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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2021

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Aliv set to double Cable ‘contribution’

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

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LIV is on track to double last year’s $8m “contribution” to Cable Bahamas’ results, its top executive revealed yesterday, while reiterating it was “never a quick dash to the finish line” on net profitability.

Damian Blackburn told Tribune Business the mobile operator’s positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) growth, which reached $4.3m for the six months to end-December 2020, had left it poised to match the full-year production for its controlling BISX-listed shareholder in just half that time.

Explaining that the half-year contribution will amount to $8m once Aliv’s results are consolidated with Cable Bahamas, and the inter-group payments for the mobile provider’s use of the latter’s towers and

• Hits prior year’s $8m in just first half • Mobile firm touts ‘record’ $42m revenue • But ‘not quick dash to finish’ on net profit

DAMIAN BLACKBURN fibre optic cable network are stripped out, Mr Blackburn said it is now expects to cover all operating costs from its own resources before the June 30, 2021, financial year-end.

Disclosing that Aliv has largely managed to shrugoff COVID-19’s devastating impact on its business and its consumers, he added that revenues for the half-year

Union seeking answers as CIBC sale collapses

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A TRADE union leader is today hoping to today discover whether CIBC’s efforts to exit majority FirstCaribbean ownership have hit “the end of the road” following the collapse of a $797m deal.

Teresa Mortimer, the Bahamas Financial Services Union’s (BFSU) president, told Tribune Business she and other CIBC FirstCaribbean worker representatives wanted to find out “the next step” after efforts to sell a controlling 66.73 percent equity stake to the

Colombia-headquartered GNB Financial Group were confirmed to have fallen through.

The union chief, who represents around 300 of the bank’s Bahamian workers, said she was especially eager to learn in today’s meeting with senior management executives whether Canadian-based CIBC has now ended plans to sell majority control of its Caribbean subsidiary or whether it will keep the bank on the market and up for potential sale.

“I think we’re going to see exactly whether they

SEE PAGE 6

Tax break scrutiny urged as Albany’s exemption $23m

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE high-end Albany project received more than $23m in tax breaks during the 2017-2018 fiscal year as the government’s financial watchdog called for a “cost benefit analysis” on all such exemptions.

The Auditor General’s Office, in its audit of the government’s finances for that financial year, revealed that the south-west New Providence development received the third-largest customs duty and excise tax

exemption as its incentive agreements enabled it to pay zero of what would normally have been due.

Albany, which caters to homeowners who are mostly high net worth millionaires and billionaires, was also shown to have “deferred” $29.498m in VAT, paying just $401,000 to the Public Treasury that fiscal year. The “deferral” does not mean that the $29.498m will not be paid; just that it has been delayed until the start of economic activity associated with this sum - something

SEE PAGE 7

until end-December had risen by 8.8 percent yearover-year to hit a new $42.2m record.

Subscriber numbers increased by some 16,000, or just under ten percent, over the same period to reach 186,000, Mr Blackburn said, while asserting: “You can see the road we’re on.”

However, arguing that EBITDA was a better measure of Aliv’s performance as a start-up mobile operator, he explained that net or “bottom line” profitability is a longer-term objective that industry players typically reach in their seventh to tenth years due to the heavy investment in network build-out and the subsequent “depreciation” that attracts on balance sheet and income statement values.

Praising staff for having adjusted well to the pandemic’s ‘new normal’, Mr Blackburn said: “The immediate impact of COVID-19 on Aliv in the quarter immediately after the lockdown happened, April to June 2020, was tough. Our revenues were down 15 percent, mainly because a lot of stores were not open to sell our pre-paid plans, and we had very negligible roaming revenues because there was no inbound or outbound travel.

“We have now seen growth return to the business. Our subscriber base has grown from 170,000 at June 30, 2020, to 186,000 on December 31, just under the 10 percent mark. We did a number of things in terms

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Arrears hit $600m as 40% of property tax bills don’t reach

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

UP to 40 percent of real property tax bills never reach the intended taxpayer, the Auditor General’s Office revealed yesterday, as unpaid arrears breached the $600m mark.

The government’s financial watchdog, in a real property tax performance audit tabled in the House of Assembly, said more than one-third of tax bills were annually returned to their Department of Inland Revenue sender because they were mailed to “incorrect addresses”.

Failure to receive their bills, the Auditor General’s Office added, encouraged homeowners and businesses to believe they were relieved of their obligations to pay and thus resulted in “loss of revenue” that was contributing to massive real property tax arrears now exceeding an estimated $600m.

The report, which was submitted to Gaynell Rolle, the Department of Inland Revenue’s chief valuation officer, on December 14,

TERRANCE BASTIAN, auditor general.

2020, also argued that the process of creating real property tax bills is too long as it takes two years for penalty surcharges for nonpayment to be added.

“According to our review of the Bill creation process of the real property tax, we noted that it is lengthy,” the Auditor General’s Office found. “The length of time from bill creation to early discount to surcharges being added for non-payment is two years. The nature of the billing process contributes to taxpayer confusion and the accumulative arrears.

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PAGE 2, Thursday, February 4, 2021

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GRAPHIC designer is a professional responsible for designing contents for products and various activities related to print, advertising, website, magazines, brand identity and games. This role calls for understanding a client’s needs before making a design decision. There are many benefits involved with being a graphic designer, both job

THE TRIBUNE

The graphic benefits from a design career and lifestyle-related. A good salary is not the only thing that matters.

So, what is in store for you if you choose this career path? Are the benefits of

this job the type of advantages you are looking for?

Read on to learn about the bonuses that come with being a graphic designer.

Expressive Creativity The biggest benefit of being a graphic designer is the freedom to express your imagination and creativity.

Whatever you imagine and visualise can be put in the form of display for others to appreciate, admire and even criticise.

Web or Print Flexibility Another advantage to being a graphic designer are the different mediums, the two big ones being print and Internet. Besides the ability to branch off into other skill sets easily, this medium can dramatically increase your freelance ability or business growth.

Multiple environments If you are looking to work in a specific kind of work environment, then the world is your oyster. Nearly every company in the world needs to promote their brand.

That means they require a logo, brand guidelines and other important visual materials to support it.

Every business needs a graphic designer. If a business is going to be marketing, then someone needs to design the relevant materials. As long as businesses keep growing and new ones keep appearing, then graphic designers will always be employed.

Freelance Do you have the entrepreneurial itch? Many designers prefer to be their own boss and choose to start their own freelance business. Not only does this mean you can work from home but it also allows you to set your own prices and hours. If you have ever dreamed of having your personal studio or office, you can turn your freelance business into a larger operation and begin

operating your own studio or online business.

Learn on your own While I do encourage professional training, many amazing designers learned on their own. If you practice consistently, follow tutorials, read books and really have a passion for design you can learn on your own.

You will never get bored There are always new technologies and trends to learn. Style and aesthetics change so quickly, which gives you an opportunity to explore new methods and learn something new every day. There are no rules in graphic design. Just because you received a degree in web design, that does not mean you cannot change your mind and become a 3-D artist.

Meeting new designers Linking with fellow designers is an opportunity to exchange ideas, process and interact regarding ongoing projects to stay updated.

Stable income As long as you work, whether it is freelance or under a design company, you will be paid.

One focus When you are working for a design firm your sole focus is on designing. There is hardly any hassle to multitask on different projects.

Access to resources While designing you will discover new ideas and concepts, which will aid your design and help you become more skillful with each passing day. As a graphic designer you have greater access to the latest industry standards, which offer more development and scope for learning.

Seminar and training privileges There are times when you may be called upon to represent your company in technical seminars, workshops or conferences that

The Art of Graphix

BY DEIDRE M BASTIAN

not many have the opportunity to attend.

So now that you have read about the “perks� of being a graphic designer, it may be just as clear to you as it is to us: This profession has a lot going for it. But is it really worth it?

Absolutely. Despite being competitive, the graphic design market is growing rapidly and does not show any signs of decline. So if you are thinking of making that step, consider the industry to not only be just a merger of image or colours, however deeply connected it is with history and philosophy. I welcome you to the world of graphic design, which offers the ability to express creativity freely while still earning a great living. Until we meet again, fill your life with memories rather than regrets. Enjoy life and stay on top of your game.

NB: Columnist welcomes feedback at deedee21bastian@gmail.com ABOUT COLUMNIST: Deidre M. Bastian is a professionally-trained graphic designer/brand marketing analyst, author and certified life coach with qualifications of B. Sc and M.Sc. She has trained at institutions such as: Miami Lakes Technical Centre, Success Training College, College of The Bahamas, Nova Southeastern University, Learning Tree International, Langevine International and Synergy Bahamas

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, February 4, 2021, PAGE 3

Firms ‘understate’ $18.7m business licence turnover

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net SIX companies reported “significantly understated turnover” worth a collective $18.674m on their business licence renewals during the 2017-2018 fiscal year, it was revealed yesterday.

The Auditor General’s Office, in its review of the government’s accounts for the Minnis administration’s first year in office, found that this under-reporting compared to the turnover these companies disclosed in their annual VAT filings for the same period resulted in a collective $227,685 “shortage” on the business licence fees due for payment.

While the government’s financial watchdog did not name any of the companies involved, only referring to them by the letters “A to F”, it said: “Examination of a sample of business licences processed for 2018 renewal disclosed

significant understated turnover values.”

The discrepancies included one of $10.816m for a company whose VAT filings showed top-line revenues at $130.214m, yet its business licence renewal application pegged turnover at just $119.397m. This enabled it to cut its business licence fee payment by $135,205.

Another firm, referred to as “taxpayer B”, was shown to have an annual turnover of $26.682m based on its VAT filings. Yet its business licence renewal showed this as just $19.682m, a difference of $6.665m, enabling it to avoid paying $83,309 on its business licence fee.

“In addition to the above, a taxpayer whose total turnover for 2017-2018 was $17.097m, and should have paid a standard business licence fee of $213,715, actually paid a total of $64,783m, resulting in a shortage of $148,932,” the Auditor General’s Office said in its audit.

Govt pushes on PPP financing for airports

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net THE government has “shifted” to a public-private partnership (PPP) model to finance “hundreds of millions of dollars in investments” for Family Island airports, a Cabinet minister said yesterday.

Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, used the House of Assembly debate on new aviation legislation in a bid to dispel suggestions fuelled by the opposition and other sections of the media that the government has either slashed funding or cancelled critical infrastructure upgrades to various airports.

DIONISIO D’AGUILAR He said: “The Department of Aviation will utilise funding already in place from the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) and secure the necessary additional funding via public-private partnerships to ensure these projects are

“We recommend that controls strengthen to improve the efficiency of the Business Licence Unit.

The use of data analytical and continuous integrated systems audit reviews be advanced to detect and action exceptions in a timely manner. In addition the shortage should be collected.”

The Auditor General’s Office has repeatedly urged the Department of Inland Revenue (DIR) to be more aggressive in probing discrepancies between a company’s VAT and business licence fee turnover, using the two separate filings as a cross-reference to detect bill duckers and tax avoiders/evaders as the two should theoretically be the same.

Some accountants have argued that this is not necessarily the case, due to the array of VAT exemptions and zero ratings that exist, but the Auditor General’s Office also pointed to gaps and weaknesses in business

licence administration.

“Review of a sample of (22) taxpayers’ accounts disclosed tax arrears for VAT and business fees, at the end of the fiscal year at June 30, 2018, as totalling over $2.11m,” the report said. “The $2.11m is an accumulation of the taxpayers’ non-compliance with legislation in paying VAT as due and the annual business licence fee. We recommend that the enforcement and compliance tools as legislated be reinforced in collecting tax revenue.

“All businesses in operation are mandated by law to have an active business licence and comply with the regulated annual renewal process. We noted a number of multi-million dollar businesses that are operating without renewed business licences. Some of the businesses have been operating for years without having a licence.”

The Auditor General’s Office said “in some cases” the business licence renewal

process had started but not been completed, yet it did not name any of the companies allegedly involved in the report.

However, it identified 16 companies - also unnamed - with annual turnovers ranging up to $15.393m where the accountant’s letter verifying the top-line sum was missing from the Department of Inland Revenue’s file.

The Auditor General’s Office also revealed that the Department of Inland Revenue was breaching the law by waiving interest and penalties on unpaid or late VAT, even though this is forbidden by section 60 (7) specifically forbids this.

“Waiving interest and penalties resulted in revenue leakage,” its audit said. “In the sample of cases examined the amount waived totalled $92,240.

This is an indication of system override and weakness in internal controls.”

Attention was also drawn to two transactions

processed by the Ministry of Finance’s Revenue Enhancement Unit (REU), with the Auditor General’s Office finding: “An assessment conducted on a taxpayer’s account was $348,465, which was later reversed to $275,350, resulting in a reduction of $167,954 in tax liability.

“Another assessment performed resulted in $246,510, and was later reversed to $165,613, resulting in a $80,897 reduction in tax liability. We noted that there was no documentation on file to justify the reversals. We recommended that the assessed amounts of $348,465 and $246,510 be reviewed.”

Some $41.1m in due VAT was shown to be outstanding at end-June 2018, having accumulated over the tax’s first four years. Some $19.97m of this figure, or 49 percent, stemmed from VAT audit assessments while another $13.29m, or 32 percent, related to filing returns.

able to be realised.”

Mr D’Aguilar added that additional funding for these projects has been secured from a local financial institution, but did not provide the name or details of how much funding has been procured. Tribune Business understands RF Holdings, the former RoyalFidelity Merchant Bank & Trust, was one institution that had offered to provide financing.

The minister said design work for Exuma’s new airport has been completed, and the government is in the “final stages” of approving a contract for a Bahamian firm to build a new terminal.

The ground-breaking ceremony will be held within the next 90 days.

Mr D’Aguilar added: “I’ve engaged a best-in-class airport consulting firm that specialises in aviation PPP to identify the best partner for the management and

operation of this Exuma International Airport project while under construction, and once it has been completed.”

Once the terminal is built, attention will then turn towards upgrading its runways and taxiways to develop them to a stage where they can accommodate larger aircraft.

As for Long Island, architects have finalised the design for the Deadman’s Cay airport, with construction expected to break ground in the 2021 second quarter. The new airport will have a 25,000 square foot terminal and fire station, and a 6,500 foot runway. Upon completion, the Deadman’s

Cay airport will have regularly scheduled flights from North America or the wider Caribbean.

“The new airport in Great Harbour Cay in the Berry Islands is currently under construction and I’m advised is approximately 70 percent complete,” Mr D’Aguilar said. “The project involves a 9,500 square foot terminal building and 4,600 feet of new runway. The project is expected to be completed within the next six months and ready for occupancy shortly thereafter.”

The Leonard Thompson International Airport in Marsh Harbour will receive $3m in repairs “inclusive of $1.5m in post-Dorian

construction repairs”. This includes air conditioning repairs and mould remediation work.

Mr D’Aguilar continued: “The Department of Aviation and the project implementation unit attached to the Ministry of Public Works are developing a project to rebuild the Treasure Cay airport through the $1.7m facility available from the IDB. This project will start as soon as the project details have been approved by the IDB.” With regard to the North Eleuthera airport, Mr D’Aguilar said funding has been secured from the IDB

ASSISTANT AUTOMOTIVE SERVICE MANAGER A prominent car dealership is seeking an Assistant Automotive Service Manager.

The ideal candidate must have a wide range of experience in the automotive business as well as good written and oral communication skills.

QUALIFICATIONS: • • • •

• • • • • •

Experienced in all aspects of vehicle diagnosis and diagnostic equipment ASE certified technician or its equivalent preferred.

At least three years of supervisory experience.

Must have the necessary technical knowledge and the real world experience in the automotive field.

Should possess good administrative and time management skills Computer literate.

Good judgment and positive attitude.

Proven leadership and customer service skills.

Possess good communication and interpersonal skills.

Valid driver’s license and good driving record.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: • Keep an updated inventory list of vehicles on premises.

• Organize the various tool rooms and monitor and label all tools as required.

• Maintain lap tops, scan tools and carry out updates when required.

• Replenishment of materials etc. to ensure workshop stays operational.

• Provide assistance to the technicians when required.

• Dispatching and monitoring the daily workload.

• Must possess the capacity to work with, develop and lead the team.

• Must possess the ability to work under pressure and multitask.

• Responsible for the delivery of job-specific training courses to the technicians.

• Ensure all customers’ requests on the repair order are completed to high quality standard. Implement quality control checks.

• The capacity to be trained on dealership computer systems to complete relevant online training.

• Makes repairs when required to Engines, Suspension, Brakes, Diagnostics, Electrical work, Steering systems, wheel alignments, transmission diagnostics.

• Ensures safety comes first with regular checks on equipment, processes/procedures.

• Maintains shop equipment. Repairs equipment and machinery as necessary.

• Fill in for the Service Manager in his absence.

• Performs other related duties as assigned.

BENEFITS OFFERED ARE: • An attractive compensation package which includes Group Medical and Pension Plan benefits.

Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.

Interested persons should send resumes and supporting documents to: P. O. Box N-9240 Nassau, Bahamas Or email address: bahamasmedia@gmail.com

Application Deadline: FEBRUARY 21, 2021

SEE PAGE 4

PAGE 4, Thursday, February 4, 2021

To advertise in The Tribune, contact 502-2394

THE TRIBUNE

Govt pushes on PPP financing for airports FROM PAGE THREE and for this project. The government intends to “duplicate” the Exuma International Airport via a newly-constructed runway that will allow it to receive larger aircraft and increased traffic.

The minister also said the government, through the Airport Authority, is “very close” to acquiring Grand Bahama International Airport from Hutchison Whampoa and the Grand Bahama Port Authority’s

Port Group Ltd. Consultants will be hired to advise on how to redevelop the airport once the deal closes.

“The expanded footprint of our various Family Island airports has necessitated the acquisition of additional land from the Crown, the treasurer and private owners,” Mr D’Aguilar said.

“If it is the intention of the government to use a PPP to develop these airports, then for the very first time these airports must be legally defined on the ground as such.

“So they have been employed, and have completed, the process of defining what specific land should be encompassed in a particular airport, taking into consideration future expansion. Specifically, the land acquisition process will include the following: For Exuma, 100 additional acres, expanding the total footprint to 1,010 acres.

“For North Eleuthera, 556 additional acres, expanding the total footprint to 658 acres. Deadman’s Cay, 665.19 additional acres, expanding the total footprint to 753.56 acres, and then the Leonard Thompson International Airport in Marsh Harbour, 2,485.87 acres.”

Restaurants back plan for ‘capacity certificate

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net RESTAURANT operators yesterday backed calls for the creation of a formal “capacity certificate” mechanism that would allow the sector to resume indoor dining at 50 percent occupancy.

Allen Williams, Café Matisse’s assistant general manager, told Tribune Business he “100 percent agrees” with the proposal by Vernal Major, chief executive of the Equinox Group of Companies, which owns the Xscape Lounge & Nightclub and the Climax Lounge, as a means to enable restaurants to safely resume indoor dining amid COVID-19.

He added: “We are losing a lot of business. Not only the lack of indoor dining; we have to deal with the curfew as well. We have to try and have everybody out of the restaurant by 9pm in order for our workers to be home for 10pm.”

Mr Williams said he foresees no difficulties with

implementing Mr Major’s suggestion, and added: “I don’t think this would be difficult. Everybody that owns a restaurant should be on board with that because they are losing out. They are not going to say no to that.

We are losing money every day.”

Mr Major, who said his $300,000 investment is “at risk” due to some $700,000 in losses racked up during the COVID-19 pandemic’s lockdowns, curfews and closures, earlier this week floated the idea of restaurants being allowed to resume indoor dining at 50 percent capacity.

To give consumers confidence, and validate that operators are doing so safely, Mr Major said the Royal Bahamas Police Force Fire Department should provide all such businesses with a “Fire and Safety Capacity Certificate” based on their indoor square footage.

Mr Williams said: “How we are only allowed to offer dining outside, what happens if it rains? What do I do? I can’t bring anybody inside of the restaurant, so that means I will lose all of that business. In the same way, if it gets hot outside, how many persons would want to sit out in the hot sun to have a meal? So we lose both ways.”

Peter Maury, owner of the Green Parrot and Margaritaville restaurants, said such a capacity certificate makes “perfect sense”. He added: “People want to go

back to work. This is a fact.

We’re just making it harder for businesses to open even if it’s just to, you know, go back to doing something.

“The biggest thing is they released a study where less than two percent of infections come from a restaurant because of Hepa filters and UV filters, and spray and fogging and everything else. Yet 74 percent of infections come from home gatherings. Restaurants are not the biggest spreader here.

“If they measured out your square footage and said: ‘You’ve got 1,000 square feet in here, so don’t have any more than 10 tables’, and take the other 20 tables out of the restaurant, at least go back to some normalcy.”

George Mousis, the Athena Café’s general manager, said: “ I would say what I feel and say what would be manageable, and allow for 50 percent indoors spread out across the floor.

Every table should be six feet apart. Just a 50 percent occupancy for indoor dining. I think we can get that. Let’s get that.”

“The hotels have indoor dining and a few restaurants that locals go to eat in, but start us with the 50 percent of capacity dining and see how that goes.

Make sure that social distancing is applied and follow the rules. Everything should be at least in a better situation.”

GOVT EYES ‘SELF-SUSTAINING AVIATION REGULATION REGIME

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net THE government yesterday moved to reform “outdated” aviation regulation by separating air navigation services from the Civil Aviation Authority and paving the way to charge overflight fees.

Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister for tourism and aviation, leading debate in the House of Assembly on the Bahamas Air Navigation Services Authority Bill 2021, the Civil Aviation Bill 2021 and the Civil Aviation Authority Bahamas Bill 2021 said they will create a separate aircraft accident investigation authority.

The air navigation services provided by air traffic controllers will be separated into their own authority, and the “foundation” will be established for a Search and Rescue Coordination Centre (SRRC).

Mr D’Aguilar said of the SRCC’s co-ordination capacity: “This will be achieved in collaboration with the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, and will ensure that The Bahamas adopts global industry standards and recommended practices with regards to search and rescue protocols and procedures.

“The establishment of the Bahamas Civil Aviation Authority, along with its administrative and regulatory provisions, are contained in the current Civil Aviation Act. The introduction of the Civil Aviation Authority Bahamas Bill 2021 separates the administrative and regulatory functions of the authority from the provisions regulating the civil

aviation industry.”

Mr D’Aguilar added that the current process for amending civil aviation regulations is too “long and cumbersome”, but the director-general of civil aviation will now have the ability via the new legislation to speed up this process.

The legislative enhancements, Mr D’Aguilar added, will also “make way for an enhanced aircraft registry and the charging of air navigation services such as overflight and terminal and navigation fees, thereby creating a self-sustaining aviation regulatory environment and lessening the need to rely solely on public funds for its funding”.

The Air Navigation Services Authority Bill “will establish the responsibilities, powers and functions of the new authority, and it will demonstrate to both domestic and international stakeholders the government’s commitment to establishing a futuristic strategy for the provision and the charging of air navigation services within The Bahamas’ sovereign airspace”.

The new Air Navigation Service Authority will be empowered to charge air navigation service fees, such as overflight fees, for aircraft that fly through and transit The Bahamas’ air space.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, February 4, 2021, PAGE 5

Public Notice

Estate of The late Stanford Gustavous “Gus” Outten.

AMORO PORT LUCAYA

Ex-John Bull manager launches own location A FORMER John Bull manager has shrugged off COVID-19’s economic devastation to launch her own jewellery store in Freeport’s Port Lucaya Marketplace.

Paula Robinson, pictured, who has spent 36 years in the jewellery retail business, including 15 managing John Bull’s Port Lucaya outlet, has fulfilled her ambition to become an entrepreneur with the launch of her Amoro brand.

Inspired to open her own store when John Bull closed following Hurricane Dorian, Ms Robinson asked her friend, Stephen Crane, to help design and merchandise Amoro.

She found a corner location behind Oasis Port Lucaya, and started to design and build-out the store. The opening was originally planned for April 2020 but COVID-19 restrictions pushed it back to December 2020.

Amoro features Bahamas beach and water images taken by professional photographer Christine

Matthai, which help showcase its exclusive jewellery collections. Every piece was designed in The Bahamas and created by international craftsmen using fine quality precious stones and metals.

Amoro’s name is a combination of the Italian words for love and gold, and each design celebrates love by including heart designs.

Many feature Amoro’s exclusive, trademarked Eternitymark diamonds.

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.

We the Attorneys acting for and on behalf of the Executor of the above mentioned Estate, wish to advise the General Public that no one is authorized to negotiate, sell, collect payments, dispose of or enter into any contractual relations in the name of, or on behalf of the late Stanford ‘Gus’ Outten to the exclusion of the Executor of his Estate.

Therefore, any and all correspondence, issues, inquiries and relations touching and concerning the said Estate or the business dealings of The late Stanford ‘Gus’ Outten, should be directed to the attention of: BowePartners & Associates Caves Village Business Center, Suite 1, Building 4, P.O. Box SP-64293 Nassau, The Bahamas Telephone # 327-8669 or 70 Attorneys for the Executor

PAGE 6, Thursday, February 4, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

Union seeking answers as CIBC sale collapses FROM PAGE ONE continue it or not,” Ms Mortimer told this newspaper “GNB did collapse, but is that the end of the road? I don’t think so. We’re going to have to see where they go next. That’s what we’re

waiting to see tomorrow [today].

“What’s the next step?

Are you going to keep CIBC on the block for sale? You’re making a profit, maybe not what you want, but you are making a profit. The Bahamas is still

a profitable economy, and I don’t see the doors closing.

What is your next step? Are you going to take the bank off the shelf?”

Ms Mortimer described the collapse of the GNB deal, which was unveiled in late 2019 prior to the

COVID-19 pandemic, as “a relief” and “a plus” for CIBC FirstCaribbean’s Bahamian staff who could go back to “business as usual” for the time being.

She added that, when she met GNB’s chairman, Jaime Gilinski, had focused heavily on transitioning the bank to digital banking, raising fears of job losses.

The BFSU chief praised CIBC FirstCaribbean for its “partnership” approach and willingness to keep the unions informed, revealing that it informed them that the announcement of the GNB deal’s end at 7.20am yesterday morning prior to the release being issued.

The bank, in that release, said the sale was not proceeding because it “did not receive approval from FirstCaribbean’s regulators” although no further detail was provided. However, one highly-placed source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said simply that “the regulators didn’t go for it” in multiple Caribbean states.

“The regulators were not very comfortable and just focused on the pandemic, and the deal just fell apart,” the source said. “From what I understand it is really the regulators lost their appetite

and couldn’t be convinced that the timing and everything else was right for this.

“They were distracted

by COVID and the loss of activity in the market.

The two parties at the top decided enough was enough. Even they may have lost their appetite.”

The position of the Central Bank of The Bahamas on the transaction was unclear last night, although this newspaper understands it was not among the regulatory obstacles. John Rolle, its governor, promised to respond to this newspaper’s inquiries but nothing was received before press time.

“While this transaction would have supported FirstCaribbean’s long-term growth prospects, it is only one way of supporting growth for our bank going forward. CIBC has held a majority ownership stake in FirstCaribbean for a number of years, and there exists an excellent working relationship with a shared focus on meeting the needs of our clients” said Colette Delaney, its chief executive, in a statement.

“FirstCaribbean is a strong, well-run bank which is adjusting sensibly to the economic reality of the pandemic and is well-positioned to recover as the economies of the region recover. We remain laser focused on delivering on our strategy

– providing our clients with first class service through a modern everyday banking experience and providing our employees with the best possible work experience.”

Harry Culham’s CIBC’s group head, capital markets, who oversees FirstCaribbean, added: “FirstCaribbean is focused on building deep, long-lasting client relationships in the Caribbean, optimising our business and enhancing efficiency over time.

We remain committed to executing on our long-term strategy and delivering the best outcome for clients, shareholders, team members and communities.”

CIBC has been seeking to exit the Caribbean for some time, having previously abandoned attempts to do so via an initial public offering (IPO) that would have been listed in New York in 2018. The Bahamas produced 32.3 percent, nearly one-third or just over $188m, of CIBC FirstCaribbean’s $581m top-line in 2018, its $85m in net income generated 84 percent of the bank’s regional $101m bottom line.

The Gilinski Group has banking operations in Colombia, Peru, Paraguay, Panama and the Cayman Islands with approximately $15bn in combined assets.

Arrears hit $600m as 40% of property tax bills don’t reach

Besides the inequity created between those who consistently pay real property tax and those who duck their obligations, the reports also highlight how the imposition of new and/or increased taxes could have been avoided - or at least lessened - if all homeowners and businesses with the obligation to do so had paid their fair share.

The real property tax performance audit, which was designed to boost “value for money” for the government and taxpayer by identifying opportunities to improve the process, said it was critical that homeowners and businesses “perceive that the process of property valuation is fair”.

“Persons are more inclined to pay their taxes when they are confident that everyone is paying their share, and it is done in a fair (equitable) and transparent manner.

Also, ease of doing business in quick turnaround time enhances tax compliance administration efficiency,” the Auditor General’s Office said with deft understatement.

While giving the government credit for its efforts to update the real property tax register via the $7m project undertaken by consultant Tyler Technologies, which aims to capture every building and piece of land on New Providence in a bid to generate an extra $21m in annual revenue, the report said perceptions of “fairness” were being undermined by a lengthy appeals process to challenge valuations.

While the Tax Appeal Commission has been given the authority of statute law, the Auditor General’s Office said the appeal process is being impacted by a lack of staffing and training, as well as a likely increase in cases.

Calling for the appeals process to be “streamlined” via automation, and timelines for the processing of complaints to ensure it “flows smoothly and efficiently”, the report added that COVID-19 had delayed the completion of Tyler Technologies’ project beyond the June 2020 target.

“The lockdowns and curfews have affected Tyler Technologies ability to complete the property revaluation process that should have been completed by June 2020,” the Auditor General’s Office said. “The delay in the revaluation process directly impacts the informal appeal of revaluations that should have occurred between July to November 2020.”

It called for real property tax payment plans to be automated rather than stick with the current process where such arrangements can only be authorised by the chief valuation officer. “This process impedes the timely collectability of revenue and the taxpayer’s user experience is hindered,” the report said. “Also, the payment plan is not automated for timely payment, tracking and accountability.”

FROM PAGE ONE

“The mode of issuing bills also needs to be revised as 30 percent to 40 percent of bills mailed are returned for incorrect addresses. However, homeowners that do not receive a bill must understand that the property tax is still due. When persons do not receive a bill, they think that they are not obligated to pay. Unpaid tax bills result in a loss of revenue.”

To address the situation, the Auditor General’s Office urged: “We recommend that the Department of Inland Revenue streamline the bill creation process to reduce the lengthy turnaround time.

The mailing address issue should be resolved to reduce the large number of returned bills. Consideration should be given to using other mail delivery mediums, such as automated notification.”

The high cost of non-compliance was reinforced by the auditor general’s audit of the government’s accounts for the 2017-2018 fiscal year, the first in the Minnis administration’s five-year term in office.

It revealed that real property tax arrears increased by a further $78.21m during those 12 months to end the year above $600m.

“The real property tax arrears at the end of fiscal year 2017-2018 amounted to $600.48m, an increase of $78.21m over the prior fiscal year,” the auditor general’s report disclosed. “The prior year arrears and the surcharge for both fiscal periods, when combined, accounted for 92 percent and 90 percent of the cumulative taxes respectively.

“By law, if taxes are not paid by December 31 each year a five percent surcharge is applied. This surcharge increases the taxpayer arrears substantially. Efforts to increase the real property tax revenue collection, in all aspects, is deemed vital as in comparison to the tax arrears a minimal amount of revenue is collected annually.

“We recommend all the tools necessary to bolster the collection of real property tax revenue, and strengthen the efficiency and effectiveness of tax administration, be utilised.” Given that the government is now in its 2020-2021 fiscal year, the amount of real property tax arrears will doubtless have increased.

Combining the two reports exposes just how the weaknesses, inefficiencies and slackness in real property tax enforcement and collection are threatening to cost both taxpayers and the country dearly. For starters, the $600m arrears represents monies that could have been used to fund vital public services and infrastructure upgrades that are presently being starved of cash and resources.

THE TRIBUNE

Aliv set to double Cable ‘contribution’ FROM PAGE ONE

of encouraging our customers to use digital means to pay for and buy plans.

“We’re now receiving over 65 percent of our payments from post-paid customers by digital means, using the MyAliv app via debit or credit card or bank transfer. And 30 percent of our pre-paid customers are purchasing plans on the app or using the IVR when they come to customer care.

There’s huge growth in the use of the app.”

Mr Blackburn said all this, together with a surge in demand for Aliv’s wireless broadband product to provide connectivity for students/workers operating from home, “led to us in the first half of our financial year having record revenues of $42.2m”.

While this represented 8.8 percent year-over-year growth for the period, the Aliv chief said some income streams were still down especially roaming, due to the reduction in visitor numbers to The Bahamas as well as the restrictions on Bahamians travelling abroad amid the pandemic.

“We do feel the effects of the tough economic environment a lot of our customers find themselves in, especially in relation to lower sales on monthly plans; people are buying more weekly plans than monthly,” Mr Blackburn added.

Disclosing that the mobile operator invested more than $6m during the six months to end-December 2020 “to keep pace with data demands on our network that have increased by 35 percent in the last year”, he said Aliv has pressed on

beyond the “crucial milestone” it attained towards the end of its previous financial year - that of a positive EBITDA position.

“Despite the impact of COVID-19, in the first half of this year we reached positive EBITDA of $4.3m, and this is growing quarteron-quarter,” Mr Blackburn told Tribune Business. “This means we already expect to contribute over $8m to Cable Bahamas’ group results for the first half of this financial year.

“That contrasts with the contribution to Cable Bahamas’ group results in the last financial year of $8m. You can see the road we’re on.

The next financial target, which is in sight for Aliv in the second half of this financial year, is we expect to reach operating costs break even before capital investment and financing payments.

“This means we will be covering all our operating costs, including subscriber acquisition costs, costs to operate the network, paying Cable Bahamas under the services agreement for towers and transmission, and other operating costs to maintain the network and marketing costs,” the Aliv chief continued.

“That will be another key milestone in the next six months by Aliv. Cash on hand will be used to make capital investments and ensure we continue to meet our financial commitments as we continue to grow the business going forward.”

Mr Blackburn, though, that the capital-intensive nature of Aliv’s launch and network roll-out means net profitability is a longer-term objective that will still take several years to achieve.

Tax break scrutiny urged as Albany’s exemption $23m FROM PAGE ONE Baha Mar also enjoyed.

Nevertheless, the data and comments by the Auditor General’s Office will likely reignite debate about the extent and value of tax breaks/investment incentives that the government grants to wealthy foreign developers especially at a time when the government needs every cent it can get following the debt blowout produced by Hurricane Dorian and COVID-19.

Albany has investors, including Lyford Cay-based billionaire Joe Lewis’ Tavistock Group, and world-renowned golfers Tiger Woods and Ernie Els, who are seen as having exceptionally deep pockets in addition to the wealth amassed by their homeowner clients.

Yet the Auditor General’s Office revealed that Albany received the third-largest Customs duty and Excise tax exemption that year behind Bahamas Power & Light (BPL), which enjoyed $216.77m worth of tax breaks on its fuel imports, and the $76.14m in exemptions granted under the Hotels Encouragement Act. “The Albany project exemptions accounted for $23.05m or 6 percent of the $329.69m” in total duty and Excise tax revenues foregone in fiscal year 2017-2018 due to the government’s incentive legislation and agreements with individual investors,” the Auditor General’s Office said.

Of $358.25m in VAT-able

activity that was subject to these investment incentives, some $123.73m was collected with another $236.22m “deferred” and $389.93m “foregone” by the government and Public Treasury.

“We noted that the $389.93m in revenue ‘foregone’ accounted for 52 percent of the $750.94m that would have been recognised except for the concessions and exemptions,” the report said of VAT. “From the total $392.26m duty and Excise taxes levied, $2.75m revenue was collected and $389.94m exempted through concessions. The concessions have a direct impact, in the first instance, of reduction in the government’s Customs revenue for duty and excise taxes.....

“Notably, the $389.94m ‘foregone revenue’ impacts the overall recurrent revenue. A cost-benefit analysis is deemed appropriate in concessions, duty and taxes management with respect to the projects, investments, industries and policy governing the benefits to be derived,” the Auditor General’s Office continued.

“Big data analysis across the trade sectors to undergird the results would be beneficial for transparency, accountability and good governance. We recommend that for effective decision-making and continuous policy formulation, the application of big data analysis inclusive of cost benefits be fully used in trade sectors concession management to harness good governance.”

“For this kind of business that is a lot longer term,” he told this newspaper.

“We obviously invested $60m in the licence and about $140m in the network, and that is being depreciated over a length of time.

We don’t really start to see bottom line profits until that gets fully amortised, which is typically between seven to ten years after launch. We’re in our fourth full year after launch, so it’s still a way’s away. That’s why $200m of investment needs to depreciate.

“Nobody should expect to see a bottom line profit for a while. That’s normal in this kind of business... Aliv was always conceived as a long-term plan, which is why the government issued us a 15-year licence,” Mr Blackburn continued.

“That underpins the longterm plan. This was never a quick dash to the finish line.

This was always a 15-year project, and we’re approaching one-third of the way in and have hit the key milestones we needed to hit in that time.”

Thursday, February 4, 2021, PAGE 7

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PAGE 8, Thursday, February 4, 2021

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UK-EU talks aim to defuse Brexit tensions over Northern Ireland LONDON Associated Press SENIOR politicians from Britain, Northern Ireland and the European Union held inconclusive talks yesterday in a bid to ease post-Brexit trade tensions that have shaken Northern

Ireland’s delicate political balance.

British Cabinet minister Michael Gove, European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic and the leaders of Northern Ireland’s Catholic-Protestant power-sharing government held a video conference to discuss problems that

have erupted barely a month after the UK made an economic split from the 27-nation EU. Sefcovic is expected to travel to London next week for more talks.

Northern Ireland authorities halted veterinary checks and withdrew border staff this week from Belfast and

Larne ports after threatening graffiti appeared referring to port workers as targets, and staff reported seeing people writing down vehicle license plate numbers.

The border checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK are a contentious product of Brexit.

Since the UK left the European Union’s economic structures at the end of 2020, customs and veterinary checks have been imposed on goods moving between Britain and the bloc — and on some British goods going to Northern Ireland, because it shares a border with EU member Ireland.

The checks are strongly opposed by pro-British Unionist politicians, who say they drive a wedge between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. They are calling on the British government to rip up a section of its divorce agreement with the EU known as the Northern Ireland Protocol, which gives the region a separate trade status to the rest of the UK. The Democratic Unionist Party, which heads the power-sharing Belfast administration, is refusing to cooperate with the Irish government on

implementing the new rules.

Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill, from the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein, accused the DUP of stirring up tension with its “reckless” attacks on the Brexit agreement.

“The DUP needs to step back from throwing the baby out with the bathwater, what we need to do is be calm, be steady and work our way through these issues,” she said.

Police have warned that violent pro-British Loyalists could capitalise on the tensions, though they say the current threat appears to come from a small number of individuals rather than paramilitary groups.

The sensitivity of Northern Ireland’s status was underscored last week, when the EU threatened to ban shipments of coronavirus vaccines to Northern Ireland as part of moves to shore up the bloc’s supply.

That would have drawn a hard border on the island of Ireland — exactly the scenario the Brexit deal was crafted to avoid.

British, Irish and Northern Ireland politicians all expressed alarm at the plan, and the EU dropped the idea.

The UK government is urging the bloc to take a

more light-touch approach to border checks, which have already led to shortages and delays in getting some goods to Northern Ireland. In a letter to Sefcovic, Gove called for short-term grace periods that have delayed imposition of full red tape on supermarket supplies, parcels and medicines to be extended until at least 2023.

Gove said the UK would use “all instruments at its disposal” if a solution could not be found, in a suggestion Britain could trigger an emergency clause allowing it to deviate from the Northern Ireland Protocol — the same measure the EU briefly planned to invoke last week.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson accused the EU of undermining the protocol with its vaccines move, and said the UK would “do everything we need to do ... to ensure that there is no barrier down the Irish Sea”.

Sefcovic tweeted that protecting peace in Northern Ireland “has always been EU’s absolute priority”.

He said the Northern Ireland Protocol was “the only way to protect Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement in all dimensions, protecting peace & stability on the island of Ireland.”

BUTTIGIEG SAYS TRANSPORTATION DEPT WILL PUSH ‘BOLD’ THINKING WASHINGTON Associated Press

PETE Buttigieg, sworn in yesterday as transportation secretary, urged his 55,000 employees to embrace “imaginative, bold, forward thinking” as the Transportation Department embarks on a vital mission to rebuild America’s infrastructure and foster equality.

“We will continue to prioritise safety as the foundation of everything we do,” Buttigieg said in his email message, which was obtained by The Associated Press. “And at the same time, we will break new ground: in ensuring that our economy recovers and rebuilds, in rising to the climate challenge, and in making sure transportation

is an engine for equity in this country.”

He added that the department’s mission “has never been more important than in this season of change and possibility.”

In a broader video message he tweeted to the American public, Buttigieg stressed both the challenges and opportunities ahead in improving America’s transportation system.

“Today we face an unprecedented health crisis, we’re navigating an economy in danger and our nation is reckoning with the impacts of systemic racism,” he said in the one-minute campaign-style video. “But with new leadership comes a new opportunity, a chance to build our transportation system back better than it ever was before.”

“There is so much work to do, but I am deeply optimistic about where this journey will lead,” he said.

Buttigieg, a 39-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and former Democratic presidential candidate, was sworn in Wednesday morning by Vice President Kamala Harris, at a ceremony in the Old Executive Office Building in the White House complex.

Buttigieg, the first openly gay person to be confirmed to a Cabinet post, took the oath on a Bible belonging to his mother and held by his husband, Chasten.

He was confirmed Tuesday by the Senate on a 86-13 vote, making him the second of Biden’s Democratic rivals to have a place in the administration, with Harris being the first.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, February 4, 2021, PAGE 9

BIDEN FLEXIBLE ON WHO GETS AID, TELLS LAWMAKERS TO ‘GO BIG’

WASHINGTON Associated Press PRESIDENT Joe Biden, pictured, encouraged Democratic lawmakers yesterday to “act fast” on his $1.9tn COVID rescue plan but also signaled he’s open to changes, including limiting the proposed $1,400 direct payments to Americans with lower income levels, which could draw Republican support.

Biden told lawmakers in private comments he’s “not married” to an absolute number for the overall package but wants them to “go big” on pandemic relief and “restore the soul of the country”.

“Look, we got a lot of people hurting in our country today,” Biden said on a private call with House Democrats. “We need to act.

We need to act fast.”

On the direct payments, Biden said he doesn’t want to budge from the $1,400 promised to Americans. But he said he is willing to “target” the aid, which would mean lowering the income threshold to qualify.

“I’m not going to start my administration by breaking a promise to the American people,” he said.

Biden spoke with House Democrats and followed with a meeting of top Senate Democrats at the White House, deepening his public engagement with lawmakers on his American Rescue Plan. Together the virus and economic aid is his first legislative priority and a test of the administration’s ability to work with Congress to deliver.

Biden’s remarks to the Democratic House caucus were relayed by two people who requested anonymity to discuss the private conference call.

While Biden is trying to build bipartisan support from Republicans, he is also prepared to rely on the Democratic majority in Congress to push the package into law. Democrats moved ahead with preliminary steps, including a House budget

vote yesterday largely along party lines, to approve it on their own, over Republicans objections. A group of ten Republican senators offered a $618bn alternative with slimmer $1,000 direct payments and zero aid for states and cities, but Biden panned it as insufficient, though private talks with the Republicans continue.

At the start of his meeting with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and ten top Senate Democratic committee chairmen in the Oval Office, Biden sounded confident he could still win over GOP support.

“I think we’ll get some Republicans,” Biden said.

With a rising virus death toll and strained economy, the goal is to have COVID19 relief approved by March, when extra unemployment assistance and other pandemic aid measures expire.

Money for vaccine distributions, direct payments to households, school reopenings and business aid are at stake.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the president fully recognizes the final package may look different than the one he initially proposed.

She said further targeting the $1,400 payments “means not the size of the check, it means the income level of the people who receive the check”. That’s under discussion, she said.

As lawmakers in Congress begin drafting the details, Biden is taking care to politically back up his allies while also ensuring that the final product fulfills his promise for bold relief to a battered nation.

House Democrats were told on the call with the president that they could be flexible on some numbers and programmes, but should not back down on the size or scope of the aid.

“We have to go big, not small,” Biden told the Democrats. “I’ve got your back, and you’ve got mine.”

As the White House reaches for a bipartisan bill, House and Senate Democrats have launched a lengthy budget process for approving Biden’s bill with or without Republican support.

“We want to do it bipartisan, but we must be strong,” Schumer said after the 90-minute session at the White House. Democrats are “working with our Republican friends, when we can”.

The swift action follows Tuesday’s outreach as Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen joined the Democratic senators for a private virtual meeting, both declaring the Republicans’ $618bn

offer was too small.

Both Biden and Yellen recalled the lessons of the government response to the 2009 financial crisis, which some have since said was inadequate as conditions worsened.

Earlier in the week, Biden met with ten Republican senators who were pitching their $618bn alternative, and told them he won’t delay aid in hopes of winning

GOP support even as talks continue.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell criticised the Democrats for pressing ahead largely on their own as the GOP senators try to provide bipartisan alternatives.

“They’ve chosen a totally partisan path,” McConnell said. “That’s unfortunate.”

The two sides are far apart. The cornerstone of the GOP plan is $160bn for

the health care response — vaccine distribution, a “massive expansion” of testing, protective gear and money for rural hospitals, similar to what Biden has proposed for aid specific to the pandemic.

But from there, the two plans drastically diverge.

Biden proposes $170bn for schools, compared with $20bn in the Republican plan. Republicans also would

give nothing to states, money that Democrats argue is just as important, with $350bn in Biden’s plan to keep police, fire and other workers on the job.

The GOP’s $1,000 direct payments would go to fewer people — those earning up to $40,000 a year, or $80,000 for couples. Biden’s bigger $1,400 payments would extend to higher income levels, up to $300,000 for some families.

PAGE 10, Thursday, February 4, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

PRESIDENT of European Central Bank Mario Draghi smiles during a news conference in Frankfurt, Germany. Italy’s weary president yesterday tapped “Super Mario”, arguably the world’s most famous Italian, to resolve a festering political crisis that threatens the ability of the eurozone’s third-largest economy to manage the coronavirus pandemic and recover from the worst recession since World War II. Photo: Michael Probst/AP

DRAGHI BRINGS MARKET SAVVY, GRAVITAS TO TAME ITALY’S CRISES MILAN Associated Press THE former European Central Bank chief credited with helping to save the euro has now been tapped to lead Italy, the eurozone’s third-largest economy, out of the pandemic and the worst recession since World War II. Mario Draghi gained global respect as the head of the European Central Bank for eight years, managing monetary policy for the 19 countries that use the euro, with an economy worth 12 trillion euros ($14.4tn).

Draghi, 73, not only has an insider’s grasp of the financial rule book that Italy must follow, but he has the respect of those whose forbearance Italy may require during the difficult months and years ahead.

“When Draghi picks up the phone to call the White House, President Joe Biden will answer. Because it is Mario Draghi,’’ the deputy manager of the leading Milan Daily Corriere della Sera, Daniele Manca, said yesterday. “The same goes for (German Chancellor) Angela Merkel and (Chinese President) Xi Jinping.”

A seasoned treasury official who became Italy’s and then Europe’s top central banker, Draghi brings gravitas, crisis management, and market savvy to the job of governing Italy out of a pandemic and the resulting economic crisis.

President Sergio Mattarella tapped him to form a broadbased government after squabbling among Italy’s coalitions parties over the virus response led Premier Giuseppe Conte to resign.

Speaking yesterday at the presidential palace in Rome, Draghi listed the priorities facing Italy: “Overcoming the pandemic, completing the vaccine campaign, offering responses to citizens’ daily problem, relaunch the country.”

Financial markets welcomed the prospect of a Draghi government. Italy’s borrowing costs on its debt, the second-highest in relation to GDP in Europe, sank, while stocks rallied 2%. One financial analyst summed up the sentiment with the subject line: “We like Mario Draghi!”

Draghi is not afraid of venturing bold solutions to big problems. When the eurozone was facing a crisis of confidence in 2012, he famously told a conference in London that the

ECB would do “whatever it takes to preserve the euro. And believe me, it will be enough”. That promise, backed with new ECB policies, helped stabilise markets that threatened to break up the euro.

He took a pragmatic approach during the financial crisis. He expanded the range of the ECB’s stimulus policies to include largescale bond purchases. He also oversaw the ECB’s move to become the main banking supervisor after failing banks played a key role in the eurozone’s troubles.

His recent tenure leading the ECB, ending Oct 31, 2019, positions him well to help Italy navigate its difficulties and also some 200 billion euros in EU recovery funds.

If Italy needs to tap the ECB’s bond-market backstop, which aims to keep euro countries’ sovereign borrowing costs from spiking to unaffordable levels, there’s no one better than Draghi: he oversaw the backstop’s design and unveiling in 2012.

He would also be intimately familiar with the complexities of the European bailout fund created during the eurozone debt crisis.

Draghi joined the ECB as its third chief in 2011, just as Italy was engulfed in a debt crisis. As ECB president-designate, Draghi and then-ECB head JeanClaude Trichet intervened in Italian politics through an August 2011 letter to thenPremier Silvio Berlusconi demanding reforms to cut the deficit, improve growth and deal with a financial markets crisis that threatened to break up the euro.

The ECB then started buying Italian bonds to stabilise the government’s borrowing costs in what appeared to be an unstated quid pro quo. The ECB denied there was any deal.

The ECB bond purchases did not take pressure off the government as Berlusconi’s efforts at economic reform faltered; Berlusconi resigned in November 2011 and he was replaced by technocrat Mario Monti.

Born in Rome, Draghi graduated from La Sapienza University there with a degree in economics and earned his PhD in 1976 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied under Nobel laureate Franco Modigliani.

Legal Notice

NOTICE EMERA INCORPORATED (“Emera”) Notice to Holders of Depositary Receipts DIVIDEND NOTICE UPDATE The custodian of Emera’s depositary receipts has advised Emera that due to logistical challenges related to Covid-19, the payment of the dividend of CAD $0.159375 per Emera depositary receipt (CAD $0.6375 per common share of Emera) payable to depositary receipt holders of record as at February 2, 2021 may be delayed until on or before February 26, 2021.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, February 4, 2021, PAGE 11

Five challenges awaiting Amazon’s new CEO NEW YORK Associated Press IN 1995, few could imagine that the modest online bookstore built by Jeff Bezos would turn into a $1.7tn behemoth that sells everything from diapers to sofas, produces movies, owns a grocery chain and provides cloud computing services to businesses all over the globe.

Amazon has become all of that and more, and now it will be up to Andy Jassy to lead the company forward as CEO. On Tuesday, Amazon announced that Bezos would step aside this summer and assume the role of executive chairman so he can focus on new products and early initiatives being developed at Amazon.

Although Bezos is expected to still play a big role at the company, it is Jassy who will inherit the many challenges born from Amazon’s meteoric rise.

Here are some of them: GROWING SCRUTINY Regulators around the world are examining Amazon’s business practices, specifically the way it looks at information from businesses that sell goods on its site and uses it to create its own Amazon-branded products. Bezos said at a hearing before Congress last summer that even though Amazon had a policy preventing employees from accessing seller data, he couldn’t guarantee that the policy wasn’t being violated.

Tech giants for decades have enjoyed light-touch regulation and star status in Washington, but calls for greater scrutiny have been growing. The US government has already slapped two Big Tech companies — Google and Facebook — with antitrust lawsuits.

Amazon has been subject to federal and state antitrust investigations. That’s in addition to European Union regulators filing antitrust charges in November, accusing Amazon of using its access to data from third-party sellers to gain an unfair advantage over them.

A report by the House Judiciary Committee in October called for a possible breakup of Amazon and others, making it harder for them to acquire other businesses and imposing new rules to safeguard competition.

WORKER UNREST The pandemic has exposed how Amazon treats its workers who pack and ship boxes inside vast warehouses. Many have protested a lack of masks and protective equipment while others say the company isn’t forthcoming about how many people are getting sick.

Amazon has made changes since it started getting complaints, but its labour issues go well beyond the pandemic.

At a warehouse in Alabama, workers are set to start voting this month if they want to join a union.

It’s a threat to a company that has been successful at thwarting so far. For its part, Amazon says it pays its workers at least $15, more than twice the minimum wage.

But regulators are watching. On Tuesday, the same day Bezos said he would step down, the US Federal Trade Commission ordered Amazon to pay nearly $62m for taking tips that were supposed to go to its delivery drivers.

More scrutiny is likely now that Amazon is the second-largest private employer, coming just behind Walmart.

Last year alone, Amazon hired 500,000 people, bringing its total workforce to nearly 1.3 million.

GROWING THE CLOUD Amazon is known as a place to buy books or toothpaste. But it’s the behind-the-scenes Amazon Web Services business that’s

JEFF BEZOS making the most money for the company.

AWS is still the No 1 provider of cloud computing services, but faces growing competition, especially from Microsoft, which has aggressively sought to sell big contracts to businesses and governments. Last year, Amazon lost a multi-billion dollar contract with the US government to Microsoft.

Amazon is fighting that decision in court.

The promotion of Jassy, 53, who hails from AWS, may be an indication of where Amazon sees its future growth. Last year, about 60% of Amazon’s total profit came from AWS. “Jeff Bezos picked the tech guy,” said Sucharita Kodali, an e-commerce analyst at Forrester Research. “My hunch is that it was about the future of the company being tech.”

Kodali believes the company’s biggest growth will come from AWS, since Amazon likely won’t be able make any big retail acquisitions because of regulatory scrutiny. She thinks Amazon’s opportunities in cloud computing are limitless and imagines projects like developing facial recognition for government agencies.

Mark Cohen, director of retail studies at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business, believes that both retail and cloud service are both “enormously important” for Amazon, but he believes there’s more opportunity for cloud services. Cohen imagines Amazon as the “pervasive government provider” on a national, state and local level.

RETAIL THREAT Amazon has a lot of room to grow in e-commerce, but it’s facing increasing threats from big retailers like Walmart, which are using their own stores as shipping hubs.

Before the pandemic, Walmart and Target had expanded curbside pickup for shoppers picking up online orders the same day.

But with the pandemic, that’s accelerating.

Best Buy said late last year it was reducing the amount of floor space set aside for traditional shopping in some of its stores and devoting more to instore pickup and to support deliveries of online orders.

Walmart plans to build warehouses at its stores where self-driving robots will fetch groceries and have them ready for shoppers to pick up in an hour or less. Target has been automating its backrooms to ship online orders as well as fulfill curbside pickup.

But Amazon’s lead is unsurmountable — it accounted for about 40% of online purchases in the US last year, with Walmart at a distant second place at 5.8%, eBay at 4.9% and Apple at 3%, according to research firm eMarketer.

Nonetheless, analysts say that big box retailers are weaponizing their stores and putting profit pressure on Amazon and forcing them to add even more distribution hubs to compete.

“There is a lot of opportunity for Amazon, but the brick and mortar guys have demonstrated their stores are big time assets,” said Charlie O’Shea, a retail analyst at Moody’s.

A LOOMING BEZOS Another challenge for the new CEO is Bezos himself.

Amazon has made it clear that he won’t be going far.

Bezos is still the company’s biggest shareholder, giving him much power over the company he founded in 1995. And Bezos said he’ll focus on new products and initiatives from his perch as executive chair.

Tensions can arise when a CEO moves to the board and still has a hand in the business, said Jason Schloetzer, a business professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. The new CEO may want to end some of Bezos’ initiatives that Bezos doesn’t agree with. Or other executives may keep reporting to Bezos, leaving Jassy out of the loop.

For it to work, Schloetzer said Amazon has to structure the roles so they don’t step on each others toes.

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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos may step down without stepping away Associated Press EVEN after stepping aside as CEO, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will likely keep identifying new frontiers for the world’s dominant e-commerce

company. His successor, meanwhile, gets to deal with escalating efforts to curtail Amazon’s power.

Tuesday’s announcement that Bezos will hand off the CEO job this summer came as a surprise. But it doesn’t

mean Amazon is losing the visionary who turned an online bookstore founded in 1995 into a behemoth worth $1.7tn that sometimes seems to do a little bit of everything.

Bezos, 57, has never let

Amazon rest on its laurels.

In the last year alone, it bought a company developing self-driving taxis; launched an online pharmacy selling inhalers and insulin; and won government approval to put more than

AWS CEO Andy Jassy. Amazon announced on Tuesday that Jeff Bezos would step down as CEO later in the year, leaving a role he’s had since founding the company nearly 30 years ago. Amazon says Bezos will be replaced in the summer by Jassy, who runs Amazon’s cloud business.

Photo: Isaac Brekken/AP 3,200 satellites into space to beam internet service to Earth.

Long-time Amazon executive Andy Jassy will be the new CEO, but Bezos will be the company’s executive chairman — corporatespeak for board leaders who, unlike most, stay involved in key operational decisions. Think Robert Iger at Disney, Howard Schultz at Starbucks, or Eric Schmidt at Google after handing off the reins a decade ago.

“Jeff Bezos has held a firm grip on the company for a long time,” said Ken Perkins, president of RetailMetrics LLC, a retail research firm.

“I have to believe he will have a say in what is going on and have a big hand in big picture decisions.”

Amazon’s chief financial officer, Brian Olsavsky, made the move sound like a mere shuffling of chairs.

“It’s more of a restructuring of who’s doing what,” he said during a Tuesday call with reporters.

Investors didn’t flinch upon after hearing about Amazon’s forthcoming change in command, and instead appear to be more focused the company’s blockbuster earnings, which it also announced on Tuesday. After see-sawing back and forth yesterday, Amazon’s stock price wound up declining 2% to close at $3,312.53 — not the type of drop that occurs when Wall Street is worried about a management shake-up.

“I don’t think he’s going to be completely hands off,” CFRA analyst Tuna Amobi said of Bezos.

In a blog post, Bezos said the CEO job had pulled him away from exploring new ideas and initiatives that could yield growth opportunities. He now intends to focus more on such innovation, along with other ventures, such as his rocket ship company Blue Origin and his newspaper, The Washington Post.

“Being the CEO of Amazon is a deep responsibility, and it’s consuming,” Bezos wrote. “When you have a responsibility like that, it’s hard to put attention on anything else.”

The shift will saddle Jassy with some of the responsibilities that Bezos clearly didn’t enjoy. Perhaps the most daunting is the increasing scrutiny of Amazon’s clout in an online shopping market that has become even more essential to consumers during the past year’s pandemic.

The US government already has slapped two other technology powerhouses, Google and Facebook, with antitrust

lawsuits. Both regulators and lawmakers have left little doubt that they are taking a hard look at whether similar action is warranted against Amazon and Apple.

European regulators, meanwhile, are taking on Amazon in an antitrust case filed late last year.

They accuse the company of mining the data of merchants selling products on its site to gain an unfair advantage over them.

Jassy will likely have to ward off the antitrust threat while also trying to forge his own legacy. A revered company founder can cast a long shadow.

“Amazon’s size makes some industries uncomfortable, some governments uncomfortable and Andy Jassy will have to deal with the consequences,” Gartner analyst Ed Anderson said.

“That will be some of the new era of his leadership.”

Jassy, 53, also may face pressure from critics who believe Amazon’s success has been built in part by mistreating many of its 1.3 million employees, especially those in the distribution warehouses and delivery trucks who are paid far less than the tech engineers while also facing more hazardous conditions.

“Jeff Bezos’ departure as CEO is a chance for Amazon to turn over a new leaf,” said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, an activist group in Washington. “It should start by paying all its workers a living wage and ensuring they have safe and healthy working conditions.”

If Jassy needs a shoulder to lean on, Bezos will likely be there for him, predicted Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a Yale University professor who has closely studied management succession issues. He expects Bezos to orchestrate a “gradual transfer of power with continuity of command and partnership”.

Analysts said Bezos appears to have picked a successor who’s up for the challenge. Sonnenfeld said he believes the choice may have been made last summer, resulting in the departure of another trusted lieutenant, Jeff Wilke, who had also been widely viewed as a candidate to become Amazon’s next CEO. Jassy is highly respected for building up Amazon’s web services division, which runs many of the world’s biggest websites. Earnings from that cloud-computing service also helped subsidise the company’s online shopping operations as it cut prices so low that it lost money for many years.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, February 4, 2021, PAGE 13

GameStop’s stupefying stock rise doesn’t hide its reality NEW YORK Associated Press BEHIND GameStop’s stock surge is the grim reality of its prospects: The video game retailer is floundering even as the industry around it is booming.

GameStop has been swept up in a battle between big-moneyed hedge funds betting against it and small investors trying to prop it up. That has caused GameStop’s share price to soar despite the shaky financials underneath.

Flailing companies like AMC Entertainment and American Airlines have likewise enjoyed a stock surge, but GameStop has been the primary battleground between the Davids and the Goliaths.

Shares rocketed 1,600% in the last three weeks, closing at $325 per share on Friday and giving GameStop a market cap of nearly $17bn. Shares have since cratered. On Tuesday, they fell 60% to close at $90.

Many investors fully understand the contradiction between GameStop’s stock price and its business fundamentals. But for those who imagine it to be the next Tesla or Amazon, the truth is: It’s likely not.

The company’s quarterly report issued in September showed another steep quarterly sales decline as it struggles to adapt to the rise of mobile gaming and digital downloads that have rendered its more than 5,000 stores obsolete, even more so during the pandemic.

And the attention-grabbing media coverage didn’t bring shoppers back to the stores in recent weeks.

Customer traffic declines accelerated in January, according to new research from analysis firm Placer. ai. For the week ended Jan 18, the number dropped 20.3% compared to a year ago.

Analysts polled by FactSet have a “sell” rating on the stock and a price target of $13.44 per share.

Some analysts believe a reasonable valuation could settle in around $20 to $30 per share at best.

While GameStop’s new board member Ryan Cohen, the founder of online pet store Chewy, has raised hopes of a turnaround, it’s still going to be an uphill battle.

“It’s fascinating to watch. But ultimately you can’t escape gravity,” said Scott Rostan, CEO of Training The Street, which teaches financial modeling and valuation to college students and MBAs. “Ultimately, the reality is going to set in, and ultimately, the fundamentals are going to have to come to play. “ The Grapevine, Texasbased company was founded in 1984 as Babbage’s and took over the GameStop name in 2000.

It was the destination to grab the latest video games just as they were released.

But it also became the place to trade in old games and consoles to get cash or credit to buy new ones.

Sales declined over the past decade with the rapid shift toward downloading games. Annual sales have gone from its peak of $9.5bn in fiscal 2012 to an expected $5.15bn for the year ended Jan 30, according to FactSet. At one GameStop location in Brooklyn, there were bright liquidation notices papered across the front windows. Inside, the shelves were for sale along with a scant mishmash of power cords, anime key chains and picked-over T-shirts.

Most of the games went quickly at a deep discount.

Piles of games for the Xbox 360 — the Microsoft gaming console that went out of production about six years ago — could be had

for a quarter instead of the $50 they once commanded.

Carlos Cruz, 33, of New York City, used to visit GameStop once a week to buy new games and trade in old ones. But that stopped a few years ago when he started to download games. Now he goes to GameStop every two months, specifically to get certain exclusives.

“It’s easier for me to download the games in the house and not go anywhere,” said Cruz, noting that 90% of his games are digital.

Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Nintendo eShop, and online game platform Steam all let gamers download games. And Amazon is testing the cloud gaming arena with a new streaming service called Luna.

Discounters like Walmart, Best Buy and Target have also ramped up their offerings.

Meanwhile, the overall video game market has been exploding, a trend accelerated by the pandemic as Americans stay home. The global gaming industry was expected to hit $174.9bn last year and reach $217.9bn by 2023, according to analytics firm Newzoo. That’s up from Newzoo’s forecast issued during the start of the pandemic last year of $200.8bn.

There have been some recent bright spots for GameStop. The company posted total sales down 3.1% for the nine-week period ended Jan 2 but it was able to offset store closures with strong game console demand. Online sales, which accounted for about 30% of overall company sales, soared by more than threefold. And GameStop has reduced its overall debt on its balance sheet by almost $600m since early 2019.

In mid-January, GameStop added Cohen and two of his former colleagues from Chewy to its board after Cohen had pressed the company to focus on its online operations. Yesterday, it named Matt Francis to its new role of chief technology officer, capitalising on his experience in e-commerce and consumer technology.

“GameStop needs to evolve into a technology company that delights gamers and delivers exceptional digital experiences — not remain a video game retailer that overprioritises its brick-and-mortar footprint and stumbles around the online ecosystem,” said Cohen in a letter to the board of directors last November.

By the end of the latest fiscal year, GameStop will have closed over 1,000 stores since mid-2019.

It’s also been adding PC gaming, computers, monitors, game tables and gaming TVs to its mix. But analysts believe any turnaround will take time, and some think Cohen’s experience leading an online pet store isn’t applicable to the gaming business.

“I think he is a good merchant and a good retailer,” said Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter.

“But can you digitally download pet food or pet toys? I don’t think so.”

Cohen, whose investment firm acquired a 12.9% stake in GameStop in recent months, declined to comment. GameStop couldn’t be reached for comment.

Analysts say GameStop could take advantage of the lofty stock price and do their own stock offering like American Airlines.

The chain could use that money to reinvest in the business.

But given so much uncertainty, the question is: at what price?

“No one knows what the true valuation is,” said Alon Y Kapen, a corporate transaction lawyer at Farrell Fritz. “And you don’t know when that window is going to shut.”

PAGE 14, Thursday, February 4, 2021

THE TRIBUNE

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THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, February 4, 2021, PAGE 15

Major stock indexes end with modest gains on Wall Street Associated Press WALL Street capped a choppy day of trading with modest gains yesterday, as investors focused on some strong earnings reports from Big Tech companies while remaining cautiously optimistic that Washington will deliver more economic stimulus.

The S&P 500 inched up 0.1% after swinging between a gain of 0.6% and a loss of 0.3%. The tiny gain extended the benchmark index’s winning streak to a third day. Energy, communications and financial stocks helped lift the market. Those gains were primarily kept in check by declines in companies that rely on consumer spending and technology stocks.

Treasury yields and oil prices rose.

Investors continued to watch shares of companies such as GameStop and AMC Entertainment, which have been targeted by a community of online investors seeking to force their stock prices higher.

Both stocks rose modestly after plunging over the last two days. Both companies have been in the spotlight for more than two weeks as investors pushed the stocks to astronomical levels.

“There’s a tug of war that’s been brewing for a week or so now, that markets are ripe for a correction and whether the events of last week are a precipitating event,” said Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group.

The S&P 500 rose 3.86 points to 3,830.17. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 36.12 points, or 0.1%, to 30,723.60. The tech-heavy Nasdaq slipped 2.23 points, or less than 0.1%, to 13,610.54. The index had briefly been above its all-time high set last week.

Smaller companies fared better than the broader market. The Russell 2000 small-caps index rose 8.26 points, or 0.4%, to 2,159.70.

The index is up 9.4% this year, while the S&P 500 is up about 2% and the Nasdaq is up 5.6%.

Stocks have been mostly rallying this week, an encouraging start to February after a late fade in January as volatility spiked amid worries about the timing and scope of another round of stimulus spending by the Biden administration, unease over the effectiveness of the government’s coronavirus vaccine distribution and turbulent swings in GameStop and other stocks hyped on social media.

That volatility has subsided this week, with Wall Street focusing mainly on corporate earnings reports while it keeps an eye on Washington for signs of progress on a new aid package.

Democrats and Republicans remain far apart on

support for President Joe Biden’s $1.9tn stimulus package, but investors are betting that the administration will opt for a reconciliation process to get the legislation through Congress.

Meanwhile, shares of Amazon dropped 2% even though the company reported a huge rise in quarterly profits. Amazon also said its founder and CEO Jeff Bezos would be stepping down as CEO to focus on broader work at the company.

Google’s parent company, Alphabet, jumped 7.3% after reporting a blowout quarter as its digital advertising machine regained momentum.

GameStop and other recently high-flying stocks notched modest gains yesterday. GameStop rose 2.7% and AMC climbed 14.7%. The stocks have been caught up in a speculative frenzy by traders in online forums who seek to inflict damage on Wall Street hedge funds that have bet the stocks would fall. GameStop plunged 60% on Tuesday, and AMC Entertainment lost 41.2%.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has called for a meeting with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Reserve and others to discuss the recent volatility and to determine “whether recent activities are consistent with investor protection and fair and efficient markets”, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

GameStop, whose shares have traded mostly on investor opinion instead of actual company news, announced it was hiring Matt Francis, formerly an engineering leader with Amazon Web Services, to the newly created role of chief technology officer.

The vaccine rollout is also becoming more organized and picking up steam.

“That’s very supportive of markets,” Cox said.

“The events that will determine the outcome of 2021 are obviously how fast to we reach a point where the world can operate and function more normally.”

Energy companies rose as the price of crude oil jumped 1.7%. Exxon Mobil rose 3.9% and Schlumberger gained 7.4%.

The yield on the ten-year Treasury rose to 1.13% from 1.09% late Tuesday.

NOTICE NOTICE is hereby given that VEYONIQUE BRUTUS, of Bahama Avenue , New Providence, The Bahamas is applying to the Minister responsible for Nationality and Citizenship, for Registration Naturalization as a citizen of The Bahamas, and that any person who knows any reason why registration/ naturalization should not be granted, should send a written and signed statement of the facts within twenty-eight days from the 4th day of February 2021 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

To advertise in The Tribune, contact 502-2394

MARKET REPORT www.bisxbahamas.com

WEDNESDAY, 3 FEBRUARY 2021

BISX ALL SHARE INDEX:

CLOSE

CHANGE

%CHANGE

YTD

YTD%

2071.63

-0.12

-0.01

-20.83

-1.00

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

BISX LISTED & TRADED SECURITIES 52WK HI 4.50 33.05 2.00 2.10 2.10 6.00 6.90 3.55 6.49 4.40 6.16 12.77 3.64 6.85 10.88 8.44 15.08 4.25 9.26 16.00

52WK LOW 3.13 22.65 0.67 1.62 1.66 5.00 6.00 2.70 4.50 3.50 5.50 11.06 2.10 4.75 9.60 7.50 13.00 3.50 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 4.50 32.12 1.62 2.10 1.67 6.00 6.61 2.98 4.74 3.50 5.50 11.24 2.55 6.85 10.22 8.40 13.50 3.80 8.50 15.20

CLOSE 4.50 32.12 1.62 2.10 1.67 6.00 6.61 2.98 4.74 3.50 5.50 11.24 2.54 6.85 10.09 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 BSBGR1320294 BSBGR1321391 BSBGR1322498

107.31 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.39 97.00 95.08

107.31 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 (0.39) 3.00 4.92

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

115.92 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 102.00 100.00 100.00 100.00

104.79 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00

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 FX BSBGR1320294 BGRS FX BSBGR1321391 BGRS FX BSBGR1322498

CHANGE 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 (0.01) 0.00 (0.13) 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

VOLUME

500 2,150

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

2,500 2,500 2,500

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 18.8 34.5 N/M N/M N/M N/M 17.9 -6.8 33.9 19.0 12.2 15.6 24.9 14.7 15.6 11.5 16.5 18.7 9.1 24.1

YIELD 3.78% 3.92% 1.23% 1.43% 0.00% 0.00% 3.93% 0.00% 0.00% 3.43% 4.00% 6.41% 17.09% 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%

19-Oct-2022 30-Sep-2025

6.95% 4.50% 4.50% 6.25% 6.25% 4.50% 6.25% 4.25% 4.81% 5.29% 5.65%

20-Nov-2029 15-Dec-2021 30-Jul-2022 15-Dec-2044 30-Jul-2045 26-Jun-2022 26-Jun-2045 15-Oct-2022 15-Oct-2029 15-Oct-2039 15-Oct-2049

MATURITY

MUTUAL FUNDS 52WK HI 2.39 4.43 2.14 201.90 184.85 1.69 1.85 1.78 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 1.66 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 Financial Conservative Fund Leno Financial Aggressive Fund Leno Financial Balanced Fund Leno Financial Global 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 1.68 1.79 1.76 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% 1.03% 1.03% -3.14% -3.14% 0.26% 0.26% -12.29% -12.29% 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-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-2020 31-Dec-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

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, February 4, 2021, PAGE 19 Associated Press

Britain to test mixing and matching of COVID-19 vaccines

top of this nasty disease,” said Jonathan Van Tam, the UK’s deputy chief medical officer.

He said that given the challenges of immunising millions of people amid a global vaccine shortage, there would be advantages to having data that could support more “flexible” immunisation campaigns.

COVID-19 vaccines all train the body to recognise the coronavirus, mostly the spike protein that coats it.

The ones from AstraZeneca and Pfizer use different technologies. AstraZeneca’s uses a common cold virus to carry the spike gene into the body.

Pfizer’s is made by putting a piece of genetic code called mRNA — the instructions for that spike protein — inside a little ball of fat.

BRITISH scientists are starting a study today to find out if it’s OK to mix and match COVID-19 vaccines.

The vaccines being rolled out now require two doses, and people are supposed to get two shots of the same kind, weeks apart.

Guidelines in Britain and the US say the vaccines aren’t interchangeable, but can be mixed if the same kind isn’t available for the second dose or if it’s not known what was given for the first shot.

Participants in the government-funded study will get one shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine followed by a dose from Pfizer, or vice versa.

“This study will give us greater insight into how we can use vaccines to stay on

The British research is scheduled to run 13 months and will also test different intervals between doses, four weeks and 12 weeks apart.

A study published this week on the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine showed it was about 91% effective in preventing COVID-19. Some immunologists credit the fact that the vaccine uses two slightly different shots, made with similar technology to AstraZeneca’s.

But the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines are “so different that it’s really hard to know if that would work”, said Alexander Edwards, an associate professor in biomedical technology at Britain’s University of Reading.

Matthew Snape, the new study’s leader at Oxford

THE WEATHER REPORT

5-Day Forecast

TODAY

ORLANDO

High: 67° F/19° C Low: 45° F/7° C

TAMPA

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

MONDAY

Times of clouds and sun

Partly cloudy

Partly sunny and pleasant

Partly sunny with a shower

Mostly sunny and nice

Mostly sunny and beautiful

High: 70°

Low: 63°

High: 76° Low: 66°

High: 79° Low: 68°

High: 80° Low: 67°

High: 79° Low: 66°

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

AccuWeather RealFeel

74° F

63° F

77°-67° F

87°-67° F

87°-68° F

86°-65° 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: 68° F/20° C Low: 63° F/17° C

4-8 knots

S

High: 71° F/22° C Low: 56° F/13° C

3-6 knots

FT. LAUDERDALE

FREEPORT

High: 71° F/22° C Low: 61° F/16° C

N E S

E

W

WEST PALM BEACH

W

uV inDex toDay

TONIGHT

High: 65° F/18° C Low: 52° F/11° C

High: 68° F/20° C Low: 62° F/17° C

MIAMI

High: 72° F/22° C Low: 61° F/16° C

6-12 knots

Statistics are for Nassau through 1 p.m. yesterday Temperature High ................................................... 68° F/20° C Low .................................................... 59° F/15° C Normal high ....................................... 77° F/25° C Normal low ........................................ 64° F/18° C Last year’s high ................................. 75° F/24° C Last year’s low ................................... 59° F/15° C Precipitation As of 1 p.m. yesterday ................................. 0.00” Year to date ................................................. 1.86” Normal year to date ..................................... 1.53”

ELEUTHERA

NASSAU

High: 70° F/21° C Low: 63° F/17° C

Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021

High: 70° F/21° C Low: 65° F/18° C

N

KEY WEST

High: 70° F/21° C Low: 66° F/19° C

High: 72° F/22° C Low: 66° F/19° C

N

S

E

W

6-12 knots

S

6-12 knots 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

Ht.(ft.)

Low

Ht.(ft.)

Today

12:36 a.m.

12:51 p.m.

2.7 2.3

6:57 a.m. 0.0 7:10 p.m. -0.4

Friday

1:39 a.m.

1:54 p.m.

2.8 2.2

8:05 a.m. 0.1 8:10 p.m. -0.3

Saturday

2:44 a.m.

3:01 p.m.

2.8 2.1

9:15 a.m. 0.1 9:14 p.m. -0.3

Sunday

3:49 a.m.

4:08 p.m.

2.8 2.1

10:22 a.m. 0.0 10:18 p.m. -0.4

Monday

4:51 a.m.

5:10 p.m.

2.9 2.2

11:24 a.m. -0.1 11:18 p.m. -0.4

Tuesday

5:48 a.m.

6:07 p.m.

3.0 2.3

12:19 p.m. -0.2 ---------

Wednesday 6:39 a.m.

6:59 p.m.

3.0 2.4

12:14 a.m. -0.5 1:08 p.m. -0.3

sun anD moon Sunrise Sunset

6:51 a.m.

5:57 p.m.

Moonrise Moonset

12:04 a.m.

11:38 a.m.

Last

New

First

Full

Feb. 4

Feb. 11

Feb. 19

Feb. 27

CAT ISLAND

E

W

University, which helped develop the AstraZeneca vaccine, called for British volunteers over age 50 to sign up; scientists are hoping to enroll more than 800 people.

If the vaccines can be used interchangeably, “this will greatly increase the flexibility of vaccine delivery,” he said in a statement. “(It) could provide clues as to how to increase the breadth of protection against new virus strains.”

In recent weeks, Britain, the European Union and numerous other countries have been hit with vaccine supply issues: AstraZeneca said it would dramatically reduce the expected number of doses it could deliver due to manufacturing delays and Pfizer also slowed deliveries while it upgraded its Belgian factory.

ANDROS

SAN SALVADOR

GREAT EXUMA

High: 72° F/22° C Low: 67° F/19° C

High: 73° F/23° C Low: 68° F/20° C

N

High: 71° F/22° C Low: 65° F/18° C

E

W S

LONG ISLAND

tracking map

High: 74° F/23° C Low: 68° F/20° C

4-8 knots

MAYAGUANA High: 75° F/24° C Low: 70° F/21° C

Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures

CROOKED ISLAND / ACKLINS

are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.

RAGGED ISLAND High: 74° F/23° C Low: 70° F/21° C

GREAT INAGUA High: 77° F/25° C Low: 71° F/22° C

N

N E

W

E

W

H

High: 74° F/23° C Low: 69° F/21° C

S

S

7-14 knots

7-14 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 SE at 3-6 Knots S at 8-16 Knots E at 6-12 Knots SSE at 7-14 Knots ENE at 4-8 Knots SE at 7-14 Knots NE at 6-12 Knots E at 8-16 Knots ENE at 4-8 Knots SSE at 7-14 Knots SE at 4-8 Knots S at 8-16 Knots NE at 6-12 Knots SE at 7-14 Knots NE at 7-14 Knots E at 8-16 Knots ENE at 6-12 Knots ESE at 7-14 Knots NE at 6-12 Knots E at 8-16 Knots ENE at 4-8 Knots SSE at 7-14 Knots NE at 7-14 Knots ESE at 8-16 Knots NE at 4-8 Knots SE at 7-14 Knots

WAVES 3-6 Feet 3-5 Feet 1-2 Feet 1-3 Feet 3-5 Feet 2-4 Feet 1-3 Feet 2-4 Feet 3-5 Feet 2-4 Feet 2-4 Feet 2-4 Feet 0-1 Feet 1-2 Feet 1-3 Feet 2-4 Feet 0-1 Feet 2-4 Feet 4-8 Feet 4-7 Feet 1-2 Feet 1-3 Feet 1-2 Feet 2-4 Feet 2-4 Feet 1-3 Feet

VISIBILITY 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles 10 Miles

WATER TEMPS. 74° F 74° F 73° F 70° F 73° F 73° F 78° F 78° F 75° F 75° F 73° F 71° F 73° F 74° F 79° F 79° F 78° F 78° F 78° F 78° F 75° F 75° F 78° F 77° F 76° F 76° F