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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2021
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Central Bank wants to see ‘prepare for worst plans’ By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net THE Central Bank of The Bahamas has called for recovery plans for all supervised financial institutions (SFIs) to help enable them to fully restore operations after a crisis situation. The bank, in its recently released its “Draft Recovery Planning Guidelines, 2021”, said these guidelines will apply to all banks and trust companies incorporated in The Bahamas as well as co-operative credit unions and branches of foreign banks. In the event that a SFI is a subsidiary of a larger group that SFI should be aware of how the larger group’s recovery plan fits into what the Central Bank has laid out in its guidelines. The bank said: “Local management must understand the SFI’s risk profile and be prepared to engage in discussions with the Central Bank as needed. The Central Bank expects SFIs to have relevant documentation in place to address
these matters, as responsibility for compliance with the requirements of these Guideline remains with the SFI.” “... Effective recovery planning makes a SFI more resilient to financial stress. The recovery plan should include both a SFI’s risk management framework for monitoring, and recovery options for responding to, a range of stress scenarios. These recovery options should help the SFI to restore itself to a stable and sustainable condition. Each aspect of the plan should be underpinned by detailed analysis.” Outside of the standardized report features like an executive summary and organizational structure, the plan must lay out “early warning indicators and triggers” in addition to “recovery options” and their “feasibility” and “impact” and how the recovery plans are to be rolled out over time. The bank also said: “The recovery plan should include a high-level
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Concerns mount over Treasure Cay future By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net OPPOSITION to suitor for the Treasure Cay resort mounts as more residents strike out in opposition to Dr Mirko Kovats, with one being a backup bidder for the resort. Craig Roberts, a hotelier, hopes to buy the Treasure Cay resort. He has lived in Abaco for more than 31 years and developed the successful Banyan Beach Club and Bahama Beach Club Resorts. Mr Roberts told Tribune Business he fears Dr Kovats, who is an Austrian-born billionaire with a home in Lyford Cay, will “land bank” the property and not redevelop Treasure Cay.
“That seems to be Mr Kovat’s trend,” said Mr Roberts. “Our tiny community is really hurting following Hurricane Dorian in 2019. We truly need the hundreds of new Bahamian jobs and millions of D\dollars in new spending an experienced developer would bring to this amazingly beautiful place.” Francine Ojalvo Delarosa a member of the Treasure Cay Property Owners Association (TCPOA), is now saying that her earlier Facebook post directed at Dr Kovats and reported by this newspaper was “taken out of context” and that she in “no way supports” Dr Kovats buying the Treasure Cay Resort. Ms Delarosa said: “I’m going to be careful with
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Revolution here in Fin-Tech market By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas Investments and Securities Business Association’s (BISBA) president says Fin-Tech will “catapult” the financial services industry in 2022. Andrew Rolle, told Tribune Business yesterday the work the Securities Commission of The Bahamas has been doing has been “excellent” alongside the Bahamas Financial Services Board through its various working group. Together, he said, they have done a “great job” in helping to innovate the local financial services product. Mr Rolle said: “I believe that the DARE Act the Digital Asset and
ANDREW ROLLE Registered Exchanges Act - will be the Act that saves the financial services sector because you will see a number of Fin-Tech firms coming in. “We have seen what FTX Digital already, which is the third largest exchange in the world, has done to
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Cost of change from playing ‘VAT politics’ By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net THE “era of Value Added Tax (VAT) politics” is making things difficult, one large food store chain executive said. Debra Symonette, Super Value’s president, told Tribune Business they are trying to formulate a plan to handle the VAT change to 10 percent considering the thousands of items the food store chain has on the shelves. She said: “The accounting system is the easy part. So, when the customers go to the register that will definitely be straight, it’s just the pricing of the individual items on the shelves that would take a bit more time.” Stores will have a 90-day grace period to adjust the prices of goods on the shelf after January 1 when the VAT rate will
CENTRAL BANK OF THE BAHAMAS
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CENTRAL BANK WANTS TO SEE ‘PREPARE FOR WORST PLANS’ FROM PAGE ONE summary that provides an overview of the plan and how it will be implemented. This includes the identification of the SFI’s critical services, stress scenarios and recovery triggers, as well as preparatory measures. “Recovery plans should be supported by documentation, data, and management information. The plan must be clearly defined and capable of being activated by senior management in a timely and effective manner. Data and management
information should identify when triggers are breached or are likely to be breached and should be integrated with other data and internal reporting aspects of the SFI’s risk management framework. “SFIs must indicate the selection criteria for recovery options, how the trigger points were determined and provide an analysis that demonstrates that trigger points would be breached early enough to be effective. It is also important to note that early warning indicators should be linked to triggers.
“Recovery plans should be reviewed on an annual basis and regularly updated to reflect any change to an SFI’s business activities, its financial situation, its legal or organisational structure, or any other matter, which could have a material effect on or necessitate a change to the recovery plan. The recovery plan should be subject to approval by the SFI’s Board of Directors. SFIs must notify the Central Bank within one month of making any material changes to a recovery plan.”
REVOLUTION HERE IN FIN-TECH MARKET FROM PAGE ONE the economy in the hiring Bahamians at the senior level, they are buying property, they are renting and spending and they are one of several Fin-Tech firms that will come to The Bahamas.” When pressed on whether any other firms are about to enter the Bahamian market, Mr Rolle did not disclose as a few of them are “pending approval” but confirmed he is presently engaged with one now and it will be announced in the near future. “There is another Bahamian Fin-Tech group that has gotten into the space and they are moving at full speed,” he said.
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“So, the year ended well. I think we have seen the beginning of how the industry will be staked out with the emergence of Fin-Tech and private investment firms that will really catapult the Bahamian economy especially from the financial services sector in 2022. ” Mr Rolle is guarded, however, on best practice for the industry regarding FinTech like cryptocurrency, but sees it as the successor to fiat currency. He added: “The volatility of cryptocurrency and their value will continue to fluctuate because we haven’t found a mechanism with any degree of certainty to identify the fundamentals of them. The way we will value them has yet to be determined. We cannot use the old way of valuing stocks or bonds the same way you would value a digital asset. “It’s very embryonic and it is still in its formation
stages and only through time we will be able to really evaluate them. You can ignore it to your peril, but if you have $10 to invest, I think you should put $1 into a digital asset.” Arguing that criticism against digital assets are unfounded and time will bear out the value of the industry, he pointed to how back in the 1990s the internet was seen as a “strange device” that would never fully be integrated into the world economy the way it has been. “People laughed at the internet, now everyone is on the internet. You can’t do business unless it is on the internet,” he said. “So, we have revolutionized the way we communicated by emails and by other forms and cellular phones and what not. We have revolutionized the way we travel, so why is it we can’t revolutionize the way we look at money?”
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Friday, December 24, 2021, PAGE 3
COST OF CHANGE FROM PLAYING ‘VAT POLITICS’ FROM PAGE ONE
be reduced from 12 percent to 10 percent. Referring to the process the company had to undergo during the elimination of the penny at the end of 2019, Ms Symonette doesn’t expect the accounting burden to be that problematic with the revision of the VAT percentage. “We’ll just change the percentage in our system and it will update the point of sale system,” she said. Ms Symonette also said when VAT was first
implemented and the company’s owner, Rupert Roberts, had met with the New Zealand consultants on how the programme will be rolled out, the consultants had “warned” against constantly changing the VAT because it would end up being a burden to everyone in the process. “They should always try to be consistent because all of the changes makes things difficult. What Mr Roberts in earlier comments was trying to remind the government was that the more
straightforward it is the better,” she said. “The bunch of exemptions and the continuous changing of the percentage that just makes it more difficult for everybody. So, if they could just come up with one thing and stick to it that’s the best way to go.” She added we are in the “era of VAT politics” now as the 10 percent slapped on breadbasket items that were previously zero rated is going to have a significant effect on how much people choose to spend especially when inflation is added in.
Ms Symonette said: “People will continue to shop, but they won’t be able to buy as much as they used to buy. It’s going to be a lot more difficult for some people to make their budget stretch further. “Despite all of this we are beginning to see things picking up for the Christmas season. So, we’re hoping for a good Christmas. I think a lot of people are going to try to beat the 10 percent VAT increase.” Dwayne Higgs, general manager of WHIM Automotive, who attended a
CONCERNS MOUNT OVER TREASURE CAY FUTURE FROM PAGE ONE my words, Treasure Cay is at a critical point in its future. Actually, my family owns a second home there and we’re actually finished with our plans and ready to rebuild. But there is so much uncertainty with what’s going on at that resort that I am not entirely certain I want to commit to rebuilding and investing in a resort with an uncertain future.” It’s nothing personal towards Dr Kovats, Ms Delarosa said, but it’s on the issue of all of the past controversies swirling around him that has her second-guessing his fit for Treasure Cay.
TREASURE CAY MARINA
recent information session with Ministry of Finance officials, said they “don’t understand how things work,” when it comes to the grace period being given to businesses to adjust their prices on the shelf. He said: “They don’t deal with the everyday person on the street. They seem to be forgotten, and they’re high and mighty now and forgot that they’re not the one who’s going to deal with the person who’s only buying breadbasket items and their grocery bill goes up by 10 percent. That’s
the person. And now we have VAT on medication. So yeah, we’re reducing by two percent over here, but we’re increasing by 10 percent over here.” “Overall for us it’s just reduce it from 12 percent to 10 and we have 90 days to re-price, other than that I don’t see a big impact from it. If people could come in and say they saved two percent on something, I don’t think it’s going to drive any huge sales. I don’t see it being a major impact either way.”
As the Tribune has reported Dr Kovats has been involved in controversial property deals at the old South Ocean property and the Love Beach area and this is just in The Bahamas. He also has developed a reputation for piling up lawsuits from bankrupting businesses to accusations of damaging the reputation of company and harming its stock price by his business practices. Ms Delarosa said: “Actually there is a lot of controversy with him and his potential purchase of the Treasure Cay resort. Basically what was misinterpreted from my quote, and this is the takeaway: what I wrote on Facebook was completely taken out of context. I didn’t say that I supported Dr Kovats purchasing Treasure Cay
resort. I said that I was asking people, before saying that they are in favour or against his purchase, to do their due diligence and understand who he is and where he comes from and what his intentions are. I would have said that about him or about anybody else, but specially about him.” Treasure Cay holds a “very special place” for Ms Delarosa and her family and she does not want it destroyed by someone who doesn’t appear to have a complete vision for the island. “I want nothing more than to see this community bounce back to what it was before or even better, I think this is an opportunity to improve, but I’m not sure if such a controversial individual is the right person to help us improve.”
BIDEN SIGNS BILLS ON FORCED LABOR IN CHINA, ALS RESEARCH By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden signed a bill into law Thursday to block imports from China’s Xinjiang region unless businesses can prove the items were made without forced labor, the latest in a series of intensifying U.S. penalties against the Asian power for alleged abuses. The measure had to overcome some initial hesitation from the White House, as well as corporate opposition, to win final passage last week in the Senate, following earlier House passage. Biden also signed a separate bill Thursday funding research into a cure for Lou Gehrig’s disease. “Today, I signed the bipartisan Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act,” Biden said on Twitter, along with a photo of him as he signed the legislative text at his desk in the Oval Office. “The United States will continue to use every tool at our disposal to ensure supply chains are free from the use of forced labor — including from Xinjiang and other parts of China.” The new law is the latest in a series of attempts by the U.S to get tough with China over its alleged systemic and widespread abuse of ethnic and religious minorities in its western region, especially Xinjiang’s predominantly Muslim Uyghurs. It requires U.S. government agencies to expand their monitoring of the use of forced labor by China’s ethnic minorities. Crucially, it creates a presumption that goods coming from Xinjiang are made with forced labor. Businesses will have to prove that forced labor, including by workers transferred from Xinjiang, was not used in manufacturing the product before it will be allowed into the U.S. The House and Senate each passed the measure with overwhelming support from Democrats and Republicans. It wasn’t until shortly before the Senate voted last week that the White House said Biden supported the measure. The announcement followed months in which the White House declined, despite repeated questioning, to take a public stand on an earlier version of the measure. The United States says China is committing genocide in its treatment of the Uyghurs. That includes widespread reports by rights groups and journalists of forced sterilization and large detention camps where
many Uyghurs allegedly are forced to work in factories. China denies any abuses and says the steps it has taken are necessary to combat terrorism and a separatist movement. The U.S. cites raw cotton, gloves, tomato products, silicon and viscose, fishing gear and components in solar energy as among goods alleged to have been produced using forced labor in Xinjiang, a resourcerich mining region that is important for agricultural production. The region also is home a booming industrial sector. Detainees also are moved outside Xinjiang and put to work in factories, including in the apparel and textiles, electronics, solar energy and automotive sectors, the U.S. says.
Some big corporations lobbied against the measure. Apple, like Nike and other companies with production done in China, said it had found no sign of forced labor from Xinjiang in its manufacturing or supply chain. Uyghur rights advocates and others had also feared private opposition from within the Biden administration as the U.S. sought cooperation from the Chinese on climate change and other issues. In a statement last week, White House press secretary Jen Psaki noted export controls and import restrictions, sanctions, diplomatic initiatives and other measures the administration had already taken targeting forced labor from Xinjiang.
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS COMPANIES ACT, 2000
RR WINE LTD.
In Voluntary Liquidation NOTICE is hereby given that in accordance with Section 138(4) of The International Business Companies Act, 2000, RR WINE LTD. is in dissolution. The date of commencement of the dissolution was the 22nd day of December A.D., 2021. Mr. Michael C. Miller, P.O. Box EE-17971, Nassau, Bahamas is the liquidator of RR Wine Ltd. Michael C. Miller Liquidator
NOTICE NOTICE is hereby given that DAPHNE JULES of Key West Street, Wulff Road, 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 17th day of December, 2021 to the Minister responsible for nationality and Citizenship, P.O. Box N-7147, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.
PRESIDENT Joe Biden signs the “Accelerating Access to Critical Therapies for ALS Act” into law during a ceremony in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021. Photo:Patrick Semansky/AP
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STEADY GAINS LEAVE INDEXES HIGHER IN HOLIDAY-SHORTENED WEEK
By DAMIAN J. TROISE AND ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writers WALL Street added to its recent string of gains Thursday, closing out a holiday-shortened week of trading with a broad stock rally that nudged the S&P 500 to an all-time high. The S&P 500 rose 0.6%, its third straight gain. The benchmark index’s latest milestone marks its 68th record high this year. It’s now up 25.8% for the year with just five trading days left to go in 2021. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6% and the Nasdaq gained 0.8%. The Russell 2000, a measure of small-company stocks, rose 0.9%. Stock indexes bounced back this week after posting weekly losses last week. A surge in coronavirus cases because of the omicron variant has weighed on Wall Street, adding to concerns about rising inflation and its impact on economic growth. Traders may have been encouraged by some preliminary research that suggests omicron, while spreading much faster than the delta COVID-19 variant, may cause less severe illness. “Covid is spreading at an incredible rate, but the fact
that this version just seems to be less lethal is giving people a lot of hope,” said J.J. Kinahan, chief strategist with TD Ameritrade. “That’s giving people real confidence going forward as we head in to 2022.” The S&P 500 rose 29.23 points to 4,725.79. The index rose 2.3% for the week. Its latest all-time high eclipsed the one it set Dec. 10. The Dow gained 196.67 points to 35,950.56, while the Nasdaq rose 131.48 points to 15,653.37. The Russell 2000 picked up 19.67 points to 2,241.58. Bond yields rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.49% from 1.46% late Wednesday. Wall Street is trying to gauge how corporate profits in 2022 may be affected by inflation, global supply chain disruptions and the pandemic. In the near term, the outlook is being clouded by the rapid spread of omicron. Governments in Asia and Europe have tightened travel controls or pushed back plans to relax curbs already in place. Investors got some good news Thursday, as U.S. health regulators authorized Merck’s pill to treat COVID-19. Regulators had previously cleared the way for a treatment from Pfizer.
Traders also weighed a mix of economic data. The Commerce Department reported that U.S. consumer prices rose 5.7% in November versus a year earlier, the fastest pace in 39 years, as a surge in inflation confronts Americans with the holiday shopping season under way. Businesses have been dealing with supply chain problems and higher raw materials costs, and in turn passing those costs off to consumers. The higher prices have raised concern that consumer spending, which accounts for 70% of U.S. economic activity, could soften and hurt economic growth. The latest report shows that spending rose 0.6%, well below the 1.4% surge in October. Meanwhile, the Labor Department reported that the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits was unchanged last week, remaining at a historically low level that reflects the job market’s strong recovery from the coronavirus recession last year. About 80% of stocks within the benchmark S&P 500 gained ground, with technology and industrial companies accounting for a big share of the gains. Real
A GIANT Christmas tree is erected outside the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021, in New York. Stocks are off to a solid start on Wall Street Thursday, Dec. 23, keeping the market on track for solid gains in this holiday-shortened week. Photo:John Minchillo/AP estate and utilities stocks lagged. Cisco systems, which makes routers and other computer hardware, rose 1.2%. Chipmaker Micron Technology rose 4.5%. Retailers and other companies that rely on consumer spending gained ground. Tesla jumped 5.8% for the biggest gain in the S&P 500. Target rose 1.5% and Domino’s Pizza rose 2.1%.
NOTICE JW & SONS HOLDINGS LIMITED N O T I C E IS HEREBY GIVEN as follows: (a) JW & SONS HOLDINGS LIMITED in voluntary dissolution under the provisions of Section 138 (4) of the International Business Companies Act 2000. (b) The dissolution of the said company commenced on the 22nd December, 2021 when the Articles of Dissolution were submitted to and registered by the Registrar General. (c) The Liquidator of the said company is Bukit Merah Limited, The Bahamas Financial Centre, Shirley & Charlotte Streets, P.O. Box N-3023, Nassau, Bahamas Dated this 24th day of December, A. D. 2021. _________________________________ Bukit Merah Limited Liquidator
LEGAL NOTICE
NOTICE
SHINING INVESTMENTS INC. In Voluntary Liquidation
Notice is hereby given that in accordance with Section 138(4) of the International Business Companies Act. 2000, SHINING INVESTMENTS INC. is in dissolution as of December 22, 2021. International Liquidator Services Limited situated at 3rd Floor Withfield Tower, 4792 Coney Drive, Belize City, Belize is the Liquidator. LIQUIDATOR ______________________
LEGAL NOTICE
NOTICE
TONALEA ENTERPRISES INC. In Voluntary Liquidation
Notice is hereby given that in accordance with Section 138(4) of the International Business Companies Act. 2000, TONALEA ENTERPRISES INC. is in dissolution as of December 22, 2021. International Liquidator Services Limited situated at 3rd Floor Withfield Tower, 4792 Coney Drive, Belize City, Belize is the Liquidator. LIQUIDATOR ______________________
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COMPANY SEEKS TO RESTORE OIL LEASE ON LAND SACRED TO TRIBES By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Attorneys for a Louisiana oil and gas company have asked a federal judge to reinstate a drilling lease it held on land considered sacred to Native American tribes in the U.S. and Canada. The long-disputed energy lease in the Badger-Two Medicine area of northwestern Montana near the Blackfeet Reservation was cancelled in 2016 under
then-U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. That decision was upheld by a federal appeals court last year. Now Solenex LLC — the company that held the lease — is making another run at getting a court to restore its drilling rights. In court documents filed Thursday in a lawsuit against the Interior Department, its attorneys argued that Jewell exceeded her authority and the lease should be reinstated. Solenex founder Sidney Longwell, who died last year, bought the 10-square-mile
(25-square kilometer) lease in 1982 but never drilled on the site. Instead, Longwell confronted major bureaucratic delays within the U.S. departments of Interior and Agriculture that prompted the company to sue in 2013. The Badger-Two-Medicine area near Glacier National Park is the site of the creation story of the Blackfoot tribes of southern Canada and Montana's Blackfeet Nation. There have been efforts to declare it a national monument or make it a cultural heritage
Friday, December 24, 2021, PAGE 5 area, and tribal leaders have bitterly opposed Solenex's drilling aspirations. The Blackfeet have intervened in the case on the side of the government. Blackfeet Nation historic preservation officer John Murray said tribal officials were confident in the case against drilling. "We knew they still wanted to try to do drilling," Murray said. "We've got some good attorneys. I think we're going to prevail." Solenex attorneys said the government unlawfully "outsourced" its decisions by deferring to the tribe's wishes to block drilling. They said officials should have considered ways drilling impacts could be lessened or offset if it were to proceed.
THE SUN sets over the Badger-Two Medicine area Friday, March 25, 2016 near Browning, Mont. U.S. Attorneys for an oil and gas company are asking a federal judge to reinstate a drilling lease in the area that is considered sacred to Native American tribes in the U.S. and Canada. Photo:Greg Lindstrom/AP