May 1 business

Page 1

business@tribunemedia.net

THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 2018

$4.45

$4.59

Pensioners left with 30% in City Markets HQ sale By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

C

ity Markets pensioners have been “kept in the dark” over the $3 million sale of the plan’s main asset, with just 30 per cent of the proceeds seemingly left for their benefit. Court documents obtained by Tribune Business reveal that the long-running saga over the defunct supermarket chain’s employee pension plan is again heating up, this time over the sale of its former East-West Highway head office to BISX-listed AML Foods. Whanslaw Turnquest, the defunct supermarket chain’s former chief inventory control officer, who heads a ‘committee’ representing many City Markets former employees, is alleging that the pension plan’s trustees “did not act in the best interest of beneficiaries” over the deal.

* Claim trustees ‘not acting in our best interest’ * Trustees retain 27% of $3m sale to AML Foods * And lawyer paid almost one-third of proceeds The former City Markets’ head office, which is currently in a state of ruin and disrepair, was the employee pension fund’s main asset, and its sale was critical to maximising recovery for the hundreds of beneficiaries who have been waiting some six years to recover their long-term investments and life savings. Mr Turnquest, in a series of affidavits filed with the Supreme Court on February 2 and February 28, 2018, alleged that his group of beneficiaries and their legal advisers only become aware of the potential sale when one of the pension trustees, Dennis Williams, was cross-examined “under oath” in June 2017. This was nine months after Mr

SEE PAGE 6

INSURERS ‘NOT OBLIVIOUS’ TO BAHAMAS SANCTIONS THREAT By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE insurance industry “is not oblivious” to the need for the Bahamas to comply with global antifinancial crime standards and avoid sanctions, its chairman said yesterday. Emmanuel Komolafe, the Bahamas Insurance Association’s (BIA) head, told Tribune Business it “doesn’t take lightly the importance of the Bahamas meeting its international obligations”, but felt recent legal changes impacting the sector amounted to “overreach”.

He pointed out that the insurance industry would be impacted as badly as other financial sectors if the Bahamas was ‘grey-listed’ or subjected to financial sanctions, should its regulatory regime not meet anti-money laundering and counter-terror financing standards. Countering suggestions that insurers were too narrowly focused on their own interests over impending changes to the Financial Transactions Reporting Act, and not alive to those of the Bahamas generally, Mr Komolafe urged the

SEE PAGE 7

EMPLOYERS IDENTIFY DOZENS OF NEW HIRES By NATARIO MCKENZIE Tribune Business Reporter nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net THE Director of Labour yesterday hailed the success of his department’s latest job fair, with major New Providence employers having identified dozens of potential hires. Robert Farquharson told Tribune Business that roughly 1,100 persons attended the job fair at Golden Gates Park, and said: “The southwestern job fair was extremely successful. We were very pleased with the results. We saw almost 1,100 persons attend

the fair. We would have registered over 200 new applicants.” Mr Farquharson added: “Atlantis would have prescreened 332 persons, interviewed at least 150 on-site and already identified 77 of those persons for second interviews, with the view of hiring them in the food and beverage and house keeping departments. “Fidelity Bank also interviewed a number of persons, and identified 14 vacancies they hope to fill from those interviews. IMAX interviewed over 200 applicants. They are

SEE PAGE 3

TITLE QUESTIONS RAISED OVER $3M AML DEAL By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net CITY Markets pension fund trustees have no legal standing to sell the defunct supermarket chain’s former head office to AML Foods for $3 million, it was alleged yesterday. Whanslaw Turnquest, the company’s former chief inventory control officer, claimed in a February 28, 2018, affidavit that the former guardians for the employee pension plan - known as the Bahamas Supermarkets Ltd Profit

Sharing Retirement Plan had conveyed the property to another entity on May 1, 2014. That transaction occurred before the January 2015 appointment of Dennis Williams and Rosalie McKenzie, the current trustees, who signed the deal to sell the 6.195 acre East-West Highway site to BISX-listed AML Foods on behalf of the pension plan. However, Mr Turnquest is claiming that the duo have no right or ability to

SEE PAGE 11

$4.63

$4.63

BPL pledges: You’ll have ‘soft landing’ on extra charge By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net BAHAMAS Power & Light’s (BPL) chairman yesterday pledged to make “the landing as soft as possible” for Bahamian consumers when it adds a debt servicing charge to their bills. Darnell Osborne told Tribune Business that the utility was working to make this extra fee “manageable and palatable for the Bahamian people” by extracting as much savings as possible from BPL’s existing operations prior to placing a Rate Reduction Bond (RRB), She added that BPL would “advise the Government in a few months” on the amount of the RRB servicing fee that will be added to all consumers’ monthly bills, its Board having recommended to the Government that the RRB was essential to restructuring the utility’s balance

OSBORNE

* TO MAKE BOND SERVICE COST ‘PALATABLE’ * PROCEEDS FROM $100M SHORT-TERM RAISE ‘WITHIN MONTH’ * WILL ‘CARVE OUT’ FUNDS FOR AUTOMATED METERS sheet for the long-term. Mrs Osborne said BPL would turn its attention to the

SEE PAGE 4


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.
May 1 business by tribune242 - Issuu