By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian investment house yesterday said it “exceeded” the $20m target for its new private equity fund’s first capital raise as it unveiled ambitions to expand to $100m in assets long-term.

Anthony Ferguson, president of CFAL, told Tribune Business that the fund could potentially double in size to $40m within 12 months if fresh infrastructure projects that meet its investment criteria emerge as expected. He added that the fund’s launch, and initial capital raise, attracted 2,000 new Bahamian retail, or individual, investors to participate.

“We exceeded our expectations,” the CFAL chief disclosed of the initial offering. “We have over 2,000 new registrants. Most people who are in the Bahamas Investment Fund also invested. We have catered to 5,000 retail investors.

“We exceeded our target. We have over $20m, and we’re still counting. So the response has been really good and we’re excited for the new young retail investors participating in this.” The Bahamas Investment Fund is the vehicle that was created by CFAL to allow Bahamian investors to invest in the Nassau Cruise Port, and which holds their collective 49 percent equity ownership stake in that project.

The CFAL private equity fund’s first two investments will be EA Energy and Island Power Producers (IPP). The former won the bid to build, own and operate solar and natural gas-fuelled plants supplying Abaco and Eleuthera’s power needs, while the latter has secured the deal to supply cruise ships docked at Nassau Cruise Port with ‘shore power’ again produced by liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Some $10m worth of class A and class B shares were made available to investors in the private equity fund, with the proceeds set to be used to acquire separate 10 percent equity ownership interests in EA Energy and Island Power Producers, respectively. All 5,000 investor subscriptions have been accepted, and participants will receive confirmation e-mails within the next 30 days affirming their investment.

“We have all our permits,” Mr Ferguson said of the Island Power Producers project. “We have already started construction work at Arawak Cay. If you go there you will see trucks, offices that have been established, and for EA Energy we expect to start clearing the ground for solar once we get our certificate of environmental clearance (CEC) permit which we expect to get on Friday.

“Everything is moving to target. Things are progressing quite nicely. Everything is on track. Hopefully by the end of the second quarter, start of the third quarter, next year we will be providing energy in those islands. With the cruise port, we expect that generation will be installed by the beginning of the second quarter [2026]. We’re on target for everything. We’re excited for where we’re at.”

Private equity funds typically invest in, and take ownership positions in, actual companies and businesses with a view to improving their performance. They ultimately exit these positions by selling their interests to another buyer or taking the subject company public via an initial public offering (IPO).

CFAL’s private equity fund is being structured as a segregated accounts company (SAC), allowing it to issue different share classes to investors and hold its various company investments separate from one another. This will allow investors to choose which ones they invest in, while also preventing liabilities (and problems) at a company held by the Fund from directly impacting others.

Mr Ferguson said CFAL’s fund will allow individual Bahamian retail investors to “participate in some of these major projects, particularly the infrastructure” and private-public partnership (PPP) investments designed to drive the Bahamian economy’s growth and benefit from dividend payouts and capital appreciation of the value of their underlying shares. 

“Depending on the investment opportunities that become available, we would be seeking to introduce additional funds to participate in these opportunities,” Mr Ferguson told Tribune Business. “If something comes into the water space, the renewable energy space, the roads space, we want to make sure our clients can participate and benefit in the long-run.”

Asked how big CFAL wants its private equity fund to become, Mr Ferguson replied: “It’s very ambitious, and our investment target depends on opportunities becoming available, but it could be up to $100m. It depends on what comes up. It’s more a function of opportunity.

“We believe perhaps, in another 12 months, there may be one or two more opportunities that take it up to $40m but we’ll see. It has to meet our investment criteria for us to go to the public and say: ‘Here’s another class of shares to invest in’.”

Describing the private equity fund’s first two investments, CFAL had told prospective investors: “EA Energy has been selected by the Government of The Bahamas to develop microgrids on the islands of Eleuthera and Abaco. The company will build solar and natural gas power plants on both islands under a 25-year power purchase agreement with the Government.

“EA Energy will be 65 percent owned by Bahamian investors and 35 percent by a Turkish partner. The project will be funded with $140m in total investment and is expected to be completed at the end of the 2026 second quarter.”

As for the cruise shore power plant, it said: “Island Power Producers has been selected by the Government of The Bahamas to develop shore power for the cruise ships while docked at Nassau Cruise Port. The company will build a natural gas power plant along with regasification and storage facilities to supply natural gas to other Family Islands.

“Island Power Producers will be 100 percent owned by Bahamians. The project will be funded with $180m in total investment and is expected to be completed at the end of the 2026 second quarter.” Both EA Energy and Island Power Producers are, in effect, affiliated projects because the capital raised for each to-date has been via offerings overseen by CFAL.

This newspaper reported on April 24, 2025, that EA Energy’s $132.5m private placement had seen the $100m bond component fully subscribed for by investors. However, only $21m of the $32.5m equity was taken up, and the $10m raised by CFAL’s private equity fund will largely fill that gap.

As for Island Power Producers, Mr Ferguson told this newspaper in February 2025 that the $150m project obtained $60m in equity capital before year-end 2024. And, with CIBC Caribbean willing to put up $50m in bank financing, only needed a similar amount to close out its fund-raising.

“We settled at $60m [on the equity portion]. It’s about $150m total. We already have a commitment from the bank for up to $50m. CIBC. We’ve been doing business with them for the last 20 years,” the CFAL chief said then.

Capital markets observers previously said the $10m sought for the Class A and B series shares, and 10 percent equity stakes that this will acquire, mean that both EA Energy and Island Power Producers have been valued at $100m even though they have yet to start producing energy. They also questioned whether these valuations align with what was previously disclosed publicly.

The retail offering for Class A shares in EA Energy and Class B shares in Island Power Producers opened on July 21 and closed on July 29, with shares priced at $10 and a minimum subscription of $1,000.