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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2020
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Compliance ‘onslaught’ on substance demands By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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CCOUNTANTS are urging the government to extend today’s deadline for corporate Bahamas to meet substance reporting requirements amid “a last-minute onslaught” from stunned firms racing to comply. Craig A “Tony” Gomez, the Baker Tilly Gomez accountant and partner, yesterday told Tribune Business that many companies in both the domestic and international segments of the Bahamian economy appeared to have been “caught off-guard” by the
• Corporate Bahamas ‘caught off guard’ by new filing • System challenges to meet today’s ‘EU law’ deadline • Firms brand exercise ‘utter pain’ and ‘more red tape’
need to file the “annual declaration” demanded by the Commercial Entities (Substance Reporting) Act 2018. This law, part of legislation passed to meet the European Union’s (EU) demands that Bahamasbased companies have a physical presence and conduct real business, for the first time requires all incorporated entities and legal partnerships to complete a so-called “substance PHILIP GALANTIS
CRAIG “TONY” GOMEZ
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Lucayan lacks ‘three legs’ needed to open By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
THE Grand Lucayan’s February 1 re-opening threatens to inflict more losses on Bahamian taxpayers because it lacks the “three legs” required to sustain its revival, a hotelier is warning. Magnus Alnebeck, the nearby Pelican Bay resort’s general manager, told Tribune Business that the government and its Grand Lucayan Board have yet to reveal whether a hotel operator has been hired to manage the property or if marketing and airlift initiatives have been readied. While acknowledging that it was better for Freeport’s “anchor resort” to be open than closed, he voiced fears its Lighthouse Point property will “just
• Hotelier fears more taxpayer losses on February 1 • Says operator, airlift and marketing plan all missing • Island ‘invisible from marketplace’ for four years stand there because no one is coming” and cause “a big expense” for taxpayers unless these three elements are in place before February 2021. “By itself it’s not going to bring any guests,” Mr Alnebeck said of the planned re-opening. “Grand Bahama has really been closed to the tourist market for almost four years since Hurricane Matthew. It’s a bit better that the hotel is open than closed, but opening by itself is not going to solve the problem. Having an open hotel with no guests is not the solution. “It needs to open with
Activists: ‘Unarguable’ BPC needed new EA
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
OIL exploration opponents yesterday alleged previous statements by Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) show it is “unarguable” that new environmental permits were needed for the change in drill ship. Jacqueline BanonaAdderley, an attorney with Callenders & Co, which is representing environmental activists in their Judicial Review bid to halt BPC’s exploratory drilling, argued that an update issued by the company in November
2019 had highlighted the need to incorporate details of the vessel undertaking the work into the Environmental Authorisation (EA) application. This, she alleged, contradicted both the government and BPC’s assertion that the later switch to the Stena IceMAX vessel did not require a new EA to be approved and associated public consultation to be held. These arguments are a central element to the action initiated by Waterkeepers Bahamas and the Coalition
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Freeport ‘strangled’ over Baleària wait
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
A PROMINENT Freeport attorney yesterday warned the government that it is “strangling” the city’s prospects for economic revival by the protracted delay in approving Baleària Caribbean’s return. Carey Leonard, the Callenders & Co attorney, said the company’s ferry service from Fort Lauderdale was “desperately needed” both as a commercial lifeline and
CAREY LEONARD tourist access given that the government has yet to resolve Grand Bahama International Airport’s fate. “I don’t get it,” he told Tribune Business of
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the right operator and right product so there’s demand for it, there needs to be a marketing programme in place and, what is really important, is that full airlift is in place. It’s good that they’re going to open, but they need to open it right as opposed to saying let’s open it and see, especially if people are going to a destination that’s been closed down for four years more or less. “It’s really three legs that are needed to open the hotel. The first is having an attractive product consumers like, and second, they need to market so people understand it’s open. Then
you need to have the airlift and boat lift so people can get to Grand Bahama otherwise it’s just going to end up costing you money.” Mr Alnebeck said that if an operator, marketing initiative and air/sea lift for the Grand Lucayan were in place “they haven’t been announced yet”. He added: “What would have made sense to me would be to get an operator like Sunwing or someone who knows what they’re doing, come in with airlift and a marketing plan, and get the numbers to work. “Otherwise the danger is
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Canadian bank dividend bar to end March 2021 By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
THE Central Bank has unveiled plans to lift the suspension on dividend repatriations by the Canadian-owned commercial banks in March 2021 due to “lessening uncertainty” surrounding COVID-19. John Rolle, pictured, the regulator’s governor, told Tribune Business there was now “more clarity” as to when The Bahamas’ allimportant foreign currency inflows will start to improve due to the emergence of vaccines for the pandemiccausing virus. Implying that this had given the Central Bank confidence to lift the dividend repatriation suspension that was imposed in March/ April 2020 to help protect the external reserves that support The Bahamas one:one US dollar peg, Mr Rolle nevertheless conceded that foreign currency inflows “will continue to be strained in 2021” as tourism slowly rebounds. However, with dividend payments by the likes of Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank (Bahamas) and Scotiabank (Bahamas) likely to be spread out via a phased approach, Mr Rolle said there would be no sudden depletion of the external reserves. He added that the impact of the suspension’s end will more likely be felt towards the end of 2021, “and with greater force” in 2022. The policy change was revealed in the yearend letter sent to the regulator’s licensees by Charles Littrell, the Central Bank’s inspector of bank and trust companies, who told the industry: “In March 2021, the Central Bank will resume exchange control consideration of applications for dividend repatriation by
commercial banks. “This will lift the suspension that was imposed at the onset of the pandemicrelated slowdown in foreign exchange inflows, in March and April 2020. For dividends approved prior to March 2020, commercial banks will be required to update their repatriation schedules and obtain amended exchange control approvals. “Otherwise, the prudential assessments mentioned above will continue to affect dividend approvals. This policy shift, nevertheless, anticipates continued multi-year schedules for dividend remittances and lessening uncertainty about when private sector foreign exchange inflows are expected to begin to recover.” Tribune Business recently reported that BISX-listed CIBC FirstCaribbean was awaiting Central Bank approval to pay a total of $93.773m in dividends declared by its board, of which some $89.281m is due to be upstreamed to its Barbados-based regional parent. These payments to shareholders have all been held up by the Central Bank’s repatriation suspension. Thus the policy shift is a New Year’s gift for the regional and global parents of the Canadian-owned banks. Explaining the rationale for the March
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