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Dorian flooded autos ‘a disaster in waiting’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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AHAMAS First’s top executive has warned consumers to be alert for the recycling of Dorianflooded vehicles back into the market as they represent “a future disaster waiting to happen”. Patrick Ward, the insurer’s president and chief executive, told Tribune Business it was “only a matter of time” before such cars and trucks started exhibiting electrical problems that could spark fires and became “a public safety issue”. Noting that “more sophisticated” markets such as the US have suffered with unsalvageable, written-off vehicles being dumped on unsuspecting consumers in the aftermath of major hurricanes, Mr Ward said the Bahamian insurance industry has “a role to play” in countering a problem he expects will also
• Bahamas First chief sounds consumer alert • Warns of ‘public safety issue’ for road users • Adjusts claims process so clients not burdened surface post-Dorian. “One thing I think we are going have to make sure we look after properly is to avoid a scenario where vehicles damaged by sea water are recycled back into the pool of vehicles on the road because that’s a future disaster waiting to happen,” Mr Ward told this newspaper. “It’s only a matter of time before they start having electrical problems and, potentially, fires. It can manifest itself in a variety of ways where it becomes a safety issue for people in these vehicles and on the street. “It’s not in the public interest for a vehicle deemed to be unsalvageable, or extensively damaged, to find its way back on to the roads. More than anything else, it’s a public safety issue.” Mr Ward’s remarks
‘Managing Dorian’ fall-out critical to avoid downgrade By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas’ ability to attract high-quality investment and manage restoration costs following Dorian will be critical to avoiding a sovereign credit rating downgrade, a cabinet minister says. K Peter Turnquest, deputy prime minister and minister of finance, conceded that the government was “obviously concerned” about such an outcome but said both Standard & Poor’s (S&P) and Moody’s, the two credit rating agencies, had so far shown “understanding” about The Bahamas’ plight.
K PETER TURNQUEST Emphasising that The Bahamas can only focus “on the things we can control”, Mr Turnquest said The Bahamas might even enjoy “a boost to GDP” and economic growth as a result of all the reinsurance inflows,
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Oil explorer in four additional finance offers By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
A BAHAMAS-based oil explorer has revealed that some of the four additional financing offers it has received would cover the $20m-$25m costs of its first exploratory well by themselves. Simon Potter, Bahamas Petroleum Company’s (BPC) chief executive, told shareholders in unveiling the company’s half-year results that he hoped “over the near term” to update them on “further progress”
with its financing plans. With the exploration outfit’s recent annual general meeting (AGM) providing approvals that effectively unlocked access to 50 percent of the required exploratory well financing, Mr Potter’s latest note suggests BPC now has multiple options for achieving its first goal regardless of whether it secures a joint venture partner. “The company has also received four other funding proposals (some of which individually, but certainly
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emphasise the need for Bahamian second-hand auto buyers to carefully check that their vehicles have not come from either Abaco or Grand Bahama, where many automobiles were either submerged or received extensive flood damage from Dorian’s 18 to 23 foot storm surge and salt water. The danger, too, is very real. Several Tribune Business contacts have bought vehicles for knock-down prices in what seemed like a “sweet deal” only for their acquisitions to start giving a series of mechanical and electrical problems several months later. One received a report from his mechanic stating: “Sir, it is our considered opinion that this car has been under water.” “This happens in some developed countries where they have more
sophisticated regulations and policies, and more checks and balances, so it would not surprise me if these vehicles start to circulate back into the pool of vehicles in the street,” Mr Ward told Tribune Business. “There’s a role for insurers to play to make sure vehicles in the non-salvageable pool don’t get back to the streets... It’s a fairly serious issue. The car may look like a good car but it’s only a matter of time before it starts giving fairly serious problems, and a lot of times these vehicles give electrical problems that result in a fire.” With thousands of vehicles on Grand Bahama and Abaco likely to be deemed write-offs post-Dorian, Mr Ward indicated that Bahamian property and casualty
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Renewable energy: URCA’s revisions ‘worst imaginable’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net RENEWABLE energy providers yesterday blasted proposed new regulatory guidelines as “the worst imaginable” solution that threatens to “set The Bahamas backwards as a nation”. The Sustainable Energy Association of the Bahamas (SEAB), in particular, warned that the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority’s (URCA) proposed guidelines (see other article on Page 3B) for approving renewable energy self-generation projects threatened to shrink the market at a time when it should be doing everything to encourage its expansion. And Guilden Gilbert, vice-president of Alternative Power Solutions (APS) Bahamas, told Tribune Business that URCA’s proposals appeared to be designed primarily to protect Bahamas Power & Light (BPL), and its revenue and customer base, rather than incentivising greater use of
renewable energy. Producing a “back of the envelope” calculation showing that grid-tied homeowners and businesses would be worse off under the new guidelines, Mr Gilbert argued that URCA appeared to have performed a 180-degree turn and abandoned its primary mandate of consumer protection in favour of the state-owned utility monopoly’s interest. Central to URCA’s proposal is a change in how both homeowners and businesses will be compensated for the energy their grid-tied systems will sell to BPL. The present Small Scale Renewable Generation (SSRG) initiative, launched in 2017, rewards such renewable producers through a “net billing” arrangement. This enables persons with grid-tied systems to “net off” the difference between what they supply to, and consume from, BPL. However, the URCA proposal released on Friday proposes
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