The Government appears to have wiped out the $7 million accounts receivables owed by the Water & Sewerage Corporation’s main water supplier, which has praised it for doing so.
Wilmer Pergande, chairman of BISX-listed Consolidated Water, told its shareholders in the 2014 annual report: “As a result of substantial payments received during 2014, our accounts receivable from Water & Sewerage Corporation are now current with respect to our agreed-upon terms, which is a credit to the Bahamas government and the strength of our business partnership with them.”
Tribune Business reported in March this year that the Water & Sewerage Corporation (via government/taxpayer subsidies, most likely) had slashed the near-$14 million receivables owed to Consolidated Water by almost 50 per cent during 2014.
Consolidated Water, in filings with the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), divulged that the Corporation had reduced the debt owed by $6.9 million over the past year. However, it was still owed $7 million in past due receivables come end-December.
Consolidated Water’s subsequent SEC filings for the 2015 first quarter make no mention of any past due accounts receivables owed by the Water & Sewerage Corporation, implying that it is now current.
It pays Consolidated Water for water supplies produced by the company’s two Nassau-based reverse osmosis plants, Blue Hills and Windsor.
The latest SEC filings, though, reveal that almost two years from the expiry of Consolidated Water’s contract, the Government has yet to determine who Windsor’s long-term operator will be.
That deal expired in July 2013, and Consolidated Water is continuing to operate the plant on a month-by-month basis until the Government hands it another five-year contract or seeks another operator.
Consolidated Water saw 2015 first quarter revenues from the Windsor plant decline by almost 12 per cent, from $1.7 million in the year-before period to $1.5 million.
Overall, the company saw its 2015 first quarter water revenues in the Bahamas decline by $1.437 million year-over-year.
“The 2015 revenue decrease for our Bahamas operations resulted from a significant decrease in the prices of diesel fuel and electricity from 2014 to 2015, which reduced the energy component of our bulk water rates for the Bahamas,” the BISX-listed firm said.
This means that the diesel and electricity charges/costs passed on to the Water & Sewerage Corporation, and the latter’s Bahamian customers, were lower.
Comments
GrassRoot 9 years, 6 months ago
nice, this is a stock xchange listed company, right? Hey PGC to whom in the Government can I send my unpaid bills?
GrassRoot 9 years, 6 months ago
just another crony subsidy.
realfreethinker 9 years, 6 months ago
Who owns consolidated water. You always have to follow the money with this crew.
Well_mudda_take_sic 9 years, 6 months ago
Just more VAT revenue being used by our government for anything but paying down our national debt.
John 9 years, 6 months ago
Consolidated shares fell to less that what the iPO price was and it never recovered. They pay 1/4 cents per share twice a year so go figure.
ThisIsOurs 9 years, 6 months ago
6.9 million...wow..I've just gotten a notice that $90 bill payment is due...if I don't pay it, my service may be interrupted...wow
asiseeit 9 years, 6 months ago
I applaud the government for paying off a debt the Bahamian people where on the hook for. One wonders what the total interest we had to pay for CWC holding that debt? One less noose around our neck.
Well_mudda_take_sic 9 years, 6 months ago
Nearly a third of the water our government is paying for never makes it to consumers because many of Water & Sewerage Corp.'s leaking water pipes have yet to be replaced. It's kinda like pissing away a good portion of our VAT revenues
asiseeit 9 years, 6 months ago
There is an company from Israel that has been working on that for a couple years. Read somewhere they where making progress. It all boils down the maintenance, nobody in the public service does it, just look at the state of our government buildings.
djohn1996 9 years, 6 months ago
There are two in-depth articles about Consolidated Water Co. available free here: http://seekingalpha.com/article/3090656…
To answer the questions that have been raised ...
The articles at the same source that discuss issues like the Bahamas leak issues now require a subscription, which is very expensive since it is directed at Wall Street professionals, but the bottom line is that the leakage problems have been mostly resolved in the last year or two. So, it is false to say "Nearly a third of the water our government is paying for never makes it to consumers."
"Who owns consolidated water." The shareholders do, since it is a public company.
There are no subsidies ... this article discusses a debt that any Bahamian should be happy has been finally paid... unless of course you don't want anymore water, which is not produced for free. As also detailed in the older articles referenced above, the Bahamian government has had severe budget problems for years and they got even worse during the 2008-2010 Great Recession. So, the government was unable to pay for all of the water this company supplied to Bahamian citizens for years, yet the company still provided the water. So, again, it is good for Bahamians that the bad debts are being settled.
Well_mudda_take_sic 9 years, 6 months ago
Posted by a representative/stakeholder in Consolidated Water.
djohn1996 9 years, 6 months ago
Well_mudda_take_sic, Your reply was very obviously posted by an idiot who cannot read. As clearly included in the disclosure for any literate person to see "The author has no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article." Nice try though, moron.
duppyVAT 9 years, 6 months ago
Does this mean that the government will eventually invest in putting all of the country on a central water (and sewerage) supply????????????
djohn1996 9 years, 6 months ago
No, that is not what this means. Very many people still use wells, and the government cannot force them to switch to central water. That's not to mention the fact that the government can barely afford to operate the transmission/distribution system at its current size, and expanding the system would require significant new investments.
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