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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2018
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EU tax legislation to House by 19th
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Government believes it has “agreed the main part” of legislation to address Europe’s tax demands with the private sector, and plans to bring the bill to Parliament on September 19. KP Turnquest, pictured, deputy prime minister, told Tribune Business in a recent interview that the Minnis administration aims “to lay” the Commercial Entities (Substance Requirements) Bill 2018 in the House of Assembly when it resumes following its summer break. He said the Government was in the last stages of consultation with the financial services industry, and seeking to handle the sector’s final questions, as it strives to meet the tight timeline for passing and implementing the legislation. Asserting that a recent briefing with the industry “went well”, Mr Turnquest added that the Minnis administration was aiming to balance the need to escape the EU’s threatened “blacklist” with the need to maintain a growth platform for financial services. “There have been some subsequent questions that have arisen and we’ll
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AML Foods in deal over one Carl’s Jr site By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net AML Foods has agreed to sell the equipment, and assign the lease, for its former Carl’s Jr site on Carmichael Road as it winds down a unit that generated a near-$1.5m loss in its final year. The BISX-listed food retail and franchise group, in its annual report for the year to end-April 2018, said it was in talks to sell equipment at one of the other three Carl’s Jr locations after it closed the hamburger chain following a five-fold increase in losses year-over-year. “At April 30, 2018, the company was in discussions with a third party to purchase equipment at two of the three locations, and had written down property, plant, and equipment by $613,000 from $1.263m to the expected sale amount of $650,000,” the footnotes to AML Foods’ annual report confirmed. “On July 26, 2018, the company entered into an agreement for the sale of equipment and assignment of lease of its Carl’s Jr Carmichael Road location.” AML Foods’ annual report revealed that Carl’s Jr’s net operating loss increased from $285,000 in the 12 months to end-April
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Govt reins in $43m stadium ‘disaster’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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HE Andre Rodgers Baseball Stadium is a waste of taxpayer money that will “never pay for itself”, a Cabinet minister admitted yesterday, amid steps taken to prevent a near-tripling of costs. Desmond Bannister, pictured, minister of works, told Tribune Business that the Government was aiming to cap construction costs at “about $30m” rather than the $43.014m full scope of
THE Bahamas has just “two to three years” to upgrade Nassau’s cruise port before passenger volumes start falling by five to ten percent annually, a major global operator warned yesterday. A spokesman for Global Port Holdings, which partnered with two Bahamian entities to submit an unsolicited bid to take over Prince George Wharf’s management, told Tribune Business that “bad” customer experiences and satisfaction threatened to undermine this nation’s earnings from the cruise ship industry. Noting the frequent complaints about Nassau from the major cruise lines, the Global Port Holdings spokesman pledged that its partnership with BISX-listed Arawak Port Development Company (APD) and CFAL (Colina Financial Advisors) would double cruise passenger spending from the current near-$60 per head within four to five years if given the go-ahead. Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, earlier this week said the Government planned to obtain bids for the cruise port’s management from allcomers by opening up the process via public Request for Proposal (RFP). Confirming Global Ports Holding’s intention to bid after investing “quite a lot of money” in its efforts to-date, the spokesman told Tribune Business: “We are ready.” They added that the majority Bahamian ownership of their consortium, named Nassau Cruise Port (NCP) Ltd, was structured to deliberately target investment “by the small guy on the street” in the CFAL-created Bahamas Investment Fund (BIF). The spokesman explained that the fund, which will own 49 percent of NCP, has a retail investor-friendly minimum investment threshold of just $1,000. And Global Ports Holding will make available a $10m credit facility, repayable over 24 months with no interest, to help finance the share ownership ambitions of ordinary Bahamians. Emphasising the urgency
* Bahamas has ‘2-3 years’ to act * Consortium targets spend doubling * And ‘small guy’ is target investor
NASSAU CRUISE PORT
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
for Nassau’s cruise port to be upgraded, the spokesman said The Bahamas could ill-afford to delay much-needed infrastructure improvements given the significant upcoming cruise line expansions and growing competitiveness of rival Caribbean destinations. “If nothing is done in two to three years, we wouldn’t be surprised if passenger numbers start to drop by five to ten percent because the customer experience,
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Christie administration’s initial $16.5m “estimated project cost” threatened to increase by 160 percent almost three times’ higher than the original budget. The stadium’s costs have increased progressively since the project was conceived in 2014-2015, rapidly increasing to $18.75m and then just over $21m by the time the Christie administration was voted out of
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Annual cruise drop of 5-10% without Nassau upgrade By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
Board battle hits Sports Authority THE National Sports Authority (NSA) has become the latest government board to be hit with allegations of infighting and “dysfunction”, with the new general manager unable to take office. Multiple Tribune Business sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Quintin Brennan, a 20-year Atlantis veteran, had been selected to fill a post left vacant for seven months after the previous incumbent, Jeffrey Beckles, stepped down in early 2018. However, Mr Brennan, a former senior director of convention services at The Bahamas’ largest private sector employer, has been unable to fully assume his duties because his appointment was never brought to cabinet for its approval. “He can’t take office because they never got approval to hire him,” one source said. “The only way they can employ him is if he acts as a consultant. They were talking to him for three months, and he signed a contract.” Mr Brennan is understood to have been at the NSA since Monday this week, but cannot properly function. His predicament is part of wider board battle that has forced Lanisha Rolle, newly-appointed as minister of youth, sports and culture, to intervene and effectively “freeze” activities at the NSA until it is resolved, Tribune Business understands. Numerous contacts
* Baseball facility will ‘never pay for itself’ * Minister caps Andre Rodgers spend at $30m * Confirms waste of Bahamian people’s funds
A COMPLEX PLAN for the Andre Rodgers Baseball Stadium. works to limit the BahaThis newspaper has mian people’s financial obtained internal Cabinet exposure. documents that reveal the
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