The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Bank of the Bahamas shares will resume trading on the Bahamas International Securities Exchange (BISX) today, following a temporary one-day suspension to allow for a “material disclosure” on its $100 million ‘bail out’.

Paul McWeeney, its managing director, confirmed to Tribune Business that Bank of the Bahamas had sought - and been granted - a day’s suspension to allow it to comply with BISX’s Rules.

These require that a listed issuer publish a formal notice of material events, usually via a newspaper ad, so that the Bahamian capital markets and their participants, including all existing shareholders, are fully informed at the same time.

“Trading will resume in the morning,” Mr McWeeney said, adding that the advertisement will explain the Government-sponsored ‘rescue plan’, and its implications for all concerned.

Friday’s announcement, which took place after BISX’s 12pm trading close, revealed that Bank of the Bahamas has transferred $100 million worth of ‘bad’ commercial loans to a government-created special purpose vehicle (SPV), Bahamas Resolve.

This has enabled Bank of the Bahamas to recover $55 million in previous loan loss provisions and accrued interest, boosting its retained earnings back into positive territory, and preventing it from a potential slide into insolvency.

Keith Davies, BISX’s chief executive, said such share trading suspensions for individual companies had taken place before, and there was “nothing negative about it”.

“This is not unusual, and one could have expected it to have occurred given the activity that took place last week,” he told Tribune Business.

“The next step is for the company to meet its obligations for full and complete disclosure, and once it does that, I expect that it’s request will be lifted and share trading will resume.”

Describing this as a “standard operating procedure” for BISX, Mr Davies added: “Everything is operating normally, there are no issues to report, no problems, and we are working with Bank of the Bahamas and all issuers to meet their obligations in a timely manner

“The company requested that the suspension be put in place pending the release of some material. That request came out at the opening of the market today.”