04062018 business

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business@tribunemedia.net

FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 2018

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Hurricane Hole to be $250m ‘PI downtown’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

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urricane Hole will become “the downtown of Paradise Island” via its $250 million transformation, its principal developer yesterday revealing 50 per cent of retail space is already pre-leased. David Kosoy, Sterling Global Financial’s chairman, told Tribune Business the 13-acre site will become a “first world” location that complements Atlantis and other highend resort assets through a mixed-use development featuring retail, office, residential and restaurant facilities. Unveiling the company’s initial masterplan, Mr Kosoy said Sterling aimed to create a “village

Fund ‘a victim of its own success’ with 35% growth By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

* 50% of retail space already pre-leased * 600 construction, 500 full-time jobs created * Gov’t receives $31m revenue on sale * Owner pledges: ‘We won’t get it wrong’

* ROYALFIDELITY ‘CHALLENGED’ ON FIXED INCOME DEALS * INVESTORS URGED TO FOCUS ON EQUITIES ‘LONG HAUL’ * NOT JUMPING ON ‘IMF BANDWAGON’, BUT CAPITAL INCOMING

ROYALFIDELITY’s Prime Income Fund was yesterday said to have become “a victim of its own success” after enjoying 35 per cent growth over the past year. Joseph Euteneuer, the investment bank’s mutual fund manager, told Tribune Business it was increasingly challenging to find appropriate fixed income securities for a fund with “almost” $150 million in assets under management. Given the relatively small size of the Bahamian capital markets, and limited supply of new preference share and bond issues, Mr Euteneuer said RoyalFidelity’s ‘flagship’ fund often had to guard against returns dropping to the level of low-yielding bank deposits.

community” feel at the heart of Paradise Island where all residents, workers and retail operators knew each other. He disclosed that Sterling has already invested “six figures” in upgrading Hurricane Hole’s existing 90-slip marina post-acquisition, repairing and upgrading docks; “doubling” employee numbers and enhancing the electricity supply for larger boats. It is now targeting January 2019 to begin vertical construction, subject to

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AN artist’s rendering of the Hurricane Hole development.

Yet with the Bahamas’ ‘low interest rate’ environment having driven many retail investors “out of their comfort zone”, the investment bank is “starting to see net positive capital inflows” across its mutual funds as fragile economic confidence improves. Mr Euteneuer said that while he was “not going to jump on the IMF

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Fishermen: We’re just QC: ‘WHAT IS GOV’T HIDING’ OVER GB POWER BUY-OUT? scratching surface on * Bid to knock out Judicial Review * Gov’t brands ‘fishing exercise’ our exports potential * Smith cries ‘obstruction tactic’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

By NATARIO MCKENZIE Tribune Business Reporter nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

FISHERMEN yesterday backed a Cabinet Minister’s goal of doubling Bahamian fisheries exports to near-$200 million, telling Tribune Business: “We don’t fish our ocean, only our banks.”

Keith Carroll, the Bahamas Commercial Fishers Alliance’s (BCFA) vicepresident, agreed that this nation was only scratching the surface of its fisheries potential. “We don’t fish our ocean; only our banks,” he said. “From Abaco to Inagua is our territorial waters. We

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Ex-GB Chamber chief hits ‘fringe environmentalists’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A FORMER Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce president yesterday hit out at “fringe environmental groups” for slamming an industrial sector that has proven the island’s “life support”. Kevin Seymour, emphasising that he was not speaking for Pharmachem Technologies, told a

AN outspoken QC last night slammed the Government’s bid to strike out his legal challenge to the $35 million GB Power buy-out, and asked: “What do you have to hide?” Fred Smith QC, the Callenders & Co attorney and partner, told Tribune Business that the February 26, 2018, summons seeking to overturn the permission given to launch Judicial Review proceedings amounted to

* INDUSTRIAL SECTOR ISLAND’S ‘LIFE SUPPORT’ * BAHAMAS FAILING ON SUSTAINABLE GOVERNANCE * ADMITS ‘GRAVE CONCERNS’ ON FREEPORT MODEL

50 per cent equity interest in GB Power. The deal enabled Emera to acquire 100 per cent of GB Power, but Mr Smith and his client, SeSaChe Ltd, a former ICD Utilities shareholder, obtained Supreme Court permission to challenge this - something the Government is now seeking to reverse. Legal documents obtained

“Government obstruction and stalling tactics”. The Judicial Review challenge is seeking to overturn the approvals that enabled Emera, the Canadian utility, to proceed with its buy-out of all Bahamian minority investors in BISXlisted ICD Utilities. The latter, which has since been delisted, was the holding vehicle for a

by Tribune Business show it is advancing its arguments on multiple grounds, including the claim that the Judicial Review is “premature” because alternative legal remedies were available to SeSaChe via the Companies Act sections dealing with unfair ‘shareholder oppression’. The Government’s summons also alleges that Mr Smith’s action is “a fishing exercise” seeking to find a basis for Judicial Review, and claims that the approvals cannot be challenged via

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