This is very positive news. Gilead is a world leader in biotech.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Sir John Dalberg-Action.

The recent consolidation of power, control and taxation by the current Bahamian government is truly shocking. Eg: 51% ownership of BTC, proposed 51% ownership of the Cable Cellular service, 51% control of the monopolistic shipping port in Nassau, perennial loss making BahamasAir competing against private aircraft services, legalization of gambling against the wishes of the Bahamian people, pervasive implementation of VAT on almost every business transaction and the proposed implementation of NHI to the detriment of private health insurance providers.

Perhaps the most troubling development is the edict that new government employees must bank at the Bank of the Bahamas. A bank which is in breach of Central Bank reserve requirements and which NI has invested over $100m with no forensic audit of what went wrong. We should not wonder why the deficit continues to grow above dangerously high levels.

We should not therefore be surprised that the administration sees nothing troubling with the disclosure private information in Parliament.

Read the signs and prepare accordingly. Don't be surprised by what comes next.

Excellent points GrassRoot and DreamerX. Its refreshing to see commentary relating to accounting principals, standards and the tardiness of BEC's audit report.

It is standard practice for companies to issue their financial statements 4 months after year end. By this standard the BEC accounts for 2014 should have been published and the audit for 2015 should be well on the way.

Late financial statement issuance points to poor corporate governance and it is bewildering that an "investment grade" country (like the Bahamas) could be so late in the publication of a government corporations financial statements and still retain its investment grade rating from the international rating agencies. I suspect by the time the Bahamas is actually downgraded our financial position will be much worse than anticipated.

Be that as it may, it still begs the question of what is the current state of BEC's finances. The reason this is important is that you have a number of other zombie government corporations (BoB, Bahamasair, Water and Sewerage and possibly NI). I define a zombie corporation as one where liabilities exceed assets.

At a certain point, probably long after the PLP has left power we will reach an inflection point where the financing of governments negative cash flow will be so costly that a devaluation will become necessary.

I agree with Tal. The ability to derive millions of dollars in political donations with no paperwork, no reporting, no financial statements, no accountability is too much for any government to enact legislation to stop.

While the political parties take in millions of dollars, poor Bahamians and Bahamian businesses need to pay VAT, real property tax, business license fees, customs, stamp tax, national insurance and shortly national health insurance. Also businesses need to prepare audited financial statements and submit them to to government just to operate. Political parties pay non of these taxes on donations received.

We as Bahamians are fools to put up it.

Meanwhile the Minister of Education is so busy talking politics he has no time to address the D average of most government school students.

Worst of all we will go to the polls in 2017 and put them (FNM or PLP or DNA) back in power.

While Pintard has resigned just wait and see the new "has been" politician with a lot of "baggage" that Minnis puts in his place. Nothing will change, just the actors.

...better late than never.

Another Lyford Cay foreigner behaving badly.

...if only he could fight this hard when dealing with the D average of our school system.

http://tribune242.com/users/photos/2016…

Looking at the BISX website, Cable has a $6.55 bid/buy price, significantly down from its highs.

The current price reflects the share dilution the rights issue has caused. Rights issues are normally done when a company tries to incentivise current shareholders to buy more stock because they would be challenged to sell more shares at the current price as a secondary offering. The rights issue gives the appearance to unsophisticated investors that they are getting something at a discount or getting some sort of deal, which they are not. All it does is increase the number of shares and dilutes the earnings.

Unlike Commonwealth Bank which remains focused on its core businesses, Cable Bahamas has diverge into phone service (service reception is poor and inter-connectivity with BTC is problematic), US cable service (US services providers will eat them for lunch in the longer term), Bahamian cell service and now going into business with the Bahamian government (never a good idea for anyone). To finance this expansion Cable and the Bahamas government will issue and take on more debt (also not a good idea).

The cell phone service will be a spectacular failure as large amounts of debt is being accumulated to buy the licenses, fund the government's 51% ownership and build cell towers (looks like BTC short towers can't handle any more antenna...surprise, surprise). Unfortunately this is all happening at the same time that BTC cell services is seeing declines in revenue due to WhatsApp (which now has 1.1 billion users worldwide and growing at the rate of 100 million users per month). Who in their right minds will make a cell phone call when they can WhatsApp someone for free?

Also Cable's TV channel selection, quality and set top boxes are outdated and very expensive. Most people I know are cutting the cord and getting Apple TV, Amazon Prime or Roku and getting 1080i HD quality reception and TV shows you actually want to see!

Those who are able to get out at $6 will be the lucky ones.

Good point Economist. The government is suing children while BoB lenders get a bail out.