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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2017
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Baha Mar sale meets December 1st deadline By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net BAHA Mar’s sale to Chow Tai Fook Enterprises (CTFE) was completed by the December 1 closing deadline, Tribune Business has been informed. The $4.2 billion project’s purchase from the China Export-Import Bank was confirmed by sources close to the situation, although Baha Mar officials could not be reached for comment. This newspaper understands that a press statement confirming the deal’s closure was supposed to be issued,
but nothing was received before press time last night. Meeting the December 1 deadline was critical, as failure to hit it would have seen the tax breaks and incentives - originally granted by the former Christie administration to the China Export-Import Bank - fall away. The previously-sealed ‘Heads of Terms’ for Baha Mar’s construction completion, disclosed earlier this year, revealed that CTFE’s purchase closing deadline had been extended to December 1, 2017, from November 22,
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Bahamians warned: ‘Brace’ for 15-20% premium rises By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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ahamian businesses and households were yesterday warned to “brace” for insurance premium increases of up to 15-20 per cent as a result of the 2017 hurricane season. Property and casualty insurers warned of potentially “significant” rate increases as reinsurers sought compensation for storm-related losses in the US and Caribbean, and adjusted their pricing to reflect the increased severity and frequency
* Insurers warn of ‘significant increases’ * Have no choice but to pass to consumers * Stems from $95bn storm season losses of hurricanes. They added that they had ‘no choice’ but to pass these increased costs on to Bahamian consumers, but said rising premiums “shouldn’t be a shock to anyone” given the devastation inflicted elsewhere in the region by Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Tom Duff, Insurance Company of the Bahamas (ICB) general manager, told Tribune Business: “The position right now, as far as
we can determine, is that reinsurers that typically provide cover to the Caribbean are most likely going to be looking for increases in their prices for providing catastrophe coverage. “All the conversations we’re having so far is that the reinsurers that provide catastrophe coverage to the region, they are looking for significant increases in their charges. I wouldn’t like to put particular figures
on it as it’s still early in the negotiation process, but the reality is that as the cost of catastrophe cover is typically increased, we have to pass it on to the customers as that’s a major expense that has to be covered. “I think that in general terms consumers need to brace and prepare themselves for rates to rise. Our costs are going up, and we
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Grand Lucayan buyer must ‘put us back on map’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net SELLING the Grand Lucayan to a “destination builder” is the only way to place Freeport “back on the tourism map”, a prominent hotelier warned yesterday, after the Government paused its own acquisition bid. Magnus Alnebeck, Pelican Bay’s managing director, told Tribune Business that “whoever” acquired Freeport’s ‘anchor resort’ property needed to “bring the airlift with them” otherwise it would likely add one-two years to the city’s tourism recovery. Mr Alnebeck’s comments are significant given that multiple sources yesterday informed this newspaper that the Toronto-based
* HOTEL NEEDS ‘DESTINATION BUILDER’ WITH AIRLIFT * WYNN ‘BACK IN GAME’; IN DEAL NEGOTIATIONS * GOV’T PAUSES OWN DEAL TO ‘MAKE SPACE’ Wynn Group was “back in the game”, and negotiating with Cheung Kong (CK) Property Holdings over a new, revised offer to purchase the Grand Lucayan. Several contacts said that as a result the Minnis administration has placed its own takeover offer on hold, in the hope that Wynn or another private investor will successfully conclude a deal with Hutchison Whampoa’s real estate arm, thus limiting the taxpayer’s potential financial exposure. The Government’s seemingly revised strategy was yesterday challenged by several observers,
with some suggesting that Freeport’s economic deterioration means “time has run out” to re-open the Grand Lucayan, while others questioned whether Wynn is the ‘best fit’ for the property. Mr Alnebeck’s comments feed the latter concern, with the Pelican Bay chief suggesting that “the very best we can hope for” is a ‘soft opening’ of the Grand Lucayan in fall 2018. Arguing that the peak winter 2017-2018 season was lost, he said: “It’s pretty grim at the moment to be honest with you. “This winter season is gone. That is gone. The
A VIEW of the Grand Lucayan resort in Freeport, Grand Bahama. very best we can hope for is a soft opening next autumn. It’s going to be interesting to see how we rebuild.” Given the tourism industry’s steep decline since the
Grand Lucayan’s post-Hurricane Matthew closure in October 2016, Mr Alnebeck said the purchaser of Freeport’s ‘anchor property’ had to be an entity with a
“proven record” of building destinations from scratch. “It’s easier to rebuild something that’s a little bit
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GOV’T TARGETING ‘FISCAL RULE’ GOV’T EYES ‘CONTINGENCY LEGISLATION BY MARCH 2018 BONDS’ FOR STORM FUNDING By NATARIO MCKENZIE Tribune Business Reporter nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net
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THE Government will introduce legislation for ‘fiscal rules’ in February/March 2018 to prevent “runaway spending”, the Deputy Prime Minister said yesterday. K P Turnquest said the Minnis administration was committed to introducing the legislation in time for the 2018-2019 Budget cycle. Speaking at a fiscal policy workshop hosted by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Government, he said: “We have already had the IMF, through its CARTAC Caribbean help desk, come and do an assessment for us to look at some of the restraints that we have. “Working with all of these
multilateral agencies, we hope to come up with a set of rules that will be progressive but gives us the flexibility to do what we need to do locally to ensure that our growth agenda is not derailed.” Mr Turnquest added: “The Bahamas has gone through a very steep increase in our debt over the last couple of years, and our fiscal deficit continues to be at a level that is unsustainable. Even with the introduction of VAT we continue to run a fiscal deficit that is unsustainable. “We have committed to introducing a fiscal rule before the next Budget cycle to help us in not only locking in savings and programmes we have initiated, but to help us to control expenditure and the growth of our expenditure over the
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By NATARIO MCKENZIE Tribune Business Reporter nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net THE government is exploring “contingency bonds” as a means of providing emergency funding for major hurricane-related catastrophes, the Deputy Prime Minister said yesterday. K Peter Turnquest, speaking at a fiscal policy workshop hosted by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Government, said the Government had renewed the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) policy and was also exploring other mechanisms to help finance post-hurricane restoration efforts. “We re-enlisted with the Caribbean Catastrophic
Insurance fund last year, which provides us with a bit of a back stop,” he said. “We are talking with our partners in the Caribbean, as well as in the Pacific, about contingency bonds; about blue bonds, green bonds, as a way of providing some contingency funding in the event we have a major catastrophic event.” Mr Turnquest stressed that the Government is committed to the restoration of Ragged Island, and transforming it into the first totally ‘green island’ in the Caribbean. “The Government of the Bahamas is committed to the citizens and residents of the Bahamas, and ensuring that they have equal access to the best infrastructure available,” Mr Turnquest
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