Actually the EU is an extreamly strong trading block. If Britain were to hold another referendum they would vote to stay in the EU. Leaving the EU is a big negative for the the British economy. Global trading blocks is where the world is at and it is unstoppable.

Yes, Russia is trying to manipulate social media to undermine western democracies. It will fail over time because democratic/transparent governments are the best for its citizens. How many of you want to live in Russia or China?

Not sure why KP is surprised by the blacklisting. But everything seems to surprise these novices. Answer the following questions and you will see why we are blacklisted.

1. How many financial crimes have been prosecuted in the Bahamas since our initial black listing in 2000? 0.
2. Why do we have numbers houses/financial institutions?
3. How quickly do we hand over information to developed world countries when financial crimes occur?
4. Why are IBC not filing audited financial statements at the registry
5. Why are nominee shareholders and directors still allowed
6. Why are number houses doing banking services?
7. Why is the Bank of the Bahamas forming a bridge between the numbers houses and the formal banking system.
8. Why is the Bahamian government making positive comments on crypto currencies? These currencies are not regulated and its impossible to trace transactions.
9. Why do we still have exchange controls?
10. Why is government so non transparent. E.g. W&S, Oban and Baha Mar
11. Why is our local markets closed to foreign ownership?
12. Why does KP have something to say on almost anything that happens in this country. Where Minnis in all dis?

I could go on and on but whats the point. Ain nuttin ga change.

Also BahamasForBahamians, the politician's flip once they are in power. Take for example D'Agular. When he was a director of Baha Mar he critized the new owners with statements I can't even repeat here. Now that he is the Minister of Tourism he says they are doing an excellent job.

In the meantime the original investor must be thinking to himself, what duplicity. He get swing.

BahamasForBahamians, you make an excellent point. What is the difference between what is going on at the W&S and what is going on with the Oban project? There is no difference because Oban has been green lighted without an environmental impact study, without consultation with the people in east Grand Bahama, with no proof of funds or due diligence on the "cleanness" of the money for the project. We already know that the principals of Oban are not "blue chip" to say the least and have no experience in the oil and gas industry.

The PLP and FNM bring Commissions of Inquiry and forensic audits but at the end of the day nothing changes except we sink deeper and deeper into debt and corruption on both sides.

More importantly there is no effort to privatize water and sewerage, post office, Bank of the Bahamas, BEC etc. In any developed world country all of these services are performed by the private sector.

Secondly, there is no effort to change the structure of government so that the Executive Branch is not filled with politicians versus industry technicians like in all other developed countries. Example, what does Adrian know about water and sewerage? He is not an engineer, he is an lawyer. The same goes for Banister and BEC.

Thirdly, there are no changes to the legal structure of government to hold anyone accountable for anything. Campaign finance reform, freedom of information, local government etc.

So, my fellow Bahamians please expect this nonsense to continue when the PLP is returned to power 4 years from now. By that time Oban will be a complete mess.

This project really needs to be removed off the balance sheet of the WSC and transferred into Resolve where it can be "quietly" managed next to the BoB non performing loans.

Once it is on the balance sheet of Resolve the government can then raise another $100 million so this waste water treatment plan can be built correctly.

The police must be overwhelmed with all of the E&Y reports being given to them with no additional forensic, financial or technical staffing.

The Tribune has done some very good reporting on the Cable/Aliv financials and should be commended.

I was concerned during the recent preference share issuance that the most up to date quarterly Cable/Alive financial reports were not issued and investors relied up the losses disclosed in financial statements that were 6 months old.

In deed I can't find the current statements on the Cable or Bisx websites yet so I will only comment on what the Tribune is reporting above.

The losses confirm my recent blogs where I queried the ability of Cable/Aliv to become profitable due to the massive levels of debt and vendor financing it is carrying on its balance sheet.

$84 million/accounts payable/accrued liabilities + $154 million bank financing + $232 million in preference shares = $470 million + ?/Vendor financing. That's almost half a billion dollars right there. The debt of the Bahamas government is only $8 billion. Is the Bahamian population so large that it needs all these cell phones and cable connections? Anyone happy with outdated Cable TV product? Hands up all of you who cut Cable and are using over the top Netflix or Rocu?

3 comments:

1. The use of 8% preference shares to raise capital in my humble opinion is inappropriate as most start up companies do not pay dividends or interest as they need to reinvest capital to fund growth. The preference share capital raising should have been equity with no dividend or interest payments.

2. The above financial results should have been disclosed during the recent capital raising exercise.

3. Management's trajectory forecast to profitability should be carefully reviewed by investors.

The investment, as appropriately disclosed, is targeted to sophisticated investors and high net worth individuals. So why is there so much press coverage? Who is reading this stuff.

by da time dis bridge finish it ga cost $100 million and da PLP ga be back in power...watch dis. Oban II here we come.

Let me guess, foreign loans from da World Bank, foreign workers/contractors from south america, inferior third world engineering, Bahamian lawyers, loads of politicians and zero transparency or accountability. Remember JFK drive dual carriage way? It started off at $20 million, 15 years later when it finish it was $100 million.

Ain nuttin change. We get swing again.

Can anymore guess who the unnamed financial backers of Oban are?

Anyone know why the government would sign a heads of agreement with no idea where the $5 billion is coming from?

Anyone know who has $5 billion to lavish on a last certury high carbon polluting global warming environmentally unfriendly industry and build it in a basically third world country with little transparency and load of corruption everywhere?

Can anyone guess?

Lmao Ohdrap4!

Keep me updated on the issuance of the grand Bahama oil shares. I hear billions comin.

The rise of asues, block chain schemes, crypto-currencies, web shops, pyramid schemes, and capital mis allocations in the Bahamian dollar/economy is a direct result of exchange control regulations, which deters Bahamians from investing in the global capital markets and forces Bahamians to invest the massive amounts of liquidity trapped in the local economy into more and more exotic, non regulated schemes...some of which are inappropriate for small investors and other are out right frauds.

To poor gas on the fire, our mis-placed fixation with foreign investment as some sort of economic savior is forcing the government to deal time and time again with non blue chip investors. Remember the PLP's 10 anchor projects....one for each island? They all failed.

The massive amount of liquidity is why the government can pour hundreds of millions of dollars into the rescue of the BoB without any disruption to the financial system. Anyone seen any financials from Resolve? Anyone know where all the money gone?

Bahamian's are desperate for places to invest their funds where they can get a decent risk adjusted return and some diversification outside of a hand full of Bahamian stocks, preference shares, low yielding bank deposits and government bonds. At the end of the day our exploding deficits and national debt will force a devaluation. You can't sell a product at the wrong price forever.

Also, one day crypto currencies will fail because the supply of the tokens can only expand by solving ever more complex mathematical equations which use massive amount of electrical energy to solve. The regulators will be forced to shut them down as it will be an environmental hazard and a poor use of energy with no value to society. This is on top of the fact that these investment are completely unregulated, no audits, no financial statements, no bank accounts....no nothing. But it seems like we are supportive of crypto currencies. So as with the Dutch Tulip mania/bubble of the 17th Century....let the games begin.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/busi…

Agreed with you 100% John.

Successive governments have gotten this wrong time and time again. Let be clear, there is nothing wrong with foreign investment however that is only one component of a comprehensive economic growth plan. Ever wonder why our economy with the billions of incoming foreign investment can only grow by over 1.5% a year? Remember the PLP 10 anchor projects? One for each island...they all failed. Why?

Zhivargo here are some other items you need for a balanced development strategy (1) removal of exchange controls so Bahamians can invest outside the Bahamas (2) float the Bahamian dollar so we stop deluding ourselves that our money is worth the same as the US dollar (3) educate our children so they can read and write (4) sell off the utilities (light, water, cable, BTC, post office) so we can have a sensible infrastructure (in most developed countries utility companies were privatized a half century ago! (5) cut out the inefficient government and make it more efficient so people don't get the run around when they want to invest (5) please put an international airport in the southern islands (6) develop the family islands and stop the over crowding of government (7) local government.

Until we stop looking at foreigners as some sort of messiah we will never develop our country to its true potential.