By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A key Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) shareholder yesterday urged an outspoken QC to ‘put his money where his mouth is’ and find a buyer for the quasi-governmental entity.

Sir Jack Hayward, whose family trust owns a 50 per cent equity stake in the GBPA and its Port Group affiliate, told Fred Smith that he needed to produce “action, not words”.

Mr Smith, in a Tribune Business interview that drew widespread public comment following its publication on Monday, demanded new ownership and management at the GBPA.

The Callenders & Co attorney and partner argued that the absence of ‘new blood’ at both levels was a major reason for Freeport’s “listlessness”.

In response, Sir Jack told Tribune Business via e-mail: “Et tu, Frede. Fred Smith, QC has made enough money from the Grand Bahama Port Authority over the years, and especially from the St George family, to enable him to buy the Port Authority himself.

“Obviously, the purchaser would be approved by him personally. It would be another matter for the Government to approve!

“Otherwise, why doesn’t he find the right purchaser to take over the Port Authority and get himself a finder’s fee? Action, not words, is needed from Frederick Smith, QC.”

Sir Jack’s comment about Mr Smith earning money from his fellow shareholder, the late Edward St George’s family, is likely a reference to the QC representing them during the 2006-2010 ownership dispute, during which he was on the opposing side.

In his Tribune Business interview, Mr Smith had also added his voice to those warning that the GBPA’s owners, the Hayward and St George families, cannot treat both it and Freeport as “a feudal fiefdom or ancestral home”.

As predicted by Tribune Business, his remarks struck strike a chord with many in Freeport, judging by the reaction on this newspaper’s website.

One respondent, ‘TruthHurts’, said simply: “The residents of GB should be all over this article. It’s so true.”

‘The Oracle’ added: “While it is true the Port Authority private owners are comfortable and wealthy, with no vision or need to do anything, this was not the intention of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement for Wallace Groves or the Government.

“The Government buying it is not the answer either, as they’re broke and couldn’t run it anyway. One look at Nassau confirms that. What should be done is a buyout by the licensees, who have watched things go from bad to worse and would probably do a far better job if politics could be kept out of it.”

Criticising the GBPA’s management for agreeing to whatever the owners wanted, ‘The Oracle’ said: “The Government is using VAT rules to abrogate the Hawksbill Creek Agreement and totally ignore prior court rulings that have helped to define it, which will further depress economic prospects and, with impending expiry from tax exemptions in 2015, things do not look good.

“Freeport is the perfect example of squandered potential through the inactions of a select few, who themselves have done very, very well at the expense of everyone else.”

Andrew Harris’ added of Mr Smith: “This one time, his opinion is welcome.”

In his interview with Tribune Business, Mr Smith had said: “I invested in Freeport as a licensee decades ago, in the good faith that the Port Authority will employ experienced executives to manage and promote the business of Freeport through the Port Group of Companies.

“Unfortunately, over the past decade, and particularly through the corporate personnel purgings during the five years or internecine family warfare between the Haywards and St Georges, the Port Group is bereft of any experienced executives.

“Whilst I consider Sir Jack Hayward, Henry St George, Sarah St George and Lady Henrietta among my friends, they have absolutely no experience in running a business, let alone the Port Authority, which is a quasi-governmental authority and has been regarded as a ‘state within a state’ in the Bahamas.”

Sir Jack, in his e-mail reply to Tribune Business, did not comment on his family’s long-term plans or intentions for the GBPA, or whether they would seek to sell their ownership interest if the right buyer emerged.

This newspaper reported that the long-term plans of both GBPA ownership families are uncertain. While it is thought that Sir Jack and members of the Hayward family trust would sell their equity interest if the right price, and purchaser, could be found, the St George family is a more diverse group.

Several members, particularly Sarah and Henry St George, are understood to want to carry on in their late father’s footsteps, and live up to his legacy by continuing in Freeport’s management and administration. But other family members are, like the Haywards, thought to be open to offers if the terms are right.

It is also uncertain whether the Government will use the negotiations over Freeport’s expiring investment incentives as leverage to force the ‘solution’ it wants to see at the GBPA and Freeport.

There have already been suspicions, voiced privately by some GBPA licensees, that the Port is not pushing as hard as it might to ensure Value-Added Tax (VAT) is not levied on business-to-business services transactions in Freeport in the hope the Government will not seek to impose real property taxes in the city.