05082017 business

business@tribunemedia.net

MONDAY, MAY 8, 2017

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BOB in legal battle with Central Bank

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Bank of the Bahamas (BOB) is seeking Supreme Court protection from the Central Bank, with the regulator demanding an “immediate” $50 million increase in loan loss provisions and legal action against “politically exposed” bad borrowers.

Legal documents obtained

by Tribune Business reveal the extent of the stricken bank’s woes, with its problems so severe that its liquidity could de-

teriorate “quite literally on any day”.

Abhilash Bhachech, the Central Bank’s inspector of banks and trust companies, expressed concern that BOB’s application for a ‘stay’ of the regulator’s demands could undermine its ability to properly supervise the troubled BISXlisted institution.

He warned that imposing a ‘hold’ or injunction on the Central Bank could also “further erode depositor and public confidence” in BOB, as well as undermine “the retail banking system of the Bahamas”

given the bank’s systemic importance.

Mr Bhachech, in two affidavits filed with the Supreme Court on May 2 and May 4, 2017, revealed that BOB had launched a Supreme Court appeal on April 7, 2017, against the Central Bank’s latest regulatory demands.

Explaining that these “supervisory mandates”, dated February 8, 2017, were issued “for sound prudential reasons”, Mr Bhachech alleged that they required BOB to “commence legal proceedings against its See pg b5

Govt gives Freeport new ‘11th hour’ stay

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net The Government has been urged to provide Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) licensees with “certainty”, after it gave them another twomonth extension to apply for renewal of key tax breaks AFTER the previous deadline expired.

Carey Leonard, the former GBPA in-house counsel, told Tribune Business that the Government would continue to be met with private sector “suspicion and mistrust” unless it became more transparent over how businesses could qualify for reinstatement of their investment incentives.

He was speaking after the Government, following the close of business on Thursday, May 4 - the date by which the Grand Bahama (Port Area) Investment Incentives Act 2016 required GBPA licensees to apply - extended the deadline to July 4, 2017.

Mick Holding, the Grand Bahama Chamber of Com-

Extends tax breaks apply deadline for two months

Jamaica LNG supplier said to be lead contender Gave ‘free electricity’ idea in PLP manifesto

Bank’s liquidity could go ‘on any given day’

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Mick holding

BPL, PowerSecure not informed or involved

Seeks action against ‘politically exposed’ defaulters

Sir Franklyn denies FOCOL involved in BEC generation bid

Carey Leonard

Govt in secret BPL generation bid move

Regulator wants $50m more ‘bad loan’ provisions

Fears for ‘retail banking system’; BOB fined $100k

Sir Franklyn Wilson yesterday “categorically” denied that FOCOL Holdings was involved with any bid to provide improved electricity generation for Bahamas Power & Light (BPL).

Sir Franklyn, who chairs the BISX-listed company, also told Tribune Business it had not partnered with New Fortress Energy, which has liquefied natural gas (LNG) interests in Florida and Jamaica, on such a proposal to the Government (see other article on Page 1B).

“We deny that categorically,” he told Tribune Business. “We’ve seen that around on social media. We have no partnership with See pg b6

Dismisses Fortress Energy partnership talk Union deal gives BPL staff lump sum payment Union chief: Albany offered to finance new engines

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By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net The Government has quietly been soliciting bids to provide Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) with improved generation capacity, but without the knowledge of either the company itself or its PowerSecure manager.

Multiple sources, including some linked to energy industry players approached, said several groups had been invited to participate in “a very weird Request for Proposal (RFP)” initiated by the Christie administration.

Tribune Business was told that the process, run directly out of Prime Minister Perry Christie’s office, set different terms and bid criteria for the various energy groups, with timelines similar to the tight deadlines involved in the New Providence landfill tender.

This newspaper’s contacts said the leading contender appears to be New Fortress Energy, the subsidiary of a $72 billion New York-based asset manager, which signed a 2015 agreement to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), that Caribbean island’s energy provider.

See pg b4

But only AFTER previous deadline expired Certainty needed to beat ‘suspicion and mistrust’ merce’s president, told Tribune Business that the Government’s extension notice would have been far more useful if issued prior to May 4, given that many businesses had already rushed to apply.

“We received it at the Chamber some time after 6pm last night [Thursday night], after the office had closed,” Mr Holding said, adding that the Chamber only became aware of the extension on Friday, May 5.

“It was a very 11th hour thing,” he confirmed. “To have been effective, it See pg b2

Ex-minister: VAT break ‘inherited’ from Sarkis

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Baha Mar’s new owner will likely have “inherited” its Value-Added Tax (VAT) exemptions from Sarkis Izmirlian, a former finance minister saying “any developer worth his salt” would have sought protection from new taxes.

See pg b3

Smith: Natural to seek ‘new taxes’ protection Concessions ‘only one side of equation’ VAT deferral vital to cash flow, project’s finish

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PAGE 2, Monday, May 8, 2017

THE TRIBUNE

NHI fee structures to evolve over time

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunmedia.net

National Health Insurance’s (NHI) project manager says laboratory and pharmaceutical services will be rolled-out over the next few weeks, with the fee structure for service providers ultimately changing over time..

Dr Delon Brennen told Tribune Business: “As we continue to deliver more and more services, we introduced the lab services that will likely come next.

“The pharmaceutical

services and diagnostic imaging services are to be rolled-out over the course of the next few weeks. As we start to deliver those, people will be able to get their lab work, medicine, Xrays, mamograms and the like, and all of it will be paid from the NHI Authority.”

While acknowledging that discussions and negotiations on NHI fee structures are continuing, Dr Brennen said these will evolve over time.

“We have, for the better part of months and years, held discussions and negotiations with these provid-

Govt gives Freeport new ‘11th hour’ stay From pg B1 should have been issued a couple of days earlier.

“This is the third extension now. They’ve given no reason for it. Unlike the previous two, this one gives an additional two months, whereas the previous two were for one month.”

Mr Leonard, meanwhile, suggested that the Government had been forced to grant an additional twomonth extension because not enough of the GBPA’s 3,500 licensees had applied.

“You’ve got to love it,” he told Tribune Business.

“I guess they didn’t have enough people sign up for it, so they decided to leave it open a little longer. I don’t recall anyone who’s actually told me they’ve applied for it.”

The Christie administration introduced the Grand Bahama (Port Area) Investment Incentives Act 2016, which requires GBPA licensees to apply for renewal of their real property tax, capital gains and income

ers, getting to where we are now with the fee structure that was put in place; knowing that what we start with on day one and year one is not going to be what end up with at year two, year five and year 10,” he added.

“This is a dynamic process based on utilisation, and how we can go about ensuring that we procure good product, how we can get a better scale on delivery of service as well. All of these things are likely to change, but it will be based on the actual evidence that is available for us to be able to develop those payment mechanism.”

NHI is expected to be rolled-out in three phases with the first phase, primary care, launching last week.

More than 9,000 persons have enrolled in NHI todate, and around 60 private doctors have signed-on.

“Right now, things are done very anecdotally because that data isn’t out there. A national level programme like NHI allows us to say how many patients are actually using a particular service nationwide and, if so, what kind of service delivery we will be able to give them while not breaking the bank to be able do so,” said Dr Brennen.

tax exemptions, after these rights under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement expired on May 4, 2015.

A series of extensions has now given GBPA licensees until July 4, 2017, to apply, and Mr Leonard said the Government needed to become more transparent and set out the criteria by which firms could qualify for the tax breaks renewal, and for how long.

“I don’t understand the reason, and I have to put it this way, why the Government is so intent on getting everybody to sign up for this thing,” Mr Leonard told Tribune Business.

“It may be so that the

Government can come up with a criteria for what you need to get approvals. If they want to know why people are not signing up, it’s uncertainty.

“If they want people to sign up for this stuff, they’ve got to introduce certainty and the criteria for you to get approval,” he added. “Leaving it so open makes people nervous, and wondering why you need so much information on my company.

“Why are you begging me to fill this out? There’s a very high degree of suspicion and mistrust, or should I say, lack of trust. The Government may be doing it with the best of intentions, but until we have certainty, and that means setting out the criteria and everything else, it’s going to have a difficult job selling it.

“One of the reasons the Hawksbill Creek Agreement is so successful is it guaranteed certainty. And the courts have shown that over and over again. You can go to court, have clarity, and business people can have confidence they can do certain things and the court will protect them. That’s the bottom line; lack of certainty.”

Among key GBPA licensee concerns is that the

to advertise today in the tribune call @ 502-2394

Dr Delon Brennen length of time for which the tax breaks will be renewed is uncertain, and appears left entirely to the discretion of the Investments Board and responsible minister.

Then there is the fear that licensees not planning to expand their business are effectively ‘locked in’ to maintaining their existing employment levels for five years in return for the renewal of their real property tax, capital gains and income tax exemptions.

The application form attached to the Grand Bahama (Port Area) Investment Incentives Act 2016’s regulations divides GBPA licensees into two categories: Those planning a business expansion within the next 12 months, and those who “expect to operate as a going concern and maintain current staffing levels for at least the next five years”.

The latter category appears innocuous, but when the application form is read with the Act, it effectively “locks in” GBPA licensees to maintaining employment levels for a five-year period regardless of whether there are further market or economic downturns outside their control.

Should a licensee be forced to downsize in those five years to survive, the Act’s section six, ‘Failure to fulfil obligations’, would appear to come into play.

This allows the Minister for Investments to strip Freeport businesses, partially or in full, of their tax breaks, and even enables them to demand payment of taxes that should have been paid if no concessions were

granted.

The Act enables the Minister to “reduce or revoke in full” the tax breaks granted, and even “demand payment in respect of any money that would have been payable had no concessions under the Act been conferred”. In effect, it demands retroactive or ‘back’ taxes.

Mr Holding, meanwhile, expressed hope that “the intent behind” the twomonth extension was to provide more time to resolve the outstanding issues and communicate “effectively” with the GBPA licensees.

He predicted that “the majority” of Freeportbased businesses would not have applied by last Thursday’s deadline, with foreign-owned companies likely predominant among those who did because of their potential real property tax exposure.

Mr Holding said the deadline extension also ensured the issue would not be caught up in Wednesday’s general election, and added: “The election has probably delayed the discussions that were planned between the Chamber, Port Authority and the Government.

“That’s probably the basis of the two-month extension this time; to give time to settle down post-election and have meaningful discussions again.

“We’ll be making approaches, not the next week, but the week after, to whoever’s sitting in the Ministry of Grand Bahama to re-open the discussions.”

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, May 8, 2017, PAGE 3

QC: Cruise port signing ‘politically irresponsible’

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

A well-known QC has slammed as “politically irresponsible” the signing of the Heads of Agreement for Carnival’s $100 million east Grand Bahama cruise port a week ahead of the general elections, arguing there had been no public consultation over the project.

Fred Smith QC, the Callenders & Co attorney and partner, told Tribune

Business: “Entering into a Heads of Agreement of such great negative and/or positive economic impact, one week before a general election, is an act of political irresponsibility on the part of this government.

“There has been no consultation of any sort with the thousands of stakeholders, GBPA licensees, the 50,000 or so residents and land owners, and other interested parties in Grand Bahama.”

Mr Smith added: “Secondly, I continue to lament

and criticise this practice of entering into secret Heads of Agreements. I continue to criticise the centralised dictatorship of the Office of the Prime Minister in the political and economic management of the family of Bahama islands.”

The Government last week signed a Heads of Agreement with Carnival Cruise Lines for the $100 million cruise port, a development Prime Minister Perry Christie said would generate significant “entrepreneurial and employment

Ex-minister: VAT break ‘inherited’ from Sarkis From pg B1 James Smith, also an exCentral Bank governor, told Tribune it was impossible to determine whether the Government’s deal with Chow Tai Fook Enterprises (CTFE) was a bad one without seeing all other related agreements.

He argued that too many persons were focusing on the various VAT exemptions granted to Baha Mar’s new owner, adding that tax breaks - and other incentives and concessions - were “only one part of the equation”.

Suggesting that Baha Mar was a unique case, given that the Bahamas could not afford for an incomplete mega resort to sit at Cable Beach without being used, Mr Smith said the deal’s quality ultimately depended on whether CTFE was successful.

Pointing to the hotel industry’s history in the Bahamas, the former minister of state for finance said 15 and 10-year tax holidays for resort developments was a trend that - under the Hotels Encouragement Act - went back to the 1950s, and properties such as the Royal Victoria and British Colonial.

“There’s a standard clause any hotelier insists on, which is that if you give

me tax breaks, don’t then introduce a new tax on me,” Mr Smith told Tribune Business in relation to Baha Mar’s VAT breaks.

“Mr Izmirlian would not have gone into a development like that without asking for cover for another tax. That had to have been.

Not VAT exclusively, but any new tax would not be levied on this development.

“Any developer worth his salt would do that. These new people [CTFE] would inherit that; something already given. That has been a standard taxation clause.”

Many Bahamians have branded the Government’s Heads of Agreement with CTFE as a great tax ‘giveaway’, as the deal ensures the two ‘asset transfers’ necessary to effect Baha Mar’s sale were “exempt from all relevant taxes”, including VAT and Stamp Duty, with the $4.2 billion project’s completion also escaping the 7.5 per cent levy until end-2019.

“VAT (when applicable) would have been paid on all materials and services necessary for construction and equipping of the project,” the Heads of Agreement’s ‘clause 8.1’ states.

“In order to complete and open the project, the project company shall be eligible for exemption through

James Smith December 31, 2019, from Value-Added Tax and all exemptions granted under the Hotels Encouragement Act and other legislation, including but not limited to, exemption from Customs duty in respect of all materials and equipment used in the construction, equipping, furnishing, completing and opening of the project.”

And no VAT or Stamp Duty, representing the 10 per cent real estate ‘transfer tax’, will be paid on the two ‘sales’ of Baha Mar’s assets.

The first sale was from Baha Mar’s Deloitte & Touche receivers to the China Export-Import Bank’s Perfect Luck vehicle, taking Baha Mar’s assets out of receivership. The second involves the mega resort’s sale, once its construction is completed, from Perfect

opportunities, and have a major impact on the communities of east Grand Bahama”.

Two hundred and twenty-six acres of land will be developed within two years after all relevant government approvals have been provided. Mr Christie said the new cruise port development will encompass numerous amenities, including restaurants, pavilions, nightclubs, aquatic and other recreational and sporting facilities.

Mr Smith, though, ques-

tioned what had become of the proposed terminal in Russell Town, Lucaya or the revamping of the harbour.

“The only saving grace are the regulatory bodies who will have to consider license applications. I know that many stakeholders and affected parties will be vigorously making representations to these decision makers in their deliberations. It is high time that the promise of true local government by both administrations is manifested,” said Mr Smith.

FRED Smith QC

Luck to CTFE’s CTF BM Operations vehicle.

The Heads of Agreement confirms: “It is understood and agreed that pursuant to the Heads of Terms, the transfer of assets in connection with the project from Baha Mar to Perfect Luck or its affiliate, and subsequently the transfers of assets or shares from Perfect Luck to [CTF BM Operations] would be exempt from all relevant taxes related thereto.”

Mr Smith, though, was backed by Grant Lyon, the Government’s claims adviser in the Baha Mar restructuring and liquidation process.

Mr Lyon pointed out what Tribune Business already has, namely that “the concessions are almost identical to what the previous FNM government gave Mr Izmirlian when he was the owner of Baha Mar”, except for VAT which did not exist in 2011.

The casino tax, real property tax and marketing support rates, structure and amounts are identical, with Mr Lyon arguing that the VAT waived on Baha Mar’s construction completion “amounts to no more than $7.5 million”.

Backing previous Trib-

une Business articles, he added: “The VAT associated with the sale of Baha Mar was not waived. It was deferred and will be collected as customers stay at the resort.

“Those who say that the agreement resulted in a waiver of hundreds of millions of VAT are incorrect – only up to $7.5 million of VAT was waived.

“In my expert opinion, this is a small price to get the resort out of bankruptcy, to get the more than $100 million in claims paid to creditors, contractors and employees, and to get the resort open and offer Bahamians badly needed jobs.”

Mr Smith, too, said the collection of VAT was a “timing” issue, as payment had been deferred until

Baha Mar became operational and started receiving guests.

Explaining why the Government had opted not to receive due tax revenues upfront, the former minister said: “You cannot impair the viability of a project that large by squeezing its cash flow upfront.

“People are only looking at one part of the equation: concessions. Concessions are given to provide impetus for economic growth, job creation and GDP. “In Baha Mar’s case it is more peculiar, because if you don’t give the same level of concessions that the former guy received, would the new owner come in?

Could you afford to have the project sitting there for years? I don’t think anyone would want that.”

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Govt in secret BPL generation bid move From pg B1 Tribune Business was told that New Fortress had partnered with BISX-listed FOCOL Holdings, but the company’s chairman, Sir Franklyn Wilson, “categorically” denied this when contacted yesterday by this newspaper (see other article on Page 1B).

Tribune Business, though, can reveal that the Government’s efforts to solicit new generation capacity for BPL have taken place without the knowledge or involvement of BPL or its management company.

PowerSecure, which has four years left to run on a five-year management contract worth potentially $25 million, or a maximum of $5 million per year, is understood to have only learned of the Christie administration’s plans on Friday.

Tribune Business, meanwhile, was also told that the ‘free electricity’ proposal contained in the Progres-

YOUR

sive Liberal Party’s (PLP) 2017 election manifesto came directly from New Fortress Energy.

Some contacts suggested that the Government was planning to quietly sign-off on an agreement with New Fortress within the next two days, prior to the general election, but Cabinet ministers could not be reached yesterday to confirm this.

“Fortress has been in the Bahamas for more than nine months behind the backs of BPL and PowerSecure. They have been talking directly to the Office of the Prime Minister,” one source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Tribune Business.

“They and five other companies were invited on a very weird RFP. Some were asked for bids on 170 Mega Watts (MW) of additional generation capacity, and some were asked for bids on replacing the standby generation.”

The source, intimately fa-

miliar with developments, said the Government had invited the six groups to submit offers at “the very last minute”.

“If you’d like to bid, here are the dates,” they said of the Government’s approach to the ‘RFP’. “Most of those dates were after Parliament had been dissolved.”

Tribune Business was informed that the bid letters were issued by Creswell Sturrup, permanent secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office, while meetings with the groups were co-ordinated by Mr Christie’s senior policy adviser, Sir Baltron Bethel.

Apart from New Fortress, other potential bidders contacted by the Prime Minister’s Office were said to include Leidos of Orlando, Florida, A trusted Tribune Business source, close to one of the groups solicited, told this newspaper: “There hasn’t been a formal RFP, but they got called by the Energy Reform Committee from the Office of the Prime Minister.

“They said: ‘We need a proposal from you in less

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than a week. The group managed it, and then got another call saying: ‘We need you here [in Nassau] to give a full presentation’ in three working days. They said it was that day, or nothing.”

The source added of the process: “Trying to do something so close to the election, something smells funny. It’s almost like somebody’s trying to sneak something huge in under the radar at the last minute.

“PowerSecure confirmed that this is happening, and they didn’t know anything about it until yesterday [Friday].”

Several contacts yesterday expressed scepticism that the Government would sign an agreement with New Fortress, seemingly binding the incoming administration, right before a general election.

However, the 2002-2007 Christie administration did exactly that in seeking to seal the Bahamas Telecommunications Company’s (BTC) sale to Bluewater in the days before it was voted out of office. And Prime Minister Perry Christie, upon being re-elected to office, expressed outrage that on the day of the 2012 election the former Ingraham administration had asked the Attorney General’s Office to “authenticate” its signing of a west New Providence water franchise agreement.

Apart from the impact on PowerSecure’s management agreement, the other questions stemming from the Government’s generation activity are the absence of a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) and the lastminute rush.

The seeming last-minute scramble over BPL’s generation capacity is reminiscent of the eight working days interested parties were given to bid on the New Providence landfill’s management and remediation contract.

The Government’s rationale over BPL has yet to be explained, but the similarities with the landfill tender suggest its scrambling may be connected to its commitments under the Heads of Agreement with Baha Mar’s new owner.

The Christie administration has promised Chow Tai Fook Enterprises (CTFE) that it will “address reliable and consistent supply of electricity on the island of New Providence, which will include the ability to meet the requirements of

THE TRIBUNE the project”.

This involves the installation “of all supporting infrastructure necessary to support secure and dependable electricity supplies to the project, without the need for unusual load-shedding or other interruption in electricity supply to the project”.

This has to be completed

by December 31, 2017, a deadline that the Government and BPL/BEC are unlikely to meet given that all are cash-strapped.

This leads into the other factor likely motivating the Government’s action over BPL’s generation; the need to refinance the company’s $650 million legacy liabilities, and the difficulty it is having in doing so through the preferred route of a rate reduction bond (RRB).

The RRB would raise new debt to pay out all BEC’s legacy debts, pension deficit, environmental liabilities and such like, while also removing them from BPL’s balance sheet, thus freeing the utility to invest in new and enhanced infrastructure.

Until this happens, BPL and PowerSecure’s hands are tied when it comes to moving forward, especially in achieving lower-cost energy that is more reliable, with fewer outages and blackouts.

The Government has found placing the RRB more difficult than expected, with financial institutions repeatedly telling it that the price (interest rate) being offered is too low to compensate potential investors for the risk they would be taking.

Given that RRB payments to investors would need to be financed by BPL customer payments, this would likely require an increase in electricity tariffs, which is why the Government has likely ‘kicked the can down the road’ past the 2017 general election.

However, finding a group to take over management of BPL’s existing generation assets, finance install new turbines and, eventually, pay for and construct a new power plant, would enable the Government to meet its Baha Mar commitments without going the RRB route and burdening Bahamian consumers.

In doing so, the Government would be performing a ‘u-turn’ and going ‘full circle’, back to the structure proposed in the 2013 BEC RFP, which sought to split the utility’s generation as-

sets from the transmission and distribution (T&D) operation.

Instead, the Christie administration elected to adopt the so-called ‘NAD model’, named after the airport, and which involves the Government hiring a private sector manager but keeping ownership of the company and underlying assets.

It is unclear whether, and how, the Government’s generation manoeverings will impact the contract with PowerSecure, although the latter is understood to be increasingly frustrated that its hands are tied financially, while none of its recommendations to improve BPL are being acted upon.

Any proposal by New Fortress would almost certainly involve the supply of LNG, as BPL’s primary fuel, from its plants in Florida. While the details of its plan are unknown, the company would likely guarantee a fixed power rate, or kilowatt per hour.

The use of LNG would likely require the construction of storage and regasification facilities on New Providence, and the installation of new ‘dual use’ generation turbines able to burn different fuel types.

Several Tribune Business sources suggested yesterday that LNG would be brought into New Providence at Arawak Cay, rather than Clifton Pier, and then taken by pipeline to a new power plant.

The new power plant would be the final step, with New Fortress likely to seek a 20-25 year power purchase agreement (PPA) for BPL to take its electricity supply.

Several energy industry sources, though, said New Fortress had no experience in managing power plants, as its expertise lies in LNG supply. “It has to involve bringing in LNG and building a new plant,” one contact said of their involvement.

Another, referring to the PLP’s election manifesto, added: “The whole idea of ‘free electricity’ was floated out of a conversation with Fortress.”

Tribune Business was also told that New Fortress’s LNG deal with JPS had not proven as successful as initially touted, especially when it came to price, which had forced the Jamaican utility to increase its LNG purchase volumes to make the numbers work.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, May 8, 2017, PAGE 5

BOB in legal battle with Central Bank From pg B1 customers to realise on collateral from long-standing non-performing loans, specifically larger commercial exposures and exposures to politically exposed persons”.

The last phrase will likely add further fuel to the already-raging controversy as to whether bad loans to persons with political connections (PEPs) played a key role in Bank of the Bahamas’ collapse into the October 2014 taxpayer-financed ‘bail out’.

PEPs are persons who hold, or have connections - such as family links - to officials or politicians holding public office. Prime Minister Perry Christie and the Government have repeatedly denied that loans to ‘politically exposed persons’ or PEPs were involved in Bank of the Bahamas’s demise.

However, the controversy again reared its head over the weekend, as former prime minister Hubert Ingraham, in a speech not given because of bad weather to the FNM’s Friday rally in Freeport, demanded to know whether four current Cabinet ministers, one PLP MP and a former PLP MP of “are on the list of nonperforming loans [at BOB] to the tune of tens of millions?”

Alarmed that the identity of its ‘loan delinquents’ may become public, BOB and its attorney, Raynard Rigby, the former PLP chairman, are asking the Supreme Court to ‘seal’ the file the same manoevere performed over the Government’s Baha Mar deal with the China Export-Import Bank.

The Central Bank is resisting this. Mr Bhachech said that while the regulator was “not averse” to customer and ‘bad borrower’ names remaining confidential, it felt “the principles of justice and the public interest” - given that BOB is “a domestic systemically important bank” - require that the court file remains open.

Mr Bhachech, meanwhile, said the Central Bank had also demanded that BOB “immediately increase its provisioning by at least $50 million, taking into account the appellant’s [BOB] state of affairs and

its deficient provision levels when compared to industry averages”.

A third requirement was for BOB to “convert the first $10 million tranche of contingent convertible bonds to common equity Tier 1 capital, and all future capital injections must be paid in cash and constitute common equity Tier 1 capital”. The fourth, and final demand, was for BOB to produce an ‘action plan’ for the Central Bank’s approval - detailing how it would implement these measures - by March 15, 2017.

The $10 million bond issue referred to by the Central Bank was the first of three equal tranches, set to ultimately total $30 million, all of which are being 100 per cent financed by the Government as BOB’s 79 per cent majority shareholder.

Mr Bhachech, though, said that BOB, in a March 14, 2017, reply to the Central Bank, asked it to “reconsider” both the $50 million loan loss provisioning increase and the treatment of the contingent convertible bonds.

“Due to [BOB’s] noncompliance with the terms of the supervisory mandates letter, on March 28, 2017, the Central Bank issued a Notice of Contravention, imposing a fine in the sum of $100,000 against [BOB],” he alleged.

BOB subsequently submitted its ‘action plan’ to the Central Bank on April 7, 2017, but - the very same day - initiated the Supreme Court proceedings challenging the regulator’s demands, and seeking a stay of their imposition.

Mr Bhachech, in his affidavits, said the supervisory mandates issues to BOB had grown “in ascending degrees of severity”, with recommendations followed by “directives, supervisory intervention measures and then supervisory mandates”.

He added: “Deficiencies in compliance by [BOB] have been consistent over the years and remain”, pointing to the poor quality of its loan assets and “capital inadequacy”.

Describing BOB’s problems as “severe”, Mr Bhachech alleged: “Given the systemic importance of [BOB] and the persistent

Legal Notice NOTICE

LACEFIELD CORPORATION NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that pursuant to section 140 (3) of the International Business Companies Act Lacefield Corporation has rescinded its intention to wind-up and dissolve and has submitted to the Registrar of Companies a resolution to rescind the Articles of Dissolution on the 3rd day of May, 2017.

Shareece E. Scott Liquidator

challenges faced by it in maintaining adequate levels of liquidity, funding, capital and earnings to support its business activities and the needs of its clients, [BOB] has been placed at Stage 4 (Risk of Imminent Insolvency and non-viability) on the Central Bank’s ladder of supervisory intervention.”

The only stage below this, Stage 5, is the suspension or revocation of a bank or trust company’s license, and Mr Bhachech alleged that BOB faced “increased risks” to its financial stability, asset quality and reputation”.

“While each is now at an advanced degree of severity, it may be considered that the liquidity risk [of BOB] may deteriorate at any moment; quite literally on the same day,” he warned.

Mr Bhachech revealed that the Central Bank had adopted enhanced regulation of BOB some 12 months prior to its October 2014 ‘bail out’, saying: “The liquidity adequacy of [BOB] is so fragile that daily monitoring of its liquidity reports has been conducted by the Central Bank since late 2013.

“The Central Bank has continued to observe volatility and wide swings in [BOB’s] liqudity reserves and lack of assured interbank funding. This chronic inadequacy has further impaired [BOB’s] ability to initiate or sustain new lending.”

Explaining why the Central Bank was so opposed to BOB’s ‘stay’ application, Mr Bhachech warned that if granted it would “pose a risk [to the bank’s] financial stability and may undermine public confidence in

the domestic banking system.

“The Central Bank is concerned that a granting of the stay application may impede the Central Bank in its regulatory oversight, which may lead to events that may further erode depositor and public confidence in [BOB], given its history of not being able to mitigate its capital and liquidity shortfalls.

“The Central Bank is of the view that the stay application is inappropriate by reason (among other things) that it seeks to restrain for an undetermined duration the Central Bank as regards the regulatory requirements directed to [BOB] in, quite possibly, fluid or changing circumstances in which [BOB’s] financial condition may deteriorate. To do so might prejudice the well-being of [BOB] and, thereby, the retail banking system of the Bahamas.’

Mr Bhachech said the Central Bank was concerned that BOB would use any injunction to delay “making a realistic assessment” of the value of its loan assets, and the capital required to support provisioning “and subsequent write-offs”, further deteriorating asset quality.

He added that due to “apparent availability difficulties” on BOB’s part, discussions between it and the Central Bank over the ‘action plan’ did not start until April 24, 2017, lasting for two days.

Given the submission of the ‘action plan’, and discussions over it, the Central Bank said these actions were “inconsistent” with BOB’s move to initiate legal action in the Supreme Court.

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BOB’s legal action, by extension, has brought the Government - as its majority shareholder through the Treasury and NIB - into conflict with the Central Bank.

The contents of Mr Bhachech’s affidavits are effectively a damning indictment of successive governments, BOB Boards and managements, and show that the BISX-listed institution’s survival is tenuous in the extreme.

Following losses of more than $120 million over the last three-and-a-half years, the legal documents reveal that BOB needs recapitalisation amounting to millions of dollars, or a similar amount of ‘bad loans’ need to be moved off its books.

It represents potentially a huge further cost to the Bahamian taxpayer.

Bank of the Bahamas’ financials for the year to endJune 2016, as first revealed

by Tribune Business, disclosed that 46.07 per cent, or $234.886 million of its total $510 million loan portfolio, was non-performing - meaning 90 days or more past due - at that date.

Meanwhile, the bank’s

balance sheet at end-December 2016 shows that without the $100 million in promissory notes (bonds) issued to Bank of the Bahamas in October 2014 in exchange for the $45.2 million net ‘bad’ loans transferred to Bahamas Resolve, the institution would be insolvent with assets exceeding liabilities.

Bank of the Bahamas’ accumulated deficit now stands at almost $100 million, having totally wiped out the $54.622 million in ‘special retained earnings’ written back into its balance sheet via the Bahamas Resolve transaction.

Apart from the $100 million promissory note and Bahamas Resolve transaction, the Government injected a further $40 million into the bank last year by taking up its entire September rights offering.

And, with December’s $10 million bond issue the first of three equal tranches, it is likely the Government will end up infusing $70 million in capital into Bank of the Bahamas over a seven-month period.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS COMPANIES ACT, 2000 LEGAL NOTICE

RFSC LTD.

(In Voluntary Liquidation)

TAKE NOTICE is hereby given that by a resolution passed on the 10th day of March, 2017 the above-named Company was put into voluntary liquidation.

AND FURTHER TAKE NOTICE that BCS Corporate Group Ltd., Cumberland House, 15 Cumberland Street, P.O. Box SS6836, Nassau, Bahamas was appointed voluntary liquidator of the Company.

AND TAKE NOTICE that any creditors having debts or claims against the Company are required to send particulars to the Liquidator of the said Company and in default thereof they will be excluded from the benefit of any distribution made by the Liquidator.

Dated this 24th day of April, 2017 BCS Corporate Group Ltd. Liquidator

PAGE 6, Monday, May 8, 2017

Sir Franklyn denies FOCOL involved in BEC generation bid From pg B1 Fortress. We have no agreement to take over BEC. That is no more than political mischief.”

Tribune Business had been contacted by energy industry sources over the weekend, who expressed concern that FOCOL had partnered with Fortress in a deal that would initially see them take over management of BPL’s generation assets, and ultimately lead to the construction of a new power plant and generation units powered by LNG. This newspaper confirmed that Fortress and other energy industry players had been invited

by Prime Minister Perry Christie’s office to submit

offers on providing BPL with new generation capacity, in a process that did not involve the utility or its manager, PowerSecure, but Sir Franklyn said he and FOCOL had no knowledge of this.

He accused “a former Opposition candidate”, whom he did not name, of being the source of the speculation surrounding FOCOL, and added: “They call it silly season for a reason.

“I want to make it clear that FOCOL has made no attempt to take over BEC, and we have no agreement with Fortress. I want to be as candid and blunt as I can, because I want to put that to rest. It’s not in the cards.”

FOCOL Holdings has

sir Franklyn WilsoN long been interested in getting into the power generation market, having teamed in 2012 with Emera, Grand Bahama Power Company’s majority shareholder, and Wartsila to propose a 100 Mega Watt (MW) power plant to the Government.

The consortium ultimately elected not to enter the 2013 Request for Proposal (RFP) for energy sector re-

form that was won by PowerSecure, instead choosing to remain outside the process as an independent power producer (IPP).

FOCOL’s interest in the sector has seemingly never waned, though, with Anthony Robinson, its chief executive, cryptically telling the company’s recent annual general meeting (AGM) that it “may even” enter power generation.

Explaining FOCOL’s intentions, Sir Franklyn said yesterday: “We’re a publicly traded company. We are always looking for possibilities for growth and expansion, and we do have some exciting things our shareholders can look forward to.

“Once this silly season is over, we said at the AGM that our intent is in expanding into other areas, but not in the context of what is currently out there in social media” over FOCOL and Fortress.

Sir Franklyn continued:

Democrats see opposition to GOP health bill as winning issue ATLANTA (AP) — It’s “Trumpcare” now, and Republicans have to answer for it.

After dozens of symbolic votes, House Republicans finally pushed through a bill to gut Barack Obama’s

Affordable Care Act, with President Donald Trump hailing the replacement as “a great plan” that has “really brought the Republican Party together.”

Democrats are giddy about what could be severe

political consequences for the GOP. Even though the Senate still has to act, Republicans now largely own a measure that would curtail, and in some cases take away completely, benefits Americans have embraced after seven years. Chief among them: a guarantee of paying the same amount for coverage regardless of health history.

Budget analysts estimate 24 million people would lose insurance over a decade, 14 million in the first year, and older Americans would face higher costs.

The Senate, meanwhile, will write its own health care bill, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in Louisville while attending the Kentucky Derby.

No timetable will be announced, McConnell said, and he added: “We don’t anticipate any Democratic help at all, so it will be a simple majority vote situation.”

In the House, 217 Republicans voted yes.

“Progressives are going to hang this around the necks of every one of those Republicans,” said Angel Padilla, co-founder of the liberal group Indivisible.

“These Republicans voted to take away peoples’ health care. This is going to come back to bite them.”

Democrats are convinced the GOP repeal bill jeopardizes the Republican monopoly in Washington, starting with majority control of the House, and the party’s advantages in statehouses from Nevada to New Hampshire.

The potential fallout crystallized almost immediately.

Fundraising surged nationwide as new recruits stepped up to challenge vulnerable Republicans who backed the plan. Among the vulnerable: two-term Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-N.J., who helped revive the bill by authoring a key amendment on pre-existing conditions.

“We have an opportunity to take down the person who was the author of Trumpcare 2.0,” said Democrat Andrew Kim, an Obama White House national security adviser, who said he’s now more likely to challenge MacArthur next year. Kim raised more than $43,000 online over the last week for a possible run.

“He owns every part of this,” Kim said of MacArthur.

Democrats need to flip 24

THE TRIBUNE “We are a company that will respond to any opportunity to do something in the national interest, and where we can expand.

“After this season is over, whoever is the Government, and has an interest in doing something in the energy sector, we would have a tremendous interest in talking to and doing something with them.”

Meanwhile, Paul Maynard, the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union’s (BEWU) president, told Tribune Business that his members had received oneoff lump sum payments as high as $1,500 on Friday, but these were not related to any potential BPL deal.

Mr Maynard said the payments were based on the union’s industrial agreement, and said: “It was related to what I negotiated in 2014.

“After my negotiations, I put in a stipulation that if any other Corporation’s

union got more than me, I would get what was due to me by May 2017.

“The Water & Sewerage Corporation union got a lump sum equal to one increment, and that’s what I got as well. It was a negotiating position. I was the first one out, and if Water & Sewerage got more than me, I’d get the extra.

There’s nothing extraordinary about that.”

Mr Maynard and another source also confirmed that the Albany developers, headed by Lyford Cay billionaire, Joe Lewis, and his Tavistock Group, had offered to provide and arrange financing for BPL to be equipped with new generation units.

“I know there were talks with Albany with a view to getting these new engines,” the union president told Tribune Business. “I don’t know how far those talks had got.”

seats between now and the 2018 elections to take control of the House. Of the 217 Republicans who backed the bill, 14 come from districts carried by Democrat Hillary Clinton last fall, and 24 serve in districts where Trump did not win more than 50 percent of the vote.

Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who is not seeking re-election next year, warned that the bill “has the potential to severely harm the health and lives of people in south Florida.”

Her open seat in Miami is considered a prime pick-up opportunity for Democrats.

Next month, Democrats and Republicans face a showdown over a House seat in the Atlanta suburbs.

Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff, who is trying to score a special election upset in a traditionally conservative House district, said he strongly opposes “discrimination” over pre-existing conditions in response to the vote.

Outside groups prepared to launch an advertising campaign in the coming days to punish vulnerable Republicans in key states.

The television and online blitz is expected to seize on the more unpopular provisions in the GOP plan, which was opposed by the AARP, the American Medical Association, which represents doctors, and the American Hospital Association.

The AARP warned that the GOP plan institutes an “age tax” and jeopardizes coverage for 25 million older

Americans with pre-existing conditions. The bill would also roll back subsidies for individual insurance premiums, end federal payments for states to expand Medicaid for the poor and disabled, and cut more than $700 billion in taxes over 10 years.

Act Blue, a clearinghouse political action committee that raises money for Democratic campaigns, has already helped raise more than $2 million to fuel challenges against House Republicans who backed the GOP plan.

Democrats also targeted Republican governors in Democratic-leaning states, including Maryland’s Larry Hogan, who did not take a public position before the House vote.

“Where is their promise that no one is going to lose their insurance?” asked Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association.

“They have no intention to honor what they ran on,” he declared. “It’s the sort of things that cowards do, and the Republicans in Congress and in the statehouses are cowards. ... It is remarkable, and we will be reminding people of it.”

In Ohio, Democrats targeted Rep. Jim Renacci, who voted for the bill, as he runs for governor in a contested Republican primary campaign. Outgoing Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, condemned the Republican measure as “woefully short.”

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Monday, May 8, 2017, PAGE 7

Bills on guns, medical marijuana among those dead for year COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina legislation that lets more people carry guns, legalizes medical marijuana and borrows money to repair public buildings statewide are among proposals dead for the year.

While they received attention, one issue eclipsed all others this legislative session — fixing South Carolina’s deteriorating roadways.

Legislators are poised to pass South Carolina’s first gas tax hike in 30 years, if they can approve a compromise worked out late Friday between the House and Senate plans and overcome Gov. Henry McMaster’s pledged veto.

That’s still a tall hurdle.

By law, the regular session ends at 5 p.m. Thursday.

Legislators could carry debate on road funding and the state budget into a special session. The Senate passed a resolution Wednesday setting aside May 23 through May 25 for that possibility. But other issues will have to wait until next year.

WHAT MUST BE DONE? By law, the only thing the Legislature must do is pass a state budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.

The House and Senate have each passed a roughly

$8 billion spending plan for state taxes. Many of the differences are in education.

For example, the House’s version would provide $100 million to high-poverty districts to help refurbish dilapidated K-12 schools, while the Senate plan cuts that in half. And the Senate version gives public colleges an additional $16 million, while the House proposal provides colleges no new funding.

But the road-funding bill is holding up work on a budget compromise. Legislators don’t want to finalize a budget until they have a compromise on roads.

WHAT WON’T MAKE IT? The House has yet to vote on a bill that borrows $498 million for a backlog of repairs at South Carolina’s public colleges and other state-owned facilities.

About half of the borrowing package approved by Ways and Means would go to colleges. The committee had whittled down more than $2 billion worth of requests.

But just before the House was set to debate the bill, McMaster asked legislators to replace it to instead borrow up to $1 billion only for roads. That killed the borrowing bill for the year.

Legislators have not passed

a statewide bond bill since 2001.

Bills legalizing medical marijuana in South Carolina have made little progress, despite support from some of the state’s most conservative legislators. The idea’s Republican backers tout the bills’ “seed-to-sale tracking” as guarding against recreational use.

The legislation would allow people with a debilitating medical condition, or their adult caregivers, to legally possess 2 ounces of marijuana. The House version advanced in February to the chamber’s full medical committee, where it remains. A Senate subcommittee has taken lots of testimony but has yet to vote on an identical bill.

Advocates and opponents of various gun bills have filled committee meetings, but none of those controversial bills will make it.

The House passed a bill allowing any adult who can legally own a handgun to openly carry it in South Carolina, negating the need for a concealed weapon permit. Law enforcement officials oppose the idea, saying people should undergo training before carrying a gun in public. A Senate panel advanced an identical bill last week, setting up debate next year by a full Senate committee. Similar bills

S. Koreans want new leader to create jobs minus corruption SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Creating jobs, ending corruption and boosting stubbornly low birthrates should be high on a to-do list for South Korea’s next president after a campaign mostly dominated by security and foreign policy issues.

There’s concern that the economy will likely take a backseat to North Korea when South Koreans pick their next leader on Tuesday. Voters have been rattled by a row over who should foot the bill for a U.S. anti-missile system deployed in the country to defend against North Korean aggression, after President Donald Trump suggested that South Korea should pay more for U.S. security commitment.

Public demand for change in South Korea’s economic system remains high as growth and wealth continue to be concentrated in the hands of top few family-run business giants known as chaebol.

Anger over allegations of collusion between big businesses and the government helped trigger mas-

sive monthslong protests that led to the ouster of President Park Geun-hye in March and the arrest of the de-facto leader at Samsung, South Korea’s largest business group.

Leading presidential contenders have tried to tap into the discontent over economic injustice, high youth unemployment and increased inequality between those with full-time jobs at chaebol and those who are underemployed or looking for work.

But the lack of concrete reform plans means that none of their economic agenda gained much attention during the campaign.

“Candidates fell short of expectations from the public and could not thoroughly cover the reform agenda to change the economic system,” said Park Sang-in, a professor at Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Public Administration. “Their talks on jobs and innovation were so superficial that they could not win public support.”

On jobs, the two main contenders hold different

views on what the government should do.

Moon Jae-in, the frontrunner from the main opposition Democratic Party, believes that a bigger government would be better for creating jobs and says South Korea needs more public workers. His main rival Ahn Cheol-soo also puts jobs high on his policy agenda but says the government should not be heavyhanded in intervening in the private sector and instead focus on making the markets fair and friendlier for innovation.

“The origin of every crisis in South Korea is jobs,” Moon said during an economic debate. “It is because economic growth has continued without creating jobs and markets have failed to create jobs for a long time.”

Moon’s campaign pledges include creating 810,000 jobs in the public sector, including bureaucrats, firefighters and social workers, at a cost of 4.2 trillion won ($3.7 billion) per year.

Moon said he will add an extra budget of 10 trillion won ($8.8 billion) immedi-

have died repeatedly in the Senate since 2011.

Bills that don’t make it to McMaster’s desk this year don’t die completely. They won’t have to be reintroduced. The process will pick up next year at whatever point legislation is when the gavel falls Thursday.

WHAT HAS BEEN DONE? Lawmakers crossed a major item from this year’s to-do list April 25, when McMaster signed a law that aims to stabilize South Carolina’s pension system for public employees.

The law requires higher payments from workers and employers, starting July 1. Workers’ rates won’t rise again, but their taxpayer-supported employers will face increases through 2022.

Legislators’ budget plans include roughly $150 million for pension contributions in 2017-18.

While McMaster applauded legislators for addressing a “pension liability crisis,” he said he’s disappointed the law doesn’t set a date for moving new hires to a defined contribution plan, such as 401K retirement accounts. Legislators have repeatedly said more changes are coming.

ately once he takes office and a lion’s share of that will be allocated for job creation.

Ahn’s campaign has argued that Moon’s approach is no different from the previous governments that have relied on chaebol for economic growth, showering them with special treatment that resulted in cozy ties that in many cases led to corruption.

Instead, his team supports the idea of easing regulations to encourage companies to take risks while the government focuses on supporting small firms.

PAGE 8, Monday, May 8, 2017

NOTICE

MARKET REPORT FRIDAY, 5 MAY 2017

t. 242.323.2330 | f. 242.323.2320 | www.bisxbahamas.com

BISX ALL SHARE INDEX: CLOSE 1,1889.61 | CHG 5.26 | %CHG 0.28 | YTD -48.60 | YTD% -2.51 BISX LISTED & TRADED SECURITIES 52WK HI 4.38 17.43 9.09 3.56 4.70 0.12 6.76 8.60 6.10 10.60 15.27 2.72 1.60 6.00 10.00 11.00 10.00 6.90 12.01 11.00

52WK LOW 3.20 17.43 8.19 3.50 1.64 0.12 3.80 8.20 5.69 8.50 11.00 2.18 1.31 5.80 7.50 8.56 7.15 6.35 11.92 10.00

1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00

900.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00

PREFERENCE SHARES

1.00 106.00 100.00 106.00 105.00 105.00 100.00 10.00 1.01

1.00 105.50 100.00 100.00 105.00 100.00 100.00 10.00 1.01

SECURITY AML Foods Limited APD Limited Bahamas Property Fund Bahamas Waste Bank of Bahamas Benchmark Cable Bahamas CIBC FirstCaribbean Bank Colina Holdings Commonwealth Bank Commonwealth Brewery Consolidated Water BDRs Doctor's Hospital Famguard Fidelity Bank Finco Focol ICD Utilities J. S. Johnson Premier Real Estate Cable Bahamas Series 6 Cable Bahamas Series 8 Cable Bahamas Series 9 Cable Bahamas Series 10 Colina Holdings Class A Commonwealth Bank Class E Commonwealth Bank Class J Commonwealth Bank Class K Commonwealth Bank Class L Commonwealth Bank Class M Commonwealth Bank Class N Fidelity Bank Class A Focol Class B

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

52WK LOW 100.00 100.00 100.00

SYMBOL AML APD BPF BWL BOB BBL CAB CIB CHL CBL CBB CWCB DHS FAM FBB FIN FCL ICD JSJ PRE CAB6 CAB8 CAB9 CAB10 CHLA CBLE CBLJ CBLK CBLL CBLM CBLN FBBA FCLB

SECURITY Fidelity Bank Note 17 (Series A) + Fidelity Bank Note 18 (Series E) + Fidelity Bank Note 22 (Series B) +

SYMBOL FBB17 FBB18 FBB22

Bahamas Note 6.95 (2029) BGS: 2014-12-3Y BGS: 2015-1-3Y BGS: 2014-12-5Y BGS: 2015-1-5Y BGS: 2014-12-7Y BGS: 2015-1-7Y BGS: 2014-12-30Y BGS: 2015-1-30Y BGS: 2015-6-3Y BGS: 2015-6-5Y BGS: 2015-6-7Y BGS: 2015-6-30Y BGS: 2015-10-3Y BGS: 2015-10-5Y BGS: 2015-10-7Y

BAH29 BG0103 BG0203 BG0105 BG0205 BG0107 BG0207 BG0130 BG0230 BG0303 BG0305 BG0307 BG0330 BG0403 BG0405 BG0407

BAHAMAS GOVERNMENT STOCK - (percentage pricing) 115.92 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00

113.70 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00

MUTUAL FUNDS 52WK HI 2.05 3.92 1.95 169.70 141.76 1.47 1.67 1.57 1.10 6.96 8.50 6.30 9.94 11.21 10.46

52WK LOW 1.67 3.04 1.68 164.74 116.70 1.41 1.61 1.52 1.03 6.41 7.62 5.66 8.65 10.54 9.57

LAST CLOSE 4.38 15.85 9.09 3.54 1.77 0.12 4.05 8.60 6.00 10.51 11.50 2.37 1.55 6.00 9.33 9.00 9.95 6.90 12.01 10.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1.00 100.00 100.00 100.40 100.00 100.00 100.00 10.00 1.01 LAST SALE 100.00 100.00 100.00 108.74 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00

CLOSE 4.38 15.85 9.09 3.54 1.77 0.12 4.05 8.60 6.00 10.51 11.50 2.37 1.55 6.00 9.75 9.00 9.95 6.90 12.01 10.00

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 0.00 0.00 0.42 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1000.00 1.00 100.00 100.00 100.40 100.00 100.00 100.00 10.00 1.01

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

CLOSE 100.00 100.00 100.00

CHANGE 0.00 0.00 0.00

108.67 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00

-0.07 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

FUND CFAL Bond Fund CFAL Balanced Fund CFAL Money Market Fund CFAL Global Bond Fund CFAL Global Equity Fund FG Financial Preferred Income Fund FG Financial Growth Fund FG Financial Diversified Fund FG Financial Global USD Bond Fund Royal Fidelity Bahamas Opportunities Fund - Secured Balanced Fund Royal Fidelity Bahamas Opportunities Fund - Targeted Equity Fund Royal Fidelity Bahamas Opportunities Fund - Prime Income Fund Royal Fidelity Int'l Fund - Equities Sub Fund Royal Fidelity Int'l Fund - High Yield Fund Royal Fidelity Int'l Fund - Alternative Strategies Fund

VOLUME

1,000

VOLUME

NAV 2.05 3.92 1.95 168.44 141.76 1.47 1.64 1.56 1.04 6.96 8.50 6.30 9.80 11.13 9.63

EPS$ 0.029 1.002 -0.144 0.170 -0.130 0.000 -0.030 0.607 0.430 0.450 0.110 0.102 0.080 0.300 0.520 0.960 0.820 0.294 0.610 0.000

DIV$ 0.080 1.000 0.000 0.210 0.000 0.000 0.090 0.300 0.220 0.360 0.490 0.060 0.060 0.240 0.400 0.000 0.330 0.140 0.640 0.000

0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

P/E 151.0 15.8 N/M 20.8 N/M N/M -135.0 14.2 14.0 23.4 104.5 23.2 19.4 20.0 18.8 9.4 12.1 23.5 19.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

YIELD 1.83% 6.31% 0.00% 5.93% 0.00% 0.00% 2.22% 3.49% 3.67% 3.43% 4.26% 2.53% 3.87% 4.00% 4.10% 0.00% 3.32% 2.03% 5.33% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 6.25% 6.25% 6.25% 6.25% 6.25% 6.25% 6.25% 7.00% 6.50%

INTEREST 7.00% 6.00% Prime + 1.75%

MATURITY 19-Oct-2017 31-May-2018 19-Oct-2022

6.95% 4.00% 4.00% 4.25% 4.25% 4.50% 4.50% 6.25% 6.25% 4.00% 4.25% 4.50% 6.25% 3.50% 3.88% 4.25%

20-Nov-2029 15-Dec-2017 30-Jul-2018 16-Dec-2019 30-Jul-2020 15-Dec-2021 30-Jul-2022 15-Dec-2044 30-Jul-2045 26-Jun-2018 26-Jun-2020 26-Jun-2022 26-Jun-2045 15-Oct-2018 15-Oct-2020 15-Oct-2022

YTD% 12 MTH% 0.84% 4.46% 0.01% 3.70% 0.37% 2.61% 3.95% 3.95% 6.77% 6.77% 0.40% 4.04% -1.76% 1.06% -0.34% 2.70% -0.95% 1.55% 4.35% 4.69% 4.13% 4.28% 4.22% 4.64% 6.19% 3.43% 2.77% 2.98% -3.66% -3.90%

NAV Date 28-Feb-2017 28-Feb-2017 24-Feb-2017 31-Dec-2016 31-Dec-2016 31-Jan-2017 31-Jan-2017 31-Jan-2017 31-Jan-2017 30-Nov-2016 30-Nov-2016 30-Nov-2016 30-Nov-2016 30-Nov-2016 30-Nov-2016

MARKET TERMS BISX ALL SHARE INDEX - 19 Dec 02 = 1,000.00 52wk-Hi - Highest closing price in last 52 weeks 52wk-Low - Lowest closing price in last 52 weeks Previous Close - Previous day's weighted price for daily volume Today's Close - Current day's weighted price for daily volume Change - Change in closing price from day to day Daily Vol. - Number of total shares traded today DIV $ - Dividends per share paid in the last 12 months P/E - Closing price divided by the last 12 month earnings

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YIELD - last 12 month dividends divided by closing price Bid $ - Buying price of Colina and Fidelity Ask $ - Selling price of Colina and fidelity Last Price - Last traded over-the-counter price Weekly Vol. - Trading volume of the prior week EPS $ - A company's reported earnings per share for the last 12 mths NAV - Net Asset Value N/M - Not Meaningful

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NOTICE is hereby given that PAULA PIERRELUS of 6th Street in the Grove, Nassau, 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 8th day of May, 2017 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, Bahamas.

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, May 8, 2017, PAGE 9

Trump tries to pressure Senate Republicans on health care The House bill would end the health care law’s fines on people who don’t buy policies and erase its taxes on health industry businesses and higher earners.

It would dilute consumerfriendly insurance coverage requirements, like prohibiting higher premiums for customers with pre-existing medical conditions and watering down the subsidies that help consumers afford health insurance.

Major medical and other groups, including the American Medical Association, opposed the House bill. Democrats are also refusing to participate in any effort to dismantle Obama’s law, while some Republican senators — Rob Portman of Ohio, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Cory Gardner of Colorado and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — object to cutting Medicaid, the federal-state health care program for the poor and disabled.

The ACA expanded Medicaid with extra payments to 31 states to cover

more people. The House bill halts the expansion, in addition to cutting federal spending on the program, which Trump’s health chief argued is flawed and dictates too much from Washington.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price argued that states will get more freedom to experiment with the program and make sure that people who rely on Medicaid get the care and coverage they need.

“There are no cuts to the Medicaid program,” Price insisted Sunday, adding that resources are being doled out to allow states greater flexibility.

Gov. John Kasich of Ohio questioned what would happen to the mentally ill, drug addicts and people with chronic illnesses under the changes proposed for Medicaid.

“They are going to be living in the emergency rooms again,” potentially driving up health care costs, Kasich predicted.

States brace for big decisions under GOP health care changes

have been released showing how much it would cost the states to keep the expansion and pay for it on their own.

In March, a Congressional Budget Office estimate for an earlier version of the bill said it eventually would lead to 24 million Americans losing their health coverage.

The same report found that federal Medicaid subsidies to states, which run the programs, would be $880 billion less over 10 years because of the end of the expansion and other changes that would affect allocations even to states that chose not to expand.

BRANCHBURG, N.J. (AP) — President Donald Trump urged Senate Republicans on Sunday to “not let the American people down,” as the contentious debate over overhauling the U.S. health care systems shifts to Congress’ upper chamber, where a vote is potentially weeks, if not months, away.

Some senators have already voiced displeasure with the health care bill that cleared the House last week, with Republicans providing all the “yes” votes in the 217-213 count.

They cited concerns about potential higher costs for older people and those with pre-existing conditions, along with cuts to Medicaid.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a moderate Republican whose vote will be critical to getting a bill to Trump’s desk and who voiced similar concerns, said the Senate would not take up the House bill.

“The Senate is starting

CHERRY HILL, N.J. (AP) — Even as the Republican health care overhaul remains a work in progress, states are planning for big changes that could swell the ranks of the uninsured and hit them with higher costs.

A key tenet underlying the GOP plan is to give states more authority over how to structure their health care markets.

That approach is welcome in states that want fewer mandates from the federal government but is causing alarm in states that embraced former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. This is especially true for states that expanded their Medicaid programs and could now see a huge pool of federal health care money evaporate. They will face tough decisions about

from scratch. We’re going to draft our bill, and I’m convinced we will take the time to do it right,” she said.

Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s budget director, also said the version that gets to the president will likely differ from the House measure.

Such a scenario would then force the House and Senate to work together to forge a compromise bill that both houses can support.

Collins also complained that the House rushed a vote before the Congressional Budget Office could complete its cost-benefit analysis.

Eager to check off a top campaign promise, Trump sought Sunday to pressure Senate Republicans on the issue.

“Republican senators will not let the American people down!” Trump tweeted from his private golf course in central New Jersey, where he has stayed since late Thursday. “ObamaCare premiums and deductibles are way up — it was a lie and it is dead!”

balancing costs and care.

States’ preparations come even as Republican members of the U.S. Senate promise significant revisions to the health care bill that narrowly passed last week in the House. Some governors already have begun pressing their senators to soften the bill in ways that would lessen the financial blow to the states.

The current GOP plan would undo a mostly federally funded expansion of Medicaid coverage for low-income adults and allow insurance companies to charge far higher premiums on older Americans and some people with pre-existing conditions.

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner of Illinois, a state that expanded coverage under Obama’s law, said he will push senators to change

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, after the House pushed through a health care bill. Cutting nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid will give states the freedom to tailor the program to suit their needs, Price said Sunday, May 7. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) Trump has said the current system is failing as insurers pull out of markets, forcing costs and deductibles to rise.

The White House on Sunday scoffed at Democratic claims that voters will punish the GOP in the 2018 elections for upending

the legislation so the impacts are not as dire for the state.

“Recent changes did not address fundamental concerns about the bill’s impact on the 650,000 individuals that are part of our Medicaid expansion population,” he said, “nor have those changes eased the concerns of the 350,000 people in the individual market who are dealing with skyrocketing premiums and fewer choices.”

Undoing Obama’s law has been a goal for Republican lawmakers since it was adopted in 2011 and was a top campaign promise of President Donald Trump.

As soon as Trump was elected, state officials were on notice that changes were likely.

Even if it gets major revisions in the Senate, the

former President Barack Obama’s law. “I think that the Republican Party will be rewarded,” said Reince Priebus, Trump’s chief of staff. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California has threatened that GOP lawmakers will “glow in the dark” over their vote.

House bill is serving as a baseline for a task force in New Jersey organized by Joseph Vitale, chairman of the state Senate’s health committee. It starts meeting this month to consider how the state might respond.

“It’s unlikely to get worse from here from where they landed yesterday,” Vitale said Friday, a day after the House vote.

Officials in Connecticut have set up a similar task force, and New York lawmakers say they are pre-

pared to hold a special session later this year to deal with any fallout from the health care changes.

New Jersey, along with 30 other states and the District of Columbia, accepted a core deal from Obama’s health overhaul to expand Medicaid; 550,000 people have gained coverage through it in New Jersey alone. Nationwide, the Medicaid expansion provided coverage to about 11 million people who were newly eligible.

No government estimates

THE TRIBUNE

Monday, May 8, 2017, PAGE 13

President Donald Trump, flanked by then-Commerce Secretary-designate Wilbur Ross, left, and Harley Davidson President and CEO Matt Levatich, talks to media before a lunch meeting with Harley Davidson executives and union representatives in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington.

(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

Welcome at the White House: Some labor unions over others WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says labor unions have an open door to his White House, but so far, he’s holding the door a little more ajar for some organizations than others.

Trump has put out the welcome mat for the nation’s construction trades, with whom he’s had relationships during decades of building office towers and hotels. Also invited in have been auto, steel and coal workers who backed him during the 2016 election.

But there’s been no White House invitation for other unions representing the sprawling but shrinking pool of 14.6 million workers who collectively bargain with employers in the labor movement.

“You can tell Congress that America’s building trades and its president are very much united,” Trump told North America’s

lition and get the Blue Dog Democrats back.”

The White House says the president is “open to meeting with various individuals and groups on how to improve the lives of all Americans.”

But even among unions with most-favored status, there’s some skepticism about whether he’s for workers or just the executives who hire them.

Trump got some boos and hisses during his address to the building trades union. And Chuck Jones, president of United Steelworkers Local 1999, with whom Trump feuded, raises an eyebrow at the talk coming from the White House.

“I don’t think from our perspective, he’s a friend of the working class person,” Jones said, noting that Trump’s tax plan would benefit the president himself, and that Trump campaigned on “getting rid” of

“Trump is clearly working to be the blue collar president” Building Trade Unions, even as he pledged in the same speech, “America’s labor leaders will always find an open door with Donald Trump.”

But he has not courted all union leaders or advocated for all labor priorities.

For example, he’s against a $15-an-hour minimum wage and has let linger a rule expanding overtime pay. Much like President Ronald Reagan did, Trump is not so much pursuing a labor agenda but one that appeals to those who share his “Buy American, Hire American” priorities and happen to be union members.

“Trump is clearly working to be the blue collar president,” said F. Vincent Vernuccio, director of labor policy at the center-right nonprofit Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Michigan. “He’s trying to bring back the Reagan labor coa-

a long-standing free trade deal with Canada and Mexico. “Trump always had some kind of relationship with the building trades.

But for regular manufacturing? This is not a good time for working people.”

The 2016 election suggests labor is fertile political ground for Trump. Exit polls showed he pulled within 8 percentage points of Democrat Hillary Clinton among union members — a bigger margin than any GOP nominee since Reagan in 1984.

During his first 100 days, Trump has tried to appeal to those frustrated by seeing U.S. jobs go overseas.

For example, he scrapped U.S. plans to participate in an Asia-Pacific trade pact and belittled the North American Free Trade Agreement, although he backed away from a campaign pledge to withdraw from it.

PUBLIC NOTICE

INTENT TO CHANGE NAME BY DEED POLL The Public is hereby advised that I, WENSILLE MILLS of #4 Egret Circle, P.O. Box F-42595, Grand Bahama, Freeport, Bahamas, intend to change name to WENSILEE MILLS. If there are any objections to this change of name by Deed Poll, you may write such objections to the Deputy Chief Passport Officer, P.O.Box F-43536, Grand Bahama, no later than thirty (30) days after the date of publication of this notice.

PUBLIC NOTICE

INTENT TO CHANGE NAME BY DEED POLL The public is hereby advised that I, RANDY RANDOLPH ROLLE of Dignity Gardens, Nassau, Bahamas intend to change my name to RANDY RANDOLPH KELLY. If there are any objections to the change of name by deed poll, you may write such objections to the Chief Passport Officer, P.O. Box N-742, Nassau, Bahamas no later than thirty (30) days after the date of the publication of this notice.

NOTICE

NOTICE is hereby given that LEWINGSTON LUBIN DORVILUS of Mt. Tabor Drive, Pinewood Gardens, New Providence, 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 1st day of May, 2017 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, Bahamas.