It also makes great business sense for companies to have as many shareholders as possible as this creates loyal customers. I patronize those businesses that I own stock in and offers shares to Bahamians. I therefore buy my gas from Shell, never from Rubis. Why should I help a foreign company that does not give a damn about me when I could help a Bahamian one I am a shareholder of? I know that with every purchase I am benefiting in the sale. I rather shop at Solomon’s than at supervalue. If Mr. Roberts had an IPO for supervalue he would have a built in base of very loyal shareholders who are also customers.

It is an interesting story you were told and there may be some truth to it but I suspect very little. The facts are that commonwealth bank has more than 4000 different individual Bahamian shareholders, the Arawak Port over 10000. Those are not inconsequential numbers in a population as small as ours and could be much larger if the government cared more about stock ownership and wealth equality.

For those wise and lucky Bahamians who hold on to their shares long term, share ownership can be financially liberating and life changing. It has certainly changed my life. I bought into Bahamian companies with the earnings from my first paychecks, very small amounts, but consistently month after month, year after year. As Albert Einstein said the most powerful force in the universe is compound interest. I was able to retire after only working 13 years. What I did any Bahamian with a modest income, frugal lifestyle and discipline along with investing savvy and some luck can achieve, but it would have been impossible without the opportunity to invest in Bahamian companies and by extension BISX.

I must say I know very little about the structure or terms of our entry into WTO. It shows that the government has done a terrible job explaining it to the Bahamian people. I am certainly in the camp that is sceptical that the pros will outweigh the cons. But I am confident that we have the discretion to mandate a certain level of Bahamian ownership in these companies if there is the political will to do it. The United States is in the WTO and prohibits more than 25% foreign ownership in any domestic airline carrier. I would imagine there are many other examples of this.

I am sure too that as broad a base of Bahamian ownership in these companies is the way to go. It simply empowers the average Bahamian to have an opportunity to share in the wealth creation in this country. It makes no sense to restrict a local market so a few individuals can reap the profits of artificially high protectionist restrictions that raise the cost of living throughout the country and they refuse to allow others who pay the cost of these subsidies to benefit as well. Government needs to do more to incentivize firms to offer shares to the public.

It is time to move on from having a few wealthy families dominate retail in this country. It amounts to a subsidy where the profits are restricted to the very few. Meanwhile the masses pay a higher price than they would otherwise. Let these large foreign conglomerates enter the market and because of economies of scale prices will fall. Perhaps institute a regulation where at least 50% of the shares in these companies are offered to the Bahamian public. As it is now these private firms are very tightly held and it leads to the widening income inequality we are facing today.

Case in point is Mr. Roberts who is the largest shareholder in commonwealth bank which IPO ed in 2000 and has thousands of Bahamian shareholders benefiting from its success. It allows a very wide base of Bahamians to benefit from the economic pie. Supervalue on the other hand does not. To encourage firms to be listed on BISX those that meet a certain threshold ( say at least 25% public ownership and at least 1000 Bahamian shareholders) should pay a far lower business license fee than those firms that hoard profits in the hands of the few.

What an absolutely beautiful man who I had the privilege to know well. His kindness to me and my family is a debt I can never repay. Our nation has lost one of its finest sons. A short story illustrates the grace of this man. I was in the office of a very prominent surgeon. He knew of my relationship with Monsignor so he asked about him, thinking he only casually knew father, I told him how he was the most talented, spiritual, warm priest had ever met. I told him how he was born to be a priest and went on. The surgeon listened to my soliloquy, and when I finished he smiled and gave me his experience of the man simply saying “He is love.” It was my turn to shut up and listen as he related that Monsignor was his friend, confidante and refuge in his very busy, stressful life.

What a life throughly well lived! He also was a wonderful cook, great writer and poet, charismatic homilist, loved telling jokes and pulling pranks always ending in his warm and easy smile, was passionate about everything culturally and indigenously Bahamian (he was enamoured with the Fox Hill community and silk cotton trees). And I could go on and on.

Quite simply though he can be described best in three words, “He is Love”.

Maybe so.

We should have a strict mandatory retirement age for all civil servants, one that can only be extended for very few individuals only under exceptional circumstances, perhaps only on the approval of cabinet. This will help with the unemployment situation in the country as well.

I do not see any issue here. These men have had long successful careers on the force but they are old and it is time, maybe past time for them to retire and enjoy their remaining years left. The old makes way for the new, with younger officers filling the void. Too many civil servants hang on too denying the youth their opportunity.

Well cable Bahamas is the anthesis of Focol, it’s is fantastically overpriced based on the fundamentals. Indeed, the market has not priced in the very, very serious existential crisis Cable is in.

Reading the 2018 annual report is an exercise in deflection and distraction by management. Every paragraph mentions the tremendous increase in revenues to 250mill a year. One has to search in the fine print for the 50 plus million loss in net income.

Indeed cable lost over 50 million plus in the previous fiscal year 2017. There has been eight consecutive quarters of loses. It’s prospects are beset on all sides: the legacy business of cable, voice and internet is a non growth area with rivals seeking to poach a bigger slice on a non increasing pie, Florida has been a failure, and the savior Aliv while almost reaching projections for subscribers is still not profitable. It is anticipated break even is in the next few quarters at best. ARPU has fallen well short of projections.

The near term risk is Cable is down to just 18 million cash, last quarter was an 11 million loss, so two more similar quarters and cable is broke. Going back to the local capital market with another preference share offering is a non starter. Soon it will be time to either fish or cut bait.

Cable has promised to resume dividends by the end of fiscal 2019 (June). This is an impossibility, will be interesting to see how the market reacts when this reality sinks in. It is not currently priced in. Finally, cable has half a billion Debt, and has lost 100 million the last two fiscal years. Hard to see how it will ever be repaid. Will cable even survive to repay it?

Given these facts stating that cable is overpriced is the understatement of the year.

Dear Mr. Wilson,
I am a longtime Focol shareholder and I empathize with your incredulity at the undervalued share price. Relative to the market and particularly compared to Commonwealth Bank, Focol is tremendously underpriced. Commonwealth is a special case, trading at an absurd P/E multiple (based on fundamentals and its historical, traditional multiple Commonwealths share price should be half what it is now) for many reasons but particularly because they always put shareholders first and this is especially so in their dividend payout ratio which currently is at 80%. Focol’s ratio on the other hand is just 48%. This is too low. This is where your focus should be.

Buybacks help but the impact is limited and short lived. Save the millions used on the buyback and increase the dividend. Bahamians LOVE dividends and as the dividend yield increases so will the share price. Focol has more than ample room (net income) to comfortably increase the dividend, the payout ratio should be immediately increased to at least 60%. I would argue even more. Focol because of the stability of its product and cash flow as well as very low debt should have a higher yield than 48%! This will be much more effective and lasting than talking up the stock or using buybacks. Increase the dividend and the share price will take care of itself.