We absolutely need a fast food tax, one of at least 15%. It will deter some from eating such unhealthy food, and it will help cover the cost of the increase in healthcare to treat persons who are obese in part beacause they frequent these establishments. Why should my taxes be increased to pay for NHI while Mr. Tsavoussis gets rich. He should be ashamed of himself making such an argument, I hope he sleeps well at night knowing that he sells a toxic product that is leading many of our citizens to an early grave. He has a moral responsibility to help pay for the terrible healthcare problems he is causing and getting rich from.

Slap on the wrist, the punishment should have been more severe so as to serve as a greater deterrent to this happening again.

Is Mr. Miller blind to so many conflicts of interest? Let’s see he just happened to obtain a $28 million dollar loan from a bank predominantly owned by the government, one where govt officials can dictate who is granted loans and on what terms. Why did he not obtain a loan from a privately owned bank? Then he is granted a huge lease from the government while he is a member of the same government. Then he is moved from one cushy government chairmanship to another all the while having corporations that are losing millions of dollars pay for his lunch and heavens knows what else. What a parasite. We need to privatize as many govt corporations as possible and those we do not should be managed independently from government influence. We need legislation to ban all members of parliament and their families from any government contract or lease. No wonder Mr. Miller loved being in government so much, he was a parasite to the Bahamian taxpayer. This lease needs to be canceled immediately and let Mr. Miller challenge it in court. A broke country like The Bahamas can not afford such cronyism any more.

We have been plagued as country with a never ending succession of Gutless leaders, FNM and PLP alike. Perhaps nothing has held us back more in our development. Any person with common sense knows the solution to this vexing problem: regulaize in an expedited fashion those that qualify and deport the rest, with massive fines for any employers of illegal aliens. It is the common sense fair thing to do, no one should be in limbo all these years. Sadly I have an almost zero hope in it being done. It seems we can not address, much less solve any serious problem in this country.

Mr. Bowe should look in the mirror. These banks shoulder more of the blame than anyone else for the massive backlog of distressed mortgages that are an albatross on their balance sheets. Rather than mark these properties down massively to sell them they hold them for years and years and the entire economy suffers. Though painful it would be better to sell these properties and let the capitalist market system do its magic. Persons could move on to rent or own properties they could afford, new buyers who were renters could become home owners, the banks would be able to clawback much of the provisions they had against these properties. We need reform of mortgage regulation, just the opposite of what the PLP had in mind so that these properties could be cheaply and easily sold. It is creative destruction, the old decayed limbs are pruned away, leading to new growth. Instead because of these banks we have stagnation.

“Credit quality, capital base, net interest income and commission fee income are all improving based on the above contrary to your shoe box analysis above.”

This is all true however, interest income is declining with a declining loan book, fixed expenses are high, and most of all during these positive 2 quarters the provisioning for losses were low. If these do not improve then it is very hard to see net income improving. If there is any deterioration in the loan book, there meager profits will turn negative.
I too want BOB to improve and succeed, only time will tell, but there is little to suggest much improvement from here. I take solace that perhaps the drain to the Bahamian taxpayer is over for now. At least until the next government mismanages this bank again. That is another overwhelmingly negative factor for this bank going forward as it is 83% government owned.

No I didn’t. My figures quoted above are only for the last 2 quarters of positive net income ( a stocks price is its projected future earnings the past loses are meaningless in this regard), and extrapolated forward assumes positive net income. So even if there are no more negative quarters if it is no better than the last 2 positive quarters then the stock is currently overvalued. Hard to see net income improving much as interest income is decreasing and fixed expenses are high, even though provision for loses is now very low. As for growth, hard to see it, Fidelity and Commonwealth Bank are so much better run, specialize in the high interest consumer loans so they will get the lion share.

Don’t break out the champagne yet. At the current profitability rate BOB is at best fairly priced, probably a bit overpriced. Net income for the first half of year was only 1.5 million. Extrapolated out for the year only looking at 3 million net income for 43 million shares outstanding. That is an EPS of just .07 cents. At a PE multiple of 12 ( more than generous with no dividend payout only looking at a fair value share price of .84 cents). The current price is only $1 but as you can see that is overvalued at current profitability. Without a drastic increase in net income for the second half of the year, forget about this stock appreciating at all much less triple-fold.

Have been saying this for a long time, there needs to be some intermediate options for police to subdue a dangerous suspect. We need tasers, better than police scuffling on the ground endangering themselves, and far better than the use of a gun and deadly force on a suspect. Especially for a person wielding a knife, if they have a gun well if they do not submit then they will have to be shot.

I appreciate your analysis, we clearly have differing views on how risky Aliv is but that is what makes a market! I love how a stock is traded and both the buyer and the seller believe based on their analysis and information they have made the right decision. Like we said only time will tell.

A few points why Aliv is less risky than you think. Aliv has very experienced intelligent management and if you speak to them they do not even consider voice revenue in their forecasts anymore. They assume that “voice goes to zero”. There is no putting the genie back in the bottle, Bahamians love what’s app and it is here to stay. Most importantly URCA, the cellular regulator desperately wants Aliv to succeed. It has been quite lenient and generous with Aliv (questionable if they met their rollout targets and should have forfeited some of its 18 mill performance bond) and will continue to be so as it wants the sector liberalized which is only possible with a vibrant competitor to BTC. It is wonderful when your regulator is rooting for your success, it is like having an ace in the hole. I agree with the other risks you highlighted.

We continue to differ as to opening this offer up to the general public. I would just add that contrary to many bloggers views BISX despite its very serious limitations ( chief among them illiquidity) remains a wonderful wealth creating opportunity and one of the few ways for the average Bahamians to become owners in this economy. At every return the default reaction should be to give the Bahamian public more investing opportunities ( with caveats of course). I laugh every time I read these bloggers disparaging BISX, investing in BISX has allowed me to retire 25 years sooner than I could have otherwise, and what I did any average Bahamian could do with a bit of fiscal discipline and financial expertise. They get up and go to work ( a job they probably hate) and I do with my day what I want, no more punching the clock. That is what is possible trading on BISX it is liberating. I will end with this note on Cable, it debuted in 1994 with an IPO price of $1, at its peak it traded at a share split adjusted price of $25 a couple of years ago. That is wealth creation that can be life changing.