business@tribunemedia.net
MONDAY, JULY 5, 2021
$5.00
$5.09
$50m record inflow ‘excellent problem’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
A
N investment banking chief yesterday said record capital inflows of more than $50m received by his institution during 2021’s first four months have created “an excellent problem” it must now solve. Michael Anderson, RF Bank & Trust’s president, told Tribune Business that low deposit rates are “finally forcing” both institutions and retail investors to move money out of the highly-liquid commercial banking system in search of greater returns elsewhere. They are immediately being confronted, though, by a lack of alternative investment opportunities capable of generating the profits they desire. And Mr Anderson explained that this, too, is creating a problem for RF Bank & Trust as the lack of securities
• Low bank rates ‘finally force’ investor action • But lack of new investments needing funds • RF projects $100m asset growth for 2021
MICHAEL ANDERSON issues is causing an aboveaverage build-up of cash in its mutual funds that is depressing their returns. Revealing that the former RoyalFidelity Merchant Bank & Trust is forecasting it will grow assets under management this year by more than ten percent, or around $100m, the RF Bank & Trust chief said
Kanoo eyes Caribbean expansion in six months By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamian digital payments provider at the centre of the health travel visa controversy says it expects to gain permission to launch in two other Caribbean territories within the next six months. Nicholas Rees, Kanoo’s chairman, told Tribune Business that the company presently has two licensing applications underway in other nations, which he declined to name, as part of its drive to “take The Bahamas to the world through technology”.
NICHOLAS Rees, centre, with co-founders of Kanoo. “We’re getting calls daily from major financial institutions about using our technology, investing in our technology and how we can partner in other jurisdictions,” he disclosed. “We have licensing applications ongoing in two other
SEE PAGE 5
Doctors in $7.747m COVID testing boost By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
DOCTORS Hospital enjoyed a $7.747m revenue boost as a result of administering more than 100,000 COVID-19 tests during the ten months to end-January 2021, it has been revealed. The BISX-listed healthcare provider, which has just been awarded a $5m loan from an Inter-American Development Bank (IUDBH) affiliate (see article on Page 2B), revealed to
shareholders in its annual report for the year to endJanuary 2021 that the income from COVID testing was the key factor in delivering an 18.6 percent year-over-year increase in total revenues to $76.398m. The top-line surge also helped Doctors Hospital overcome what it had originally anticipated would be a sharp drop in profitability, after April 2020 resulted in a 44.2 percent year-overyear revenue drop and net
SEE PAGE 4
much of the capital inflow for 2021 to-date has been directed at its $300m Prime Income fund. This fund, which focuses on investments in fixed income securities such as government bonds, corporate bonds and preference shares, attracted between $25m-$28m in new investor monies during the four months to end-April, taking the Prime Income’s total cash holdings to just shy of $60m. Mr Anderson said this represents around 20 percent of the fund’s assets, more than double the traditional five to ten percent range, and RF Bank & Trust is eager to put much of this to use in what he hopes will be a “pent-up demand” for capital that matches the tourism equivalent.
Investments such as the $85m local component of Bahamas Power & Light’s (BPL) rate reduction bond (RRB), and Nassau Cruise Port’s bid to raise around $100m in bond financing, are projected to create a busy 2021 second half for the capital markets that Mr Anderson believes could fuel the growth injection that The Bahamas requires post-COVID. “It’s been one of the drags on our investment funds. We’re bringing in money in anticipation of transactions, and those transactions have been delayed, so we’re building up cash,” the RF Bank & Trust chief told Tribune Business. “It’s reduced our returns. We were running at more
SEE PAGE 4
$5.07
$5.01
Labour unrest ‘not as serious’ as it appears By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE government’s top labour official yesterday reassured that workplace unrest “ain’t as serious as it appears”, and added: “The is the culture of trade unions in The Bahamas.” John Pinder, director of labour, speaking out after union executives argued that industrial relations in The Bahamas are at an alltime low, asserted that it was not unusual for public sector unions in particular “to act up to get matters addressed” when a general election looms large. Noting that unions seek to “burn up the fire” in a bid to pressure the sitting government, using their members’ votes as leverage, Mr Pinder nevertheless chastised management at some government agencies - especially Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) for moving too slowly on his department’s recommendations for solving union grievances. Emphasising that he was speaking for himself, and not the government, Mr Pinder, who is thought likely to be selected as the FNM’s Fox Hill candidate in the upcoming general election,
JOHN PINDER told Tribune Business: “I know this is an election climate, and the season is near for an election, so the unions that have outstanding matters with then government, they certainly burn up the fire. “Any union with outstanding matters with the government, they burn up the fire and turn up the fire. This is nothing new. This is the culture of trade unions in The Bahamas. But this does not negate the fact there are some issues that ought to have been resolved by management where I had to get involved.” Referring specifically to the recent BPL unrest, which saw marches and demonstrations outside the state-owned energy monopoly’s headquarters,
SEE PAGE 5