-scale revamp of the Melia to upgrade all areas and improve the guest experience.

He added that Baha Mar and its Hong Kong-based owner, Chow Tai Fook Enterprises (CTFE), are “all in” on a total $320m spend that includes the $200m Baha Bay water park and $20m for the Marcus Samuelsson-branded restaurant, Marcus’ Fish and Chop House.

SEE PAGE 4

$180,000 NIB fraud conviction is upheld

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A FORMER accounting firm employee yesterday failed to overturn her conviction for defrauding the National Insurance Board (NIB) of $180,000 that was earmarked for the government’s housing initiative.

But the Court of Appeal, while upholding the Magistrate’s Court ruling against Shukuanya Thompson, a former corporate services supervisor at HLB Galanis & Company, also overturned a sentence that it described as “rather lenient”.

The magistrate at the original hearing, who was named in the Court of Appeal ruling written by Sir Michael Barnett, its president, had ordered Ms Thompson to repay NIB

• But ex-accounting employee gets sentence quashed • Even though 14-year payback branded ‘rather lenient’ • Convict appealed 11 days after default arrest warrant over a 14-year period at a rate of $1,000 per month following an initial lump sum payment of $10,000.

Any default was to result in a five-year jail term at Fox Hill prison.

Noting that she did not object to that sentence, which was imposed on May 11, 2018 following a so-called “plea bargain agreement”, Sir Michael said Ms Thompson did not seek to appeal until 11 days after a warrant was issued for her arrest for defaulting on the payment arrangement.

Rejecting Ms Thompson’s bid for “an extension of time” to appeal her conviction, Sir Michael and his

US travel advisory ease a ‘big boost’

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association’s (BHTA) president yesterday hailed the US easing its health travel advisory on the country as “a big boost” for the economy’s largest industry.

Robert Sands told Tribune Business that the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) move to upgrade The Bahamas from a “Level 4” to “Level 3” status “removes a

ROBERT SANDS major deterrent” for potential tourists wanting to travel to this destination.

“That is an extremely important move for The

SEE PAGE 6

Govt rejects Moody’s deficit financing fears

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A TOP Ministry of Finance official yesterday rejected an international rating agency’s concerns that the government may not be able to finance its massive borrowing needs for the 2021-2022 fiscal year.

Marlon Johnson, pictured, the acting financial secretary, told Tribune Business that the government did “not share” Moody’s concerns that it may be unable to access sufficient debt financing to cover a

projected $900m deficit in its next fiscal year.

“We believe that we’re comfortable, and we’ve said that we have sufficient headroom and capacity to finance it. We don’t share

SEE PAGE 7

two fellow appeal judges nevertheless overturned the sentence on the basis that the magistrate had exceeded their powers and jurisdiction under the Penal Code for dealing with “summary offences” such as this.

Unclear as to the basis of the magistrate’s compensation award, the Court of Appeal found that this exceeded the limits set by the Penal Code and gave Ms Thompson permission to appeal out of time against the sentence. The matter has now been sent back to the Magistrate’s Court for resentencing.

This was despite Sir Michael finding that, on the

surface, the original sentence was “rather lenient”.

He added: “The applicant [Ms Thompson] would avoid jail time if she paid almost $179,557.05 over 170 months or over 14 years.

“The applicant made no complaint about the sentence when it was agreed and imposed. She made payments (although not in strict compliance to the sentence) up to the following year, stopping in December 2019. She made no further payment after that date and a warrant of apprehension was issued on 19 August

SEE PAGE 5

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Baha Mar chief urges rapid vaccination for tourism revival boost

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net BAHA Mar’s president yesterday urged the government to fully vaccinate The Bahamas against COVID19 “as quickly as possible” so as to give tourism’s recovery a “competitive advantage”.

Graeme Davis told Tribune Business that vaccinating the entire population, especially hotel and tourism industry workers, would be a “huge” boost to traveller confidence and give The Bahamas a significant tool to use in marketing promotional strategies.

While much attention has been focused on the speed with which COVID-19 vaccines are being rolled-out in the US and other key tourist source markets, Mr Davis said The Bahamas was itself in a race against rival Caribbean and other tourism destinations to immunise its own population given that this, too, will be a critical factor in the strength and swiftness with which tourism recovers.

“I’m very confident we will bounce back,” the Baha Mar chief told this newspaper. “It’s just a matter of persevering through this time where everything is focused on COVID-19, and the COVID-19 virus is eliminated here in The Bahamas and we quickly get vaccinated.

“If the entire country gets vaccinated, we will be able to market The Bahamas as COVID-19 free and fully immunised. That will give us a very wonderful advantage versus other destinations that the entire country is vaccinated. I look forward to that being done as quickly as we can; getting people vaccinated.”

Pointing out that it should “not be a huge

undertaking” to vaccinate a 400,000-strong population, which was smaller than most other countries, Mr Davis added: “It’s certainly possible to do that here in a short amount of time.

“If we tell our key markets that our entire country is vaccinated, the confidence in travelling to The Bahamas will be huge, and the bounce back of the lodging industry that makes up 60 percent of the economy” will be that much quicker.

Mr Davis said vaccinating all hotel and tourism industry employees against COVID-19 would have a similar effect, adding: “Just marketing the lodging and hospitality sector as being immunised, as soon as that happens that will be a huge deal for travel consumer confidence that all workers are immunised, and the public relations impact to us is positive.”

The prime minister yesterday reiterated that the government has secured enough COVID-19 vaccine doses to immunise 20 percent of the Bahamian population via the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Pan American Health Organisation’s (PAHO) COVAX facility, and is also looking to access additional supplies from the manufacturers themselves as well as the African Medical Supplies Platform (ASMP) via CARICOM. However, the timing of when the vaccines will arrive in The Bahamas, as well as which ones will be used, are “still being worked out” with Dr Hubert Minnis describing the roll-out as “one of the greatest logistical challenges that the country has ever undertaken”. The details of the distribution plan have yet to be released.

SEE PAGE 6

PAGE 2, Thursday, January 28, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

GB UTILITY INITIATES $5M WATER PLANT CONSTRUCTION GRAND Bahama’s water supplier says construction work has begun on its new $5m reverse osmosis plant as part of key infrastructure upgrades following Hurricane Dorian.

The Grand Bahama Utility Company (GBUC), in a statement, described the 3m gallon plant’s installation as a “significant step” in its “long-term storm hardening plan” that was initiated after the island’s wellfields were compromised by Dorian’s storm surge.

It added that Wellfield Six, in particular, which serviced 60 percent of

GBUC team members review construction plans.

Grand Bahama, suffered a catastrophic impact. The pumping station and wellfield were inundated with

a 20-foot surge of seawater for more than 18 hours.

This has had a long-term salinity impact on that

fresh water aquifer, which for decades had been a high quality, abundant and reliable supply of pristine drinking water.

The contract for the construction and commissioning of the reverse osmosis plant has been awarded to Bahamas Hot Mix (BHM), following what Grand Bahama Utility Company described as months of extensive hydrogeological surveys, planning and design.

“We are thrilled to be working with the GB Utility Company on this important project,” said Ebbe

Saidi, Bahamas Hot Mix’s managing director. “Extensive pre-work including surveying, environmental approvals and engineering design has resulted in a customised plan for a reverse osmosis facility that meets exact specifications outlined by the GB Utility Company.”

This includes “integrating mobility into the design to ensure equipment can be moved in the event of a storm to limit damage due to flooding or high winds.

The reverse osmosis facility will be able to meet the needs of water customers across Grand Bahama for many years to come”, Mr Saidi added.

Grand Bahama Utility Company announced in July 2020 that it had returned 70 percent water potability to Grand Bahama.

Philcher Grant, GB Utility Company’s director of operations, said: “With the customised, state-of-the-art reverse osmosis system, GB Utility’s $5m injection will provide consistent water quality meeting World Health Organisation standards, providing the resilient and storm hardened system necessary for climate change and future storms.

“These investments will

not only restore water potability to customers across Grand Bahama, but ensure Grand Bahamians will never again be without potable water for a prolonged period. They will also expand capacity. We are building back better.”

As part of its modernisation plan, GB Utility has committed to SCADA automation; digitised well monitoring; reserve power supply improvements; and pipe, valve and meter replacement programmes.

GB Utility said it will maintain the current 25 percent discount for customers without potable water, and continue to provide free drinking water to non-potable areas, the costs of which it will bear.

“We are seeing increased operating costs at GB Utility as well as managing the cost of this significant capital programme,” said Ms Grant. “But we know how challenging it has been for our customers, and we are pleased to be able to continue to absorb the financial impacts of the discount and drinking water stations for the benefit of those customers. We have used our experience gained out of tragedy as a catalyst for dynamic transformation.”

ONE-CENT KIOSK REDEMPTION PLAN WILL NOT PROCEED PLANS to allow Bahamians to redeem the huge quantity of one cent coins they still hold via a series of kiosks set-up specifically for this task will not proceed, the Central Bank said yesterday.

The regulator blamed this on “matters beyond its control”, but did not explain further, while adding that the kiosk network and its roll-out had been outsourced to a third party vendor. Previous Central Bank statements said the kiosks were due to be rolled out in areas with high consumer footfall, such as the Mall at Marathon and other major retail destinations.

“The Central Bank will

continue to redeem onecent coins by weight and honour penny deposits at commercial banks until 30 June, 2021,” the regulator added yesterday. “The public can expect ongoing announcements of dates and venues for New Providence redemption sites.

“Beginning March 2021, redemption exercises will commence on Grand Bahama and the Family Islands. Dates and venues will be announced in the coming weeks. The public is invited to follow The Bahamas Penny Page on Facebook, and Central Bank of The Bahamas on Instagram, for updates on the redemption exercise.”

Exuma co-operative targets tourism link A NEWLY-established Exuma co-operative has brought together more than 30 entrepreneurs in a bid to improve economic linkages with the island’s fast-growing sector.

The Exuma Community Multi-purpose Co-operative Society has been established with help from Cheryl Bowe-Moss, director of societies at the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources, and Joy Nichols, senior cooperative officer.

Persons involved in farming, fishing, arts and crafts and even bee-keeping will now pool their resources in an effort to increase the supply of products and services to the island’s tourism sector.

Exuma has a long agricultural history, specialising in crops such as onions, melons, citrus, peas and corn, and once competing with Long Island in the production of mutton for the domestic market.

Farming began to decline in the late 1980s due to an aging farm labour population, outward migration, reduced tariffs on import farm products and outdated farming techniques.

The newly installed co-operative officers are Stephan Hall, president; Bradley Charlton, vicepresident; Erlin Rolle, treasurer; Iris Melonie Moxey, assistant treasurer; Reverend Margaret Woodside, secretary; Doreen Cockburn, assistant secretary; Pastor James Rolle, chaplin; Pastor Reckley Armbrister, assistant chaplin.

Members of the steering committee are Icelyn Curry; Sandra Dames; Sonia Morley; Cordell Thompson (advisor); Pastor Reckley Armbrister; Nelson Ranger (marketing manager).

Other co-operative members are Debra Moxey-Rolle; administrator Exuma, Exuma Cays & Ragged Island; Andrew Clarke; Dorcas Shuttleworth; John Nixon; Rev Dr Adam J Brown, JP; Ivan Ferguson.

Observers are Cecil Smith, vice-chairman, National Advisory Committee on Cooperatives; Lynda Russell, representative from Department of Agriculture.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, January 28, 2021, PAGE 3

US TRAVEL HEALTH UPGRADE IS ‘WELL DESERVED REWARD’

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net HOTEL operators yesterday said The Bahamas’ imminent travel upgrade by US health regulators was “a well deserved reward” for cutting its COVID-19 cases and may create a competitive advantage.

Matthew Brear, Cape Santa Maria’s general manager, speaking after the prime minister revealed that the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was poised to upgrade The Bahamas from “Level 4” to “Level 3”, said: “This is a welldeserved reward for all of the work Bahamians have been putting into keeping our visitors safe.”

The shift would move The Bahamas from “very

high risk”, in relation to COVID-19, to “high” risk.

This, in turn, downgrades the CDC’s warning to US citizens on The Bahamas from “travellers should avoid all travel to The Bahamas” to one where they should “reconsider travel”.

Confirming the move in the House of Assembly yesterday, Dr Hubert Minnis said: “I am pleased to announce today that following a reassessment by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, The Bahamas will be moved down to a ‘Level 3’ travel health notice from the more serious ‘Level 4’.

“This reassessment came after discussions between myself, other Bahamian officials and the US government. We will, I believe, be

moved to ‘Level 3’ because the CDC sees how much progress we have made and are convinced that we will continue to be vigilant.”

Mr Brear said in response: “While the [COVID-19 protocols] in place are not perfect, they certainly are head and shoulders above so many other places including the United States and even Canada. So I think this is great news and this bodes well for our tourism industry.”

He added that it will “help” to ease the fears of tourists considering whether to travel to The Bahamas, and should give them comfort they will not face harsh quarantine measures upon their reentry into the US. “When considering The

Bahamas as a destination, and when you align The Bahamas with other sunny beach vacations, The Bahamas has a huge competitive advantage over other places that are either at a higher level [with the CDC] or don’t have the appropriate testing capacity in place for them to return to the United States,” Mr Brear said.

However, he urged The Bahamas to adjust its COVID-19 testing regime to meet US demands that all returning travellers produce a negative test for the virus within three days of their trip.

“We are still dealing with what The Bahamas already had implemented, which is that the rapid antigen test is needed on day five,” Mr Brear said. “Now that is

suitable currently for people visiting from the US who are only staying between five and eight days.

“However, if they’re staying nine days, or four days, or nine days or more, or four days or less, that rapid antigen test is not available to them. There’s a three-day window in order to utilise a rapid antigen test to re-enter the US. So if they have it on day five, they could use it to re-enter the US on day six, seven and eight, because that’s the three-day window, but they can’t use it on day nine.

Jeff Birch, owner/operator of the Small Hope Bay Lodge in Fresh Creek, Andros, said the CDC upgrade was nothing to get excited about if the US decides to impose a mandatory quarantine on all returning travellers

“It does make it more attractive to somebody from the North American market as it is a very positive move,” he still acknowledged. “I think as a government we have been doing great, and the Prime Minister continues to remind us that we must not be lax.”

Pablo Casal, general manager of the Colonial Hilton, said: “This is always good news for the industry but we don’t know what the real effect would be in the short term. Definitely long-term good news. “ Muna Issa, SuperClubs Breezes managing director, said: “We don’t think it will have a significant impact on bookings but we are happy for all positive revisions.

I believe The Bahamas is more of a ‘Level one’ and not a ‘three’.”

Cooper: Bahamas faces EU ‘moving the goal posts’ Doctors aims for cost cut

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net THE opposition’s deputy leader yesterday voiced fears that the European Union (EU) will soon “move the goal posts” on The Bahamas again when it comes to tax and anti-financial crime regulation.

Chester Cooper, the Progressive Liberal Party’s (PLP) finance spokesman, spoke out after MPs in the European Parliament singled out The Bahamas and other international financial centres (IFCs) as countries that were being taken off the 27-nation’s tax “blacklist” too easily and without implementing more far-reaching reforms to their tax systems.

Suggesting that the EU is targeting countries with low or no income and corporate income tax rates, Mr Cooper said: “With respect to the European Union and these threats that persist, we continue to confront these serious national crises even as we face the pandemic.

“We don’t have the luxury to ignore them, and this is why I get woefully concerned when we spend so much time playing politics in relation to the EU. I know the new goalpost-moving tactics of the European Parliament.

“What we do know is that we are still on the EU money laundering listing, and we would like an update in this regard. But what we also know is that the EU will continue to change the standard to which we are held while not holding their own members to the same standard.”

Mr Cooper added that

the latest International Monetary Fund (IMF) statement on The Bahamas was “blistering and sobering, and reminds us that we are facing a serious national crisis”, even though there was little that was new.

“Here’s what the IMF said only yesterday,” he added. “They said the GDP is projected to contract by 16.2 percent. Public debt is expected to jump to almost 90 percent of GDP. Some banks and credit unions are vulnerable to pandemicinduced risk. Downside risks loom large. This is the environment in which we now live.

“There is no mention of these realities by the minister for finance. None whatsoever. So it is incumbent upon us to bring focus to saving lives and preserving livelihoods, as well as balancing the need of our economy and country.”

Turning to the Grand Lucayan sale, Mr Cooper said the Bahamian people need to know “how much this deal has already cost.

What we want to ensure is that there is not a fire sale now going on with this property that we begged you not to burn the Bahamian people on when we told you it was an egregiously bad deal.”

With Scotiabnk soon to exit his Exuma constituency, Mr Cooper said: “The issue of Family Island banking remains a vexing problem.

This week, Scotiabank is leaving many islands bankless and they still plan to exit Exuma during February.”

He urged the government to use its “influence” to ensure that Family Islands have access to banking services.

via Cleveland Clinic tie-up

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net

DOCTOR’S Hospital president yesterday said its two-year partnership with the Cleveland Clinic will concentrate on reducing healthcare costs for Bahamian patients as well as improving treatment quality.

Dr Charles Diggis, speaking on a Zoom conference to unveil the two parties’ tie-up, said: “Both the Cleveland Clinic and Doctor’s Hospital are concerned about the cost. This will be an important topic to patients as well as the payers (insurers), and we’re going to pay a lot of attention to how we can control or contain the cost.

“At least hold down the rate of increase in costs, and create ingenious ways that patients can, as a priority, receive care that they need, and we keep the issue of cost appropriately on the back-end.”

The BISX-listed healthcare provider and its

DOCTOR’S HOSPITAL Ohio-headquartered counterpart said their partnership will facilitate decisions on which patients can be seen in The Bahamas, and who would be better suited to receive care at the Cleveland Clinic.

Dr Diggis added: “From the Doctor’s Hospital perspective, we’re both in the private space, and so our challenge is going to be and continues to be - how do we make the care that we provide affordable, and how do we continue to provide that care without having to pay attention at any point to the ability of our patients to pay us.

“Given the fact that we share similar positions and approaches to this,

SEE PAGE 4

PAGE 4, Thursday, January 28, 2021

Doctors aims for cost cut via Cleveland Clinic tie-up FROM PAGE THREE our priority remains appropriate for patients. This relationship affords us the ability to look at how we then can contain the cost of us providing materials; if either of us could reduce costs based on us exploring all aspects of this relationship, reducing our expenses or containing our expenses.

Dr Curtis Rimmerman, Cleveland Clinic’s chairman of international operations, elaborated on “value based care”, saying: “What we don’t want to do is cut costs and also cut quality. First and foremost is to maintain quality, and not compromise patient care whatsoever.

“That’s something that we look forward to working with Doctors Hospital on; to see if we can learn from them and they can learn from us, and to see if we can improve outcomes without raising costs and, hopefully, lowering costs.”

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Baha Mar’s 2021 revenues ‘40% less’ than pre-COVID FROM PAGE ONE Mr Davis said Baha Bay, in particular, will “really redefine water parks” by offering an “awardwinning” experience that generates extra demand from families as well as allowing gaming clients to play roulette, black jack and craps while in the park.

With the strength, and speed, of Bahamian tourism’s post-COVID rebound depending upon successful vaccine roll-outs in The Bahamas and its major source markets such as the US, the Baha Mar president said it was “quite possible” the mega resort could return to pre-pandemic business and staffing levels “or better” by the end of 2022 or early 2023.

He added that much would depend on the return of groups booking Baha Mar’s convention centre for conferences and meetings, with this segment yesterday said to be currently five percent of what it was in 2019 prior to the pandemic.

“Our expectations are that from a revenue perspective for 2021 we’ll be

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BAHA MAR about 40 percent less than what we were in 2019,” Mr Davis told Tribune Business, explaining that the vaccine roll-out and increased immunity levels in Baha Mar’s key source markets were expected to increase business volumes throughout the 2021 second half in particular.

Describing the Grand Hyatt’s performance as “going as planned” since its December 17 re-opening, he added: “Business levels are

presently quite low as we build consumer confidence for the future. Between the opening of the Rosewood and SLS on March 4, we’ll have close to 700 employees coming back to work.

“Christmas was quite slow, but certainly from an expectation standpoint we met our expectations; we certainly did not exceed it.

We’re looking forward to a build-up of demand here over Spring Break and Easter and working up to more demand for summer as vaccines get rolled out, and we see more immunity from key markets.”

Some observers will likely view Baha Mar’s decision to proceed with the Rosewood and SLS re-opening on March 4, which had originally been tentatively scheduled for February, as a brace move given the present travel market uncertainty that only increased last week when US president, Joe Biden, issued an executive order that seemingly required all incoming travellers to the US to enter quarantine.

There have subsequently been multiple interpretations of this order (see other article on Page 1B), and Mr Davis acknowledged that the uncertainty associated with this “has certainly caused some cancellations and decreased demand”. This has also been experienced by its mega resort rival, Atlantis,

which this week placed 200 Royal Towers staff back on furlough.

While declining to provide figures for this, the Baha Mar chief nevertheless said: “We are seeing a pick up and recovery for March and beyond. We have some group business in March and into April, and they currently expect to still come. It’s small, very small, probably less than five percent (of pre-COVID levels) at this stage. It’s really transient demand coming back first.”

Mr Davis also voiced confidence that the strength of the Rosewood and SLS brands, and their focus on high-end clientele who are still travelling despite the pandemic, had given Baha Mar confidence that they will generate sufficient strength to offset the travel market uncertainty.

Adding that this showed the competitive advantage from having three brands under the Baha Mar umbrella, he said: “Rosewood and the luxury segment still have demand, and there’s still a willingness to travel from the luxury segment. Rosewood still has a loyal customer base that will come.”

Mr Davis said SLS, too, retained a similar customer following and database that was targeted at a younger demographic attracted to its lifestyle brand. “Each having its own segment and

THE TRIBUNE customer base will generate demand across the entire enterprise of Baha Mar,” he explained.

“That’s the benefit and competitive advantage of having three brands under one Baha Mar destination, and building that consumer confidence from two loyal customer bases for the ramp up here through Spring into summer when we will see some increased demand.”

Mr Davis, though, said Baha Mar had “not made final plans yet” for when its Melia Nassau Beach property will re-open, although some $100m is being invested in upgrading the resort. Describing this as “a full renovation”, he added that when combined with the Baha Bay water park and Marcus Samuelsson restaurant it would take CTFE’s investment to $320m during the pandemic.

Describing Baha Bay as “a world-class” water park that will be “low density”, yet Bahamian-themed with extensive food and beverage offerings, Mr Davis added: “We’re also one of the first in the world to have a gaming experience within the water park, offering black jack, craps and roulette for adult gaming customers.

“It’s a very unique experience. It will really redefine water parks. I would say it would be award winning.

This will bring additional demand to Baha Mar, more family business, and improve our summer business as well.” Sugar Factory and Umami Burger will be among the retail and food and beverage offerings.

Mr Davis confirmed that the Grand Hyatt’s occupancy levels are currently in the low teens or double digits, which was in line with expectations, although he declined to provide a precise figure or give forecasts for how this figure will improve over the remainder of 2021.

He voiced optimism, though, that the Biden administration’s pledge that vaccines will be available to the entire US population by summer could result in a swift tourism rebound over the 2021 second half.

“We’re expecting to see in 2022 a significant improvement over 2021 and 2020, and it’s quite possible we will back to 2019 levels by the end of 2022 or early 2023 or better,” Mr Davis said.

Baha Bay’s opening this summer is expected to add another 300 jobs, and he added that the mega resort could soon be close to a 3,500-strong workforce if all goes to plan.

THE TRIBUNE

$180,000 NIB fraud conviction is upheld FROM PAGE ONE 2020. On August 30, 2020, she applied for an extension of time within which to appeal.”

Noting that the appeal was “woefully out of time” by almost two years, Sir Michael said: “In this case the appellant pled guilty and agreed the sentence.

She made payments pursuant to the agreement for more than one year.

“It was only after she defaulted for more than six months and discovered that a warrant for her arrest was issued that she sought further advice from different counsel and decided she wanted to appeal her sentence, and subsequently decided to appeal her conviction.

“The guilty plea and conviction were following a plea agreement signed by the appellant acting on advice. There is no suggestion that it was done under undue influence or that the guilty plea was in any way equivocal.”

The Tribune reported in February 2018 how Ms Thompson was charged with 18 counts of falsifying accounting records between May and December 2016, along with a number of fraud-related counts. The entries were alleged to have enabled five people to receive a collective $283,264 in fraudulent payments.

However, it was never disclosed at the time that these funds belonged to the Bahamian people as NIB’s beneficiaries, or that these actions had deprived the government’s housing programme - and potential homeowners - of much-needed financing.

Ms Thompson was the HLB Galanis & Company staff member “primarily responsible” for the accounting firm’s role as a watchdog to protect all sides’ interests and oversee how the $10m NIB loan made to the Ministry of Housing was being used.

This was disclosed in an Auditor General’s report, which disclosed that a fire at HLB Galanis & Company destroyed key documents relating to the fraud just as an investigation was set to begin.

During a follow-up meeting with the administrator [HLB Galanis & Company], we were advised that there was a fire at the offices of the administrator at the beginning of 2018 during which several documents were destroyed,” the

Auditor General’s report said.

“In addition, prior to the fire, there was a discovery of a fraud committed by a former employee of the administrator [Ms Thompson] who was primarily responsible for the administration of the housing programme..... Our analysis of reports provided by the administrator indicated a number of payments that appeared to be duplicate payments made to contractors.

“The administrator advised that these two events may have contributed to the apparent ‘duplicate payments’ on the reports submitted and the now-inability of the administrator to provide original documents that were destroyed in the fire” Crediting the probe carried out by Mr Galanis’s accounting firm, the Auditor General’s report said: “HLB Galanis conducted a separate internal investigation and have identified some $140,404 as possible duplicate payments and some $283,264 as fraudulent payments. HLG Galanis referred the fraud matters to the police, and a former employee has since pleaded guilty to the fraud charges.”

The auditor general’s investigation into the tie-up between the Ministry of the Environment and Housing and NIB criticised both entities for failings in an arrangement that it branded “inefficient”.

It found that homes had not been built in the designated “locations”, while some had been constructed as single homes rather than duplexes without prior approval from the housing programme’s management committee.

NIB also came under fire for advancing $800,000 more to HLB Galanis & Company than required under the loan contract, with the Auditor General finding it “did not properly track the status of amounts advanced under the facility”.

The report also revealed that changes were made to HLB Galanis & Company’s “terms of operations” without the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NIB being changed accordingly.

As a result, the auditor general, the government’s main internal financial watchdog, found that the requirements to make regular financial reports, monthly bank reconciliations of construction payments, prevent “double payments” and ensure an annual audit “were not complied with”.

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BNCD

Annual dues for 2020-2021 can be paid at Bahamas National Council for Disablity office Collins Avenue 10am - 2pm before Friday 26th February 2021 to be able to vote.

Request For Bids A cement company is requesting bids for trucking services for its two locations in New Providence.

Interested parties are invited to send an email to (truckbids242@gmail.com).

Bids will be received until February 9th, 2021

Thursday, January 28, 2021, PAGE 5

UNION CHIEF: SEVERANCE PAY OVER UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net A TRADE union leader yesterday said he preferred full severance packages for furloughed workers to the government extending unemployment benefits until the end of February.

Obie Ferguson, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, told Tribune Business it might be “in the best interest” of workers who have been temporarily laid-of due to COVID-19 to receive their termination pay given that some may go 15 months without working due to the extension of the government’s emergency powers to May 23.

He added that while extending governmentfunded unemployment benefits of $100 per week is “not unreasonable, I think if it is for a longer period it may be in the best interest to have the redundancy”.

OBIE FERGUSON “I prefer the redundancy option if the extension is over two months, because they really need the money,” Mr Ferguson said of furloughed workers. “They don’t have any money. It is well possible that this situation will certainly go on beyond February, and if you had done the redundancy they - under the new legislation (Employment Act) they have the right to first preference” when staff are recalled.

“The thing is there is no income coming in to these people’s homes, and I’m saying that while my gut feeling is that it’s best for them to hang on with no certainty as to when the emergency orders are going to be relaxed, it makes it difficult for them to survive when they have no jobs,” Mr Ferguson said. “But if they get redundancy pay that may very well bring some comfort, both psychological and economic.”

Mr Ferguson spoke after the prime minister, in yesterday’s House of Assembly debate on the emergency powers extension, confirmed that unemployment benefits have been extended for a further month until endFebruary 2021.

Indicating that further extensions are likely, Dr Hubert Minnis said: “We have extended the unemployment benefit to the end of February, and

depending on circumstances it will possibly be extended again, as we have done with food assistance.”

The emergency powers extension also upholds the suspension of Employment Act provisions, which normally mandate that employers pay full severance to any worker sent home for 90 days or more, until June 23.

Mr Ferguson said these moves “obviously” block the redundancy pathway for workers, adding: “I have repeated over and over, and especially every Labour Day, that we need a redundancy fund to be established to deal with these types of situations.

“These types of things you have to build into your country’s economic structures so that it will be able to assist people when these types of things happen, even if it is only $1 a week in contributions. People can afford that.”

PAGE 6, Thursday, January 28, 2021

US travel advisory ease a ‘big boost’ FROM PAGE ONE

Bahamas,” he said. “It’s in keeping with the fact that The Bahamas has demonstrated it has certainly since Thanksgiving kept its COVID-19 numbers under some control.

“That is a big boost. However, the industry will not be happy until that ‘Level 3’ gets to a ‘Level 2’, which is a good indication that our management of COVID19 has kept the virus under

control. It’s certainly headed in the right direction, and the BHTA welcomes this because it removes a major deterrent for the public who are wanting to travel and come to the destination. It’s very much welcome news.”

Mr Sands spoke out after the prime minister revealed that the CDC was poised to upgrade The Bahamas from “Level 4” to “Level 3”. The shift would move The Bahamas from “very high risk”, in relation to COVID-19, to “high” risk. This, in turn,

THE TRIBUNE downgrades the CDC’s warning to US citizens on The Bahamas from “travellers should avoid all travel to The Bahamas” to one where they should “reconsider travel”.

Dr Hubert Minnis said: “I am pleased to announce today that following a reassessment by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, The Bahamas will be moved down to a ‘Level 3’ travel health notice from the more serious ‘Level 4’.

“This reassessment came after discussions between myself, other Bahamian officials and the US government. We will, I believe, be moved to ‘Level 3’ because the CDC sees how much progress we have made and are convinced that we will

continue to be vigilant.”

However, much confusion and uncertainty still exists over whether the US plans to impose a mandatory quarantine on all incoming travellers in a bid to contain skyrocketing COVID-19 infection rates and deaths.

Mr Sands said a briefing given to international media on Tuesday by Ian Brownlee, the US State Department’s acting assistant secretary for consular affairs, and Marty Cetron, the CDC’s director for global migration and quarantine, cast some doubt on whether a quarantine will be made mandatory at the federal level.

In response to questions on the issue, a transcript quoted Mr Brownlee as saying: “We’re not at this time issuing federal

quarantine orders, but we do have - and have had - up on the CDC website guidance regarding the ways to increase the safety of international travel......

“Staying home for a period of time, seven days if you have a negative postarrival test taken between day three and five, as is recommended on our website, allows the quarantine period to be shortened.

“Most of this return recommendation really falls in the jurisdiction of state and local authorities, and each, the state and local authorities, may have their own specific advice, but the CDC’s standard advice on this can be found on our website. So these are recommendations from CDC.” Obtaining clarity on the US quarantine issue is now

Baha Mar chief urges rapid vaccination for tourism revival boost FROM PAGE ONE Mr Davis, meanwhile, voiced hope that the COVID-19 pandemic will be “a once-in-a-lifetime event that we don’t see again” for the hotel and tourism industry, adding: ‘I don’t think any of us have experienced anything like this for an extended period.”

Amid the ongoing confusion and uncertainty over whether the Biden administration will impose a mandatory quarantine on all travellers returning to the US from abroad, Mr Davis urged the government and private sector to keep “lobbying” for The Bahamas to be exempted from these US protocols on the basis of its presently low infection rates.

The prime minister

yesterday said this had been acknowledged by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which was preparing to upgrade The Bahamas from “Level 4” or “very high risk” in its COVID-19 travel alert to US citizens to “Level 3” or just “high” risk.

Mr Davis said the CDC move would “help more from a corporate and group perspective” than with leisure travel, as he added: “I can also say we encourage the government and all of us in the private sector to continue lobbying the US government to have an exemption from testing to go to back to the US and exemption from any quarantine for going back to the US from The Bahamas.

“That would certainly improve travel demand for

the most critical matter for Bahamian hotel and tourism operators. Magnus Alnebeck, the Pelican Bay general manager, while praising the improved CDC travel advisory said the quarantine issue looms as a greater potential impediment to travel to this nation.

“We still need to figure out what this quarantine in the US is going to mean for our guests,” he told Tribune Business. “I don’t think anybody fully knows. That is a bigger deal than the actual travel advisory. Were we to get an exemption everybody would be happy for that.

“It would be an enormous boost. If that quarantine becomes a recommendation rather than something strict, and we get down from ‘Level 4’ to ‘Level 3’, then we can make some noise.”

The Bahamas, and give us a significant competitive advantage over other Caribbean destinations and destinations globally, if we have an exemption from testing and quarantines. That will give the confidence to the consumer they can return swiftly without any issues.”

The Baha Mar president says his resort, and others, were well-placed to cope with the CDC’s demand that all returning US travellers produce a negative COVID test taken within three days of their trip due to the testing facilities they are already providing to guests on-property.

Mr Davis also revealed that Baha Mar had paid-out more than $70m last year to employees after the pandemic hit via a mixture of ex-gratia payments, benefits, payroll and severance pay.

This, he argued, made the Cable Beach-based mega resort “probably the single largest employer in payments and support that filters down to the entire community”.

“It’s a major benefit when we’re paying associates to stay home,” Mr Davis said.

THE TRIBUNE

Govt rejects Moody’s deficit financing fears FROM PAGE ONE

that particular concern at this stage, no,” he told this newspaper.

Mr Johnson spoke out after Moody’s, in its January 26 credit opinion on The Bahamas, said: “There is also a risk that the market sentiment toward The Bahamas may not improve enough to enable the government to finance its larger funding needs over 2021-2022.

“Although its favourable debt maturity profile mitigates some risks related to government liquidity (the next global bond is not due until 2024), the country’s limited market access could create external liquidity strain.”

Moody’s, though, did acknowledge that the government had raised $825m from the international capital markets late last year, with the final $225m attracting a lower interest coupon than the first $600m placement.

However, it added: “The cost, at almost nine percent, was high and will weigh on the Bahamas’ debt affordability ratios.” And Moody’s did acknowledge that The Bahamas financing its borrowing needs this fiscal year could result in it upgrading its outlook on this nation from ‘negative’ to ‘stable’.

“The outlook could be changed to stable if the government were to successfully finance its larger borrowing requirements for the fiscal year that will end in June 2021 (fiscal 2020-21),

and a recovery of the tourism sector supports growth and budgetary revenue,” Moody’s said.

“Additionally, the implementation of fiscal and economic policies that support a fiscal consolidation process and the stabilisation of the debt trend over the coming years would be credit positive.”

The credit rating agency, noting that tourism arrivals to The Bahamas for the 11 months to end-November 2020 were less than 2m compared to the prior year’s 7m-plus, added that it had also abandoned prior forecasts for a “v-shaped” economic recovery.

It has revised The Bahamas’ GDP growth projection for 2021 from around 12 percent to four percent, albeit the latter is still double that forecast by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Moody’s, though, is predicting six percent GDP growth for 2022, which is slightly higher than its previous estimate of under five percent.

“Tourism did not recover in the last quarter of 2020.

The significant decline in tourist arrivals, coupled with the high number of COVID cases in the US - The Bahamas’ main source of tourists - has led us to revise our previous expectation that tourist flows would recover in the 2021 first half,” Moody’s said.

“We now expect the economic rebound in 2021 to be lower and GDP growth in 2022 to be higher than our previous forecast. This expectation relies on the

assumption that tourism will not increase materially until the 2021 second half as vaccination efforts bring the pandemic under control in the US and restore the appetite for international travel.”

On the fiscal side, Moody’s added: “The substantial drop in revenue, coupled with an expectation of slower economic recovery, has led the authorities to revise their fiscal targets compared with those laid out in the budget presented in May 2020.

“The authorities have widened the target deficits for the next three fiscal years, and announced increased expenditure restraints, with a specific focus on state-owned enterprises, which have long received support from the central government.”

Moody’s continued: “The poor first quarter revenue of fiscal year 2020-2021, and the delayed pick-up in tourism, have also led us to widen our deficit forecasts....

Overall, our forecasts do not greatly differ from those of the government. We expect the fiscal deficit to reach 11 percent [of GDP] in fiscal 2020-21 and to only narrow significantly in fiscal 2022-2023.

“The increased deficit and slower economic growth also mean that we now expect debt to stabilise at more than 80 percent of GDP by 2022. This will place the Bahamas’ debt burden at a higher level than its peers as we expect the ‘Ba’ median to average 70 percent over 2021-2022.”

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Thursday, January 28, 2021, PAGE 7

PAGE 8, Thursday, January 28, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

Asian shares drop after US stocks’ worst day since October TOKYO Associated Press ASIAN shares skidded today as a reality check set in about longtime economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic, giving Wall Street its worst day since October.

Benchmarks in Japan, South Korea, Australia and China declined today.

The region is looking ahead to earnings season for a read on how companies are faring amid COVID19 infections, which have been relatively low in some nations such as New Zealand, compared to other global regions.

Japan’s benchmark

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Nikkei 225 fell nearly 1.1% in morning trading to 28,321.89. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 1.9% to 6,651.90. South Korea’s Kospi sank 0.8% to 3,097.38. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.1% to 28,975.69, while the Shanghai Composite shed 0.8% to 3,544.59.

The slow majority held

by Democrats in the Senate has raised doubts over how soon the economy will get an infusion of fresh support after President Joe Biden proposed a $1.9tn COVIDrelief package. The plan might also be scaled back.

“Investors will likely focus on the pace of vaccinations around the globe while also keeping an eye on the progress of President Biden’s fiscal rescue plan that may be facing some roadblocks in the US Senate,” Prakash Sakpal and Nicholas Mapa, senior economists at ING, said in a report.

Vaccine rollouts have not progressed in Asia as quickly as they have in the West, and worries are growing about a tug-of-war for the products from Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca.

Aside from China, which has its own vaccine, innoculations have not started on a mass scale in Asia, although approvals have either been granted or are on their way in most places, including Australia and Japan.

Outbreaks persist and have grown in some places such as Japan, where a third wave is claiming more lives at a much faster pace than last year, at more than 5,000 so far. Daily deaths had been mostly in singledigit figures until recently, but are now surpassing 100 people a day.

Adding to caution, the Federal Reserve said yesterday it would keep its low interest rate policies in place, but it also released a sobering assessment of the

gradual recovery ahead.

On Wall Street, a sell-off in technology companies sent shares tumbling in a reversal from the market’s recent moves to record highs.

The S&P 500 fell 2.6% to 3,750.77. The Dow lost 2%, to 30,303.17. The Nasdaq slid 2.6%, to 13,270.60.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies gave up 1.9%, to 2,108.70.

Facebook, Netflix and Google’s parent company Alphabet led the pullback, which started early in the day as investors sized up the latest batch of company earnings reports. The market’s skid accelerated toward the end of the day.

Traders were also focused on the eye-popping surge in GameStop, a money-losing video game seller that has become the focus of a battle between small investors bidding it higher and big hedge funds betting it will fall.

Some analysts said the selling was at least partly a reaction to the outsized moves in GameStop, AMC Entertainment and select other previously beaten-down stocks that have notched massive gains in recent days after gaining favor with an online community of

individual investors.

The volatile trading caught the attention of officials in the highest levels of government. The White House said the Biden administration, including the Treasury Department, are monitoring the situation. The Securities and Exchange Commission said it was keeping an eye on the stock and options markets.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell was asked about the GameStop trading frenzy at a news conference but declined to comment about it.

The surge in volatility was reflected in the VIX, a measure of fear in the US stock market, which surged more than 60% to its highest level since October 30. Treasury yields moved lower, another sign of caution in the market.

Investors are also focusing on company earnings.

More than 100 companies in the S&P 500 are scheduled to tell investors this week how they fared during the last three months of 2020.

As a whole, analysts expect S&P 500 companies to say their fourth-quarter profit fell 5% from a year earlier.

That’s a milder drop than the 9.4% they were forecasting earlier this month, according to FactSet.

Boeing dropped 4% after the aircraft manufacturer posted its largest annual loss in the company’s history, mostly due to the grounding of Boeing’s 737MAX fleet.

Markets had been meandering near record highs since last week as investors weighed solid corporate earnings results against renewed worries that troubles with COVID19 vaccine rollouts and the spread of new variants of coronavirus might delay a recovery from the pandemic.

“The real economy isn’t reflective of what’s happening in financial markets and there really is a disconnect there,” said Charlie Ripley, senior investment strategist for Allianz Investment Management.

In energy trading, benchmark US crude lost 14 cents to $52.71 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

It picked up 24 cents to $52.85 per barrel overnight.

Brent crude, the international standard, fell 20 cents to $55.61 a barrel.

In currency trading, the US dollar edged up to 104.26 Japanese yen from 104.12 yen. The euro cost $1.2104, inching down from $1.2112.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, January 28, 2021, PAGE 9

FACEBOOK Q4 RESULTS SOAR; ZUCKERBERG HITS APPLE OVER PRIVACY Associated Press FACEBOOK capped a tumultuous 2020 with soaring earnings in the final quarter, but the company forecast challenges in 2021 that include a coming privacy update by Apple that could limit the social network’s ad targeting capabilities.

The Apple move drew a rare public rebuke from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, pictured, who during a conference call accused Apple of favouring its own interests and not those of users.

Facebook said its already enormous user base grew in the fourth quarter as people stayed home during the pandemic and reported revenues buoyed by a shift to digital advertising amid

coronavirus-related economic uncertainty.

But the company predicted uncertainty for 2021 and said its revenue in the latter half of the year could face significant pressure.

Because revenue grew so quickly in the second half of 2020, the social network could have trouble keeping up that pace.

“Clearly the pandemic has also continued to help Facebook’s monthly active user

growth to remain strong in many regions, including in the US and Canada, where prior to the pandemic, user gains had slowed to a crawl,” said eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson. But she noted that the number of daily users in this region declined, suggesting that people in the US and Canada are moving elsewhere — probably TikTok, which grew quickly in 2020.

In the conference call

with analysts, Zuckerberg came out swinging, saying Apple is fast becoming one of Facebook’s “biggest competitors” due in part to its dominance in messaging on the iPhone. Apple, he said, “has every incentive” to use its own mobile platform to interfere with how rival apps work.

Apple will soon require apps to ask users for permission to collect data on what devices they are using and to let ads follow them around on the internet.

Facebook has been pushing back against the changes, saying those rules could reduce what apps can earn by advertising through Facebook’s audience network.

Of course, the Apple move also threatens Facebook’s own advertising revenue.

Zuckerberg, though, focused

on what he sees as Apple’s motives.

“Apple may say that they are doing this to help people, but the moves clearly track their competitive interests,” Zuckerberg said.

Apple, meanwhile, says people should be empowered to have more control of their data. Executives have dismissed arguments from advertisers and companies like Facebook who say the anti-tracking feature will hurt the online ad industry.

“When invasive tracking is your business model, you tend not to welcome transparency and customer choice,” Apple’s software chief Craig Federighi said in December.

Facebook earned $11.22bn, or $3.88 per share, in the October-December period, well above the $3.19

that analysts expected and up 53% from a year earlier. Revenue grew 22% to $28.07bn, higher than the $26.36bn analysts were predicting, according to a poll

by FactSet. Its monthly user base grew 12% to 2.8 billion.

Facebook ended 2020 with 58,604 employees, a 30% increase from a year earlier.

While Facebook does not break out how much it makes from Instagram, which it owns, eMarketer estimates that the app accounted for 36% of Facebook’s total advertising revenue and nearly half of its US ad revenue.

Shares of the Menlo Park, California-based company climbed $1.23 to $273.37 in after-hours trading. The stock price rose 33% in 2020.

PAGE 10, Thursday, January 28, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

IN DUEL WITH SMALL INVESTORS OVER GAMESTOP, BIG FUNDS BLINK Associated Press ACROSS most of America, GameStop is just a place to buy a video game.

On Wall Street, though, it’s become a battleground where swarms of smaller investors see themselves making an epic stand

A GAMESTOP store in St Louis.

Photo: AP

against the 1%.

The funds serving the financial elite are starting to walk away in defeat.

Big bets they made that GameStop’s stock would fall went wrong, leaving them facing billions of dollars in collective losses.

All the wild action pushed

GameStop’s stock as high as $380 yesterday, up from $18 just a few weeks ago.

The stunning seizure of power gives some validation to smaller-pocketed investors, many of whom are encouraging each other on Reddit and are trading stocks for the first time thanks to brokerages offering free-trading apps. It’s also left more investors on Wall Street asking if the stock market is in a dangerous bubble about to pop, as AMC Entertainment, Bed Bath & Beyond and other downtrodden stocks suddenly soar as well. The S&P 500 set a record high earlier this week, though it fell yesterday.

Two investment firms that had placed bets for money-losing GameStop’s stock to fall have essentially thrown in the towel.

One, Citron Research, acknowledged Wednesday in a YouTube video that it unwound the majority of its bet and took “a loss, 100%” to do so. But Andrew Left, who runs Citron, said that does not change his view that GameStop’s stock will eventually go down.

“We move on,” Left said.

“Nothing has changed with GameStop except the stock price,” He also said he has “respect for the market”, which can run stock prices up much higher than where critics say they should be, at least for a while.

Melvin Capital is also exiting GameStop, with manager Gabe Plotkin telling CNBC that the hedge fund was taking a significant loss. He denied rumors that the hedge fund will fail.

The size of the losses taken

by Citron and Melvin are unknown.

Before its recent explosion, GameStop’s stock had been struggling for a long time. The company has been losing money for years as sales of video games increasingly go online, and its stock fell for six straight years before rebounding in 2020.

That pushed many professional investors to make bets that GameStop’s stock will decline even further.

In such bets, called “short sales”, investors borrow a share and sell it in hopes of buying it back later at a lower price and pocketing the difference. GameStop is one of the most shorted stocks on Wall Street.

But its stock began rising sharply earlier this month after a co-founder of Chewy, the online seller of pet supplies, joined the company’s board.

The thought is that he could help in the company’s transformation as it focuses more on digital sales and closes brick-and-mortar stores. Its shares jumped to $19.94 from less than $18 on Jan 11. At the time, it seemed like a huge move for the stock.

Smaller investors were meanwhile exhorting each other online to keep GameStop’s stock rolling higher.

The raucous discussions are full of sarcasm, self

deprecation and emojis of rocket ships signifying belief that GameStock’s stock will fly to the moon.

“WHAT IS AN ACTUAL RATIONAL SELLING POINT, (ABOVE 200?

500?)

SO I DONT HAVE TO WATCH THIS TICKER EVERY SECOND UNTIL FRIDAY/MONDAY????” one user wrote in a Reddit discussion on Tuesday afternoon as GameStop soared.

“I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M DOING,” adding that they had other things to do.

There is no overriding reason why GameStop has attracted this cavalcade of smaller and first-time investors, but there is a distinct component of revenge against Wall Street in communications online.

“The same rich people that caused the market crash in 2007/08 are still in power and continue to manipulate the market to get even richer, we are just taking back our fair share,” one user wrote on Reddit. “hey mom i can’t come up for dinner,” another user wrote. “i’m bankrupting a 10 figure hedge fund with the boys.”

Beyond personal attacks, the battle has also created big financial losses for Wall Street players who shorted GameStop’s stock.

As GameStop’s gains grew and short sellers scrambled to get out of their bets, they had to buy shares to do so. That accelerated the momentum even more, creating a feedback loop. As of Tuesday, short sellers of GameStop were already down more than $5bn in 2021, according to S3 Partners.

Much of professional Wall Street remains pessimistic that GameStop’s stock can hold onto its immense gains.

The company is unlikely to start making big enough profits to justify its $22.2bn market valuation anytime soon, analysts say. The stock closed yesterday at $347.51.

Analysts at BofA Global Research raised their price target yesterday — to $10.

All the mania is raising some concern that investors are taking excessive risks, and reporters asked Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell yesterday whether the Fed’s moves to support markets through the pandemic is helping to push stock prices too high.

Powell downplayed the role of low interest rates and pointed to investors’ expectations for COVID-19 vaccines and more stimulus from Washington for the economy as drivers for record stock prices.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said yesterday that it’s noticed all the volatility in the market, though it did not name GameStop specifically. The agency said it’s “working with our fellow regulators to assess the situation and review the activities” of investors in the market.

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THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, January 28, 2021, PAGE 11

MARKET REPORT www.bisxbahamas.com

WEDNESDAY, 27 JANUARY 2021

BISX ALL SHARE INDEX:

CLOSE

CHANGE

%CHANGE

YTD

YTD%

2072.28

-0.99

-0.05

-20.18

-0.96

(242) 323-2330 (242) 323-2320

BISX LISTED & TRADED SECURITIES 52WK HI 4.20 33.05 2.00 2.02 2.10 6.00 6.75 3.80 6.49 4.40 6.16 12.77 3.64 6.85 10.88 8.44 15.08 4.25 9.26 15.21

52WK LOW 3.13 22.65 0.67 1.62 1.66 5.00 6.00 2.70 4.50 3.50 5.80 11.06 2.10 4.75 9.60 7.50 13.00 3.25 8.15 14.00

PREFERENCE SHARES 1.00

1.00

1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00

1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00

1.00 10.00 1.00

1.00 10.00 0.90

SECURITY AML Foods Limited APD Limited Benchmark Bahamas First Holdings Limited Bank of Bahamas Bahamas Property Fund Bahamas Waste Cable Bahamas Commonwealth Brewery Commonwealth Bank Colina Holdings CIBC FirstCaribbean Bank Consolidated Water BDRs Doctor's Hospital Emera Incorporated Famguard Fidelity Bank Bahamas Limited Focol Finco J. S. Johnson

SYMBOL AML APD BBL BFH BOB BPF BWL CAB CBB CBL CHL CIB CWCB DHS EMAB FAM FBB FCL FIN JSJ

LAST CLOSE 4.15 32.12 1.62 2.02 1.67 6.00 6.61 2.98 4.74 3.50 5.90 11.24 2.52 6.85 10.19 8.40 13.50 3.80 8.50 15.20

CLOSE 4.20 32.12 1.62 2.02 1.67 6.00 6.61 2.98 4.74 3.50 5.80 11.24 2.55 6.85 10.10 8.40 13.50 3.80 8.50 15.20

1.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1.00 10.00 1.00

1.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1.00 10.00 1.00

SYMBOL FBB22 BFHB

LAST SALE 100.00 100.00

CLOSE 100.00 100.00

CHANGE 0.00 0.00

BAH29 BG0107 BG0207 BG0130 BG0230 BG0307 BG0330 BG0407 BSBGRS810359 BSBGR120371 BSBGRS790262

107.31 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 97.04 100.72

107.31 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 97.04 100.72

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

Bahamas First Holdings Preference Cable Bahamas Series 6 Cable Bahamas Series 8 Cable Bahamas Series 9 Cable Bahamas Series 10 Colina Holdings Class A Fidelity Bank Bahamas Class A Focol Class B

BFHP CAB6 CAB8 CAB9 CAB10 CHLA FBBA FCLB

CORPORATE DEBT - (percentage pricing) 52WK HI 100.00 100.00

52WK LOW 100.00 100.00

115.92 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 102.00 100.00 97.72 100.70

104.79 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 94.40 100.70

SECURITY Fidelity Bank (Note 22 Series B+) Bahamas First Holdings Limited

BAHAMAS GOVERNMENT STOCK - (percentage pricing) Bahamas Note 6.95 (2029) BGS: 2014-12-7Y BGS: 2015-1-7Y BGS: 2014-12-30Y BGS: 2015-1-30Y BGS: 2015-6-7Y BGS: 2015-6-30Y BGS: 2015-10-7Y BGRS FL BSBGRS810359 BGRS FX BSBGR120371 BGRS FL BSBGRS790262

CHANGE 0.05 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 (0.10) 0.00 0.03 0.00 (0.09) 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

VOLUME 8,075

3,000

5,000

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

EPS$ 0.239 0.932 0.000 0.110 0.070 1.760 0.369 -0.438 0.140 0.184 0.449 0.722 0.102 0.467 0.646 0.728 0.816 0.203 0.939 0.631 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

VOLUME

DIV$ 0.170 1.260 0.020 0.030 0.000 0.000 0.260 0.000 0.000 0.120 0.220 0.720 0.434 0.060 0.328 0.240 0.540 0.120 0.200 0.610 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

P/E 17.6 34.5 N/M N/M N/M N/M 17.9 -6.8 33.9 19.0 12.9 15.6 25.0 14.7 15.6 11.5 16.5 18.7 9.1 24.1

YIELD 4.05% 3.92% 1.23% 1.49% 0.00% 0.00% 3.93% 0.00% 0.00% 3.43% 3.79% 6.41% 17.02% 0.88% 3.25% 2.86% 4.00% 3.16% 2.35% 4.01%

0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 6.25% 7.00% 6.50%

INTEREST Prime + 1.75% 6.25%

MATURITY

19-Oct-2022 30-Sep-2025

6.95% 4.50% 4.50% 6.25% 6.25% 4.50% 6.25% 4.25% 4.81% 5.22% 4.53%

20-Nov-2029 15-Dec-2021 30-Jul-2022 15-Dec-2044 30-Jul-2045 26-Jun-2022 26-Jun-2045 15-Oct-2022 26-Jul-2035 15-Dec-2037 28-Mar-2026

MUTUAL FUNDS

To advertise in The Tribune, contact 502-2394

52WK HI 2.39 4.43 2.14 201.90 184.85 1.69 1.85 1.77 1.24 8.49 10.26 7.28 13.91 12.84 10.81 10.00 8.98 11.79

52WK LOW 2.11 3.30 1.68 164.74 116.70 1.65 1.79 1.75 1.05 6.41 7.62 5.66 8.65 10.54 9.57 9.88 8.45 11.20

FUND CFAL Bond Fund CFAL Balanced Fund CFAL Money Market Fund CFAL Global Bond Fund CFAL Global Equity Fund Leno Preferred Income Fund Leno Growth Fund Leno Diversified Fund Leno Global USD Bond Fund Royal Fidelity Bahamas Opportunities Fund - Secured Balanced Fund Royal Fidelity Bahamas Opportunities Fund - Targeted Equity Fund Royal Fidelity Bahamas Opportunities Fund - Prime Income Fund Royal Fidelity Int'l Fund - Equities Sub Fund Royal Fidelity Int'l Fund - High Yield Fund Royal Fidelity Int'l Fund - Alternative Strategies Fund Colonial Bahamas Fund Class D Colonial Bahamas Fund Class E Colonial Bahamas Fund Class F

NAV 2.39 4.43 2.14 201.90 184.85 1.69 1.79 1.77 1.05 8.49 10.03 7.28 13.91 12.84 10.05 N/A 9.28 11.86

YTD% 12 MTH% 4.55% 4.55% 1.58% 1.58% 2.60% 2.60% 3.47% 3.47% 10.86% 10.86% 1.65% 1.95% -3.06% -2.22% 0.80% 1.17% -12.30% -11.81% 1.76% 1.76% -1.97% -1.97% 4.91% 4.91% 5.28% 15.75% 0.05% 3.96% -0.35% -6.34% N/A N/A -0.50% 3.70% -3.80% 4.10%

NAV Date

31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Oct-2020 31-Oct-2020 31-Oct-2020 31-Oct-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 30-Sep-2020 30-Sep-2020 30-Sep-2020

MARKET TERMS

BISX ALL SHARE INDEX - 19 Dec 02 = 1,000.00

YIELD - last 12 month dividends divided by closing price

52wk-Hi - Highest closing price in last 52 weeks

Bid $ - Buying price of Colina and Fidelity

52wk-Low - Lowest closing price in last 52 weeks

Ask $ - Selling price of Colina and fidelity

Previous Close - Previous day's weighted price for daily volume

Last Price - Last traded over-the-counter price

Today's Close - Current day's weighted price for daily volume

Weekly Vol. - Trading volume of the prior week

Change - Change in closing price from day to day

EPS $ - A company's reported earnings per share for the last 12 mths

Daily Vol. - Number of total shares traded today

NAV - Net Asset Value

DIV $ - Dividends per share paid in the last 12 months

N/M - Not Meaningful

P/E - Closing price divided by the last 12 month earnings

TO TRADE CALL: CFAL 242-502-7010 | ROYALFIDELITY 242-356-7764 | CAROLISLE 242-502-7525 | LENO 242-396-3225 | BENCHMARK 242-326-7333

PAGE 14, Thursday, January 28, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

Bernie Sanders’ mittens, memes help raise $1.8M for charity Associated Press ABOUT those wooly mittens that US Sen Bernie Sanders wore to the presidential inauguration, sparking endless quirky memes across social media? They’ve helped to raise $1.8m in the last five days for charitable organisations in Sanders’

home state of Vermont, the independent senator announced yesterday.

The sum comes from the sale of merchandise with the Jan 20 image of him sitting with his arms and legs crossed, clad in his brown parka and recycled wool mittens.

Sanders put the first of the so-called “Chairman

a written statement. “But even this amount of money is no substitute for action

by Congress, and I will be doing everything I can in Washington to make sure working people in Vermont and across the country get the relief they need in the middle of the worst crisis we’ve faced since the Great Depression.”

Sanders’ mittens were made by Jen Ellis, a Vermont elementary school teacher who has a side business making mittens out of recycled wool. His inauguration look, also featuring the winter jacket made by Burton Snowboards, sparked countless memes from the photo taken by Agence France-Presse: The former presidential candidate could be found on social media timelines

VERMONT Senator Bernie Sanders arrives for the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the US Capitol for President-elect Joe Biden in Washington.

Photo: Saul Loeb/AP Sanders” merchandise, including T-shirts, sweatshirts and stickers, on his campaign website Thursday night and the first run sold out in less than 30 minutes, he said. More merchandise was added over the weekend and sold

out by Monday morning, he said.

“Jane and I were amazed by all the creativity shown by so many people over the last week, and we’re glad we can use my internet fame to help Vermonters in need,” Sanders said in

THE WEATHER REPORT

5-Day Forecast

TODAY

ORLANDO

High: 62° F/17° C Low: 43° F/6° C

TAMPA

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

MONDAY

An a.m. shower; windy in the p.m.

Mostly cloudy with winds subsiding

Mostly cloudy and breezy

Cloudy to partly sunny

Partly sunny and pleasant

Variably cloudy, a shower; breezy

High: 78°

Low: 60°

High: 71° Low: 60°

High: 73° Low: 64°

High: 76° Low: 65°

High: 79° Low: 58°

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

77° F

54° F

68°-60° F

70°-62° F

76°-64° F

81°-53° F

The exclusive AccuWeather RealFeel Temperature® is an index that combines the effects of temperature, wind, humidity, sunshine intensity, cloudiness, precipitation, pressure and elevation on the human body—everything that affects how warm or cold a person feels. Temperatures reflect the high and the low for the day.

N

almanac

E

W

ABACO

S

N

High: 76° F/24° C Low: 57° F/14° C

20-30 knots

S

High: 70° F/21° C Low: 59° F/15° C

15-25 knots

FT. LAUDERDALE

FREEPORT

High: 73° F/23° C Low: 59° F/15° C

E

W S

E

W

WEST PALM BEACH

N

uV inDex toDay

TONIGHT

High: 65° F/18° C Low: 44° F/7° C

High: 73° F/23° C Low: 56° F/13° C

MIAMI

High: 76° F/24° C Low: 59° F/15° C

12-25 knots

Statistics are for Nassau through 1 p.m. yesterday Temperature High ................................................... 81° F/27° C Low .................................................... 70° F/21° C Normal high ....................................... 77° F/25° C Normal low ........................................ 65° F/18° C Last year’s high ................................. 82° F/28° C Last year’s low ................................... 60° F/16° C Precipitation As of 1 p.m. yesterday ................................. 0.00” Year to date ................................................. 1.23” Normal year to date ..................................... 1.17”

ELEUTHERA

NASSAU

High: 78° F/26° C Low: 60° F/16° C

Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021

High: 79° F/26° C Low: 61° F/16° C

N

KEY WEST

High: 72° F/22° C Low: 59° F/15° C

High: 80° F/27° C Low: 63° F/17° C

N

S

E

W

8-16 knots

S

8-16 knots

ANDROS

Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.

The higher the AccuWeather UV IndexTM number, the greater the need for eye and skin protection.

tiDes For nassau High

Low

Ht.(ft.)

Today

7:23 a.m.

7:39 p.m.

3.0 2.3

12:58 a.m. -0.4 1:51 p.m. -0.2

Friday

8:04 a.m.

8:23 p.m.

3.1 2.4

1:42 a.m. -0.4 2:32 p.m. -0.3

Saturday

8:46 a.m.

9:08 p.m.

3.1 2.5

2:27 a.m. -0.5 3:13 p.m. -0.4

Sunday

9:29 a.m.

9:55 p.m.

3.0 2.6

3:14 a.m. -0.4 3:54 p.m. -0.5

Monday

10:14 a.m.

10:44 p.m.

2.9 2.7

4:03 a.m. -0.4 4:38 p.m. -0.5

Tuesday

11:02 a.m.

11:38 p.m.

2.8 2.7

4:56 a.m. -0.2 5:24 p.m. -0.5

Wednesday 11:53 a.m.

-----

2.5 -----

5:54 a.m. -0.1 6:15 p.m. -0.4

sun anD moon Sunrise Sunset

6:54 a.m.

5:52 p.m.

Moonrise Moonset

5:54 p.m.

6:56 a.m.

Full

Last

New

First

Jan. 28

Feb. 4

Feb. 11

Feb. 19

SAN SALVADOR

GREAT EXUMA

High: 80° F/27° C Low: 64° F/18° C

High: 78° F/26° C Low: 67° F/19° C

N

High: 80° F/27° C Low: 62° F/17° C

E

W S

LONG ISLAND

tracking map

High: 80° F/27° C Low: 66° F/19° C

L

Ht.(ft.)

CAT ISLAND

E

W

taking a seat on the subway, the moon and the couch with the cast of “Friends”, among other creative locales.

Ellis said on social media over the weekend that Sanders called to tell her that “the mitten frenzy” had raised an enormous amount of money for Vermont charities although she was not authorised to disclose the amount, yet.

“But it’s BIG and it’s amazing! Thank you!!

Generosity brings joy,” she tweeted.

She also said she made three more pairs of mittens and donated them for fundraising to Passion 4 Paws Vermont, Outright Vermont, and would be auctioning off a pair on eBay for her daughter’s college fund.

8-16 knots

MAYAGUANA High: 80° F/27° C Low: 68° F/20° C

Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.

CROOKED ISLAND / ACKLINS RAGGED ISLAND High: 80° F/27° C Low: 67° F/19° C

GREAT INAGUA High: 82° F/28° C Low: 71° F/22° C

N

N E

W

E

W

H

High: 80° F/27° C Low: 67° F/19° C

S

S

4-8 knots

4-8 knots

marine Forecast ABACO ANDROS CAT ISLAND CROOKED ISLAND ELEUTHERA FREEPORT GREAT EXUMA GREAT INAGUA LONG ISLAND MAYAGUANA NASSAU RAGGED ISLAND SAN SALVADOR

Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday: Today: Friday:

WINDS NW at 15-25 Knots N at 8-16 Knots NW at 8-16 Knots NE at 8-16 Knots W at 8-16 Knots NNE at 8-16 Knots SW at 4-8 Knots NE at 10-20 Knots WNW at 10-20 Knots NNE at 8-16 Knots NNW at 25-35 Knots NNE at 8-16 Knots NW at 8-16 Knots NNE at 8-16 Knots N at 4-8 Knots NNE at 12-25 Knots W at 4-8 Knots NE at 10-20 Knots SW at 4-8 Knots NNE at 10-20 Knots WNW at 8-16 Knots NNE at 7-14 Knots NW at 4-8 Knots NE at 10-20 Knots W at 8-16 Knots NNE at 8-16 Knots

WAVES 6-10 Feet 8-12 Feet 1-3 Feet 3-5 Feet 2-4 Feet 6-10 Feet 1-3 Feet 4-7 Feet 2-4 Feet 6-10 Feet 6-10 Feet 5-9 Feet 1-2 Feet 2-4 Feet 1-3 Feet 5-9 Feet 1-2 Feet 3-5 Feet 2-4 Feet 8-12 Feet 2-4 Feet 3-5 Feet 1-2 Feet 3-5 Feet 1-3 Feet 4-8 Feet

VISIBILITY 10 Miles 5 Miles 10 Miles 5 Miles 10 Miles 5 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 5 Miles 10 Miles 5 Miles 10 Miles 5 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 5 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 5 Miles 10 Miles 5 Miles

WATER TEMPS. 76° F 75° F 76° F 75° F 78° F 78° F 79° F 79° F 75° F 75° F 80° F 80° F 77° F 77° F 80° F 80° F 79° F 79° F 78° F 78° F 76° F 76° F 79° F 79° F 78° F 77° F