This is the press release they issued in response to the SEC allegations:
Hamilton, Bermuda, December 20, 2007 - LOM (Holdings) Limited (Bermuda Stock Exchange: LOM BH) announced today that it intends to vigorously contest charges filed by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) against LOM, several of its subsidiaries, and its President, Scott Lines (collectively, “LOM”).
“The complaint filed by the SEC presents a disturbingly distorted portrayal of a bona fide financing transaction in which LOM participated nearly five years ago,” said Malcolm Moseley, CFO of LOM. ““We are deeply frustrated by the SEC’s action today, and look forward to having an opportunity, after nearly five years of investigation, to challenge the SEC’s allegations and demonstrate that LOM and its agents operated at all times in the best interests of our clients. LOM welcomes the opportunity at long last to be able to present its side of the story in an adversary proceeding before a neutral judge.”
The SEC has alleged that LOM, a Bermuda-based broker-dealer, violated U.S. securities laws in connection with trading, in January and February 2003, of shares of Sedona Software Solutions, Inc. and, in 2002 and 2003, of shares of SHEP Technologies, Inc. The SEC’s complaint alleges that LOM attempted to manipulate the prices of Sedona and SHEP Technologies stock, and thereby violated various provisions of the securities laws, including Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Among other things, the complaint seeks an injunction against future violations of the securities laws, as well as a penny stock bar.
“The SEC’s allegations relate to LOM’s bona fide efforts to arrange financing for the acquisition and operation of several mining properties in Canada and Central America in February 2003,” said Moseley. “Today’s charges reflect the SEC’s fundamental misunderstanding of the transactions at issue. After the SEC suspended trading of Sedona stock, these same mining assets were acquired by various Canadian public companies, which successfully operated them. The SEC’s allegations relating to trading in SHEP Technologies likewise concern LOM’s legitimate business dealings.” LOM’s primary regulator – the Bermuda Monetary Authority (“BMA”) – has thoroughly investigated the conduct described in the SEC’s complaint, and concluded its investigation in 2005 on an entirely different basis, pursuant to which LOM agreed to make managerial changes, improve its internal controls, and committed to further enhance its compliance regime and management structure.
“LOM does not expect that the filing of these charges will have any bearing on our operations, our clients, or the viability of the firm. We are hopeful that this development marks the beginning of the conclusion of a matter that should have been concluded long ago,” said Moseley. LOM will, in its vigorous defense of this matter, prove that not only are the SEC’s charges legally and factually unsound, but that they also are part of a longstanding pattern of harassment against LOM and its officers. LOM will show that the SEC has acted inappropriately by failing to correct a number of materially false statements made in court filings, despite being provided with evidence to the contrary by LOM.
“It is unthinkable that the SEC would ever treat a U.S.-based broker-dealer the way that it has treated LOM. The SEC has targeted LOM despite our efforts to uphold the highest standards of responsible corporate citizenship and compliance,” said Moseley. “LOM welcomes the opportunity to clear its name and to defend itself against the SEC’s unmeritorious claims.”
About LOM
LOM is a publicly-held, international financial services company, providing a complete range of investment services and products through its regulated subsidiaries in Bermuda, Bahamas and Grand Cayman. In business for 15 years, LOM today has over $1 billion in client assets under administration and provides brokerage, asset management, and corporate finance services to its primarily high net-worth individual and institutional customers in over 75 countries around the world. The parent company, LOM (Holdings) Limited, is publicly listed on the Bermuda Stock Exchange (symbol LOM BH). The consolidated group is debt-free and has shareholder's equity of over $21 million.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
LOM (Holdings) Limited Pays Increased Semi-Annual Dividend
Hamilton, Bermuda, December 10, 2007 – LOM (Holdings) Limited (BSX: LOM BH) announced that it paid its semi-annual dividend on December 1, 2007 to shareholders of record as of November 15, 2007. The Board of Directors approved a 40% increase in the semi-annual dividend from $0.05 per share to $0.07 per share on September 27, 2007.
“I’m delighted to say that 2007 was another good year for LOM, marked by continuing efficiency and financial achievements,” said Scott Lines, President, LOM Holdings . “With our very solid balance sheet, and our projected 2007 earnings, LOM is in a good position to continue to reward our shareholders even as we invest for growth.”
About LOM (Holdings) Limited
LOM is a publicly-held, international financial services company, providing a complete range of investment services and products through its regulated subsidiaries in Bermuda, Bahamas and Grand Cayman. In business for nearly 15 years, LOM today has over $1 billion in client assets under administration and provides brokerage, asset management, and corporate finance services to its primarily high net-worth individual and institutional customers in over 75 countries around the world. The parent company, LOM (Holdings) Limited, is publicly listed on the Bermuda Stock Exchange (symbol LOM BH). The consolidated group is debt-free and has shareholder's equity of over $21 million. Find out more about LOM at http://www.lom.com
“I’m delighted to say that 2007 was another good year for LOM, marked by continuing efficiency and financial achievements,” said Scott Lines, President, LOM Holdings . “With our very solid balance sheet, and our projected 2007 earnings, LOM is in a good position to continue to reward our shareholders even as we invest for growth.”
About LOM (Holdings) Limited
LOM is a publicly-held, international financial services company, providing a complete range of investment services and products through its regulated subsidiaries in Bermuda, Bahamas and Grand Cayman. In business for nearly 15 years, LOM today has over $1 billion in client assets under administration and provides brokerage, asset management, and corporate finance services to its primarily high net-worth individual and institutional customers in over 75 countries around the world. The parent company, LOM (Holdings) Limited, is publicly listed on the Bermuda Stock Exchange (symbol LOM BH). The consolidated group is debt-free and has shareholder's equity of over $21 million. Find out more about LOM at http://www.lom.com
Monday, December 3, 2007
March 5th, 2005 - In Sea of Gloom, Bahamas One of Caribbean's Brightest Stars by Larry Luxner
More than 700 islands and cays make up the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, which at its closest point is only 50 miles from the shores of Florida. Known primarily for its beautiful beaches, luxury hotels and duty-free shopping, this nation of 300,000 people is also making a name for itself as a leading offshore financial center.
Thanks in part to this growing industry, the Bahamas today enjoys a per-capita gross domestic product of $12,600óamong the highest in the Caribbean. Unemployment stands at around 7 percent, inflation is restrained to under 2 percent, and the economy showed net growth in 2001 despite a slowdown in tourism resulting from last year's terrorist attacks. The outlook for the Bahamian economy is positive,said Julian W. Francis, governor of the Central Bank of the Bahamas. We are able to benefit from our history of a continuous presence as a major financial center.
On May 2, the opposition Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) regained control of the government in a major election ups et. The PLP led the Bahamas to independence from Great Britain in 1973 but was thrown out 10 years ago amid charges that then-Prime Minister Lynden Pindling had taken bribes from Colombian drug smugglers. The allegations against Pindling were never proven, but they caused a major rift with the United States that was not entirely healed until the change of government in 1992.
PLP leader Perry Christie, who defeated Tommy Turnquest of the ruling Free National Movement (FNM), has vowed to lead a government for all Bahamians and that no one need fear victimization.
Christie replaces the FNM's Hubert Ingraham, under whose long tenure the Bahamas has become one of the wealthiest countries in the Caribbean, thanks to offshore banking and tourism.
Even today, despite a downturn in Caribbean tourism after Sept. 11 and strong indications that the Bahamas has once again become a major drug trans-shipment point for Colombian cocaine the country continues to attract a flurry of foreign investment.
The biggest single project in the Bahamas is the $800 million Atlantis Paradise Island, a large resort owned by South African entrepreneur Sol Kerzner. Kerzner's company, Sun International Hotels, recently spent $450 million to double the size of the property, which now has more than 2,300 rooms and ranks as the Caribbean's largest island resort. It also boasts a casino that is the largest in the world outside of Las Vegas.
Not all investment projects are related to tourism. A joint venture between Hong Kong's Hutchison Port Holdings Group and the privately owned Grand Bahama Development Co. has so far invested $160 million in a Freeport container terminal, while a unit of El Paso Energy Corp. of Texas is talking about spending tens of millions of dollars to construct an 88-mile gas pipeline between Freeport and South Florida.
Philip Miller, deputy director of the Bahamas Investment Authority (BIA) in Nassau, the capital, says that in a typical month, he assesses up to 25 foreign business proposals, each one representing an average $10 million in investment. Some 90 percent of all proposals win full approval within six weeks.
Since its establishment in 1993, the BIA, which bills itself as a one-stop shop for investors has managed to attract investments totaling $2 billion, mainly from the United States and Western Europe. The agency, a division of the Prime Minister's Office, no longer considers investments of under $250,000. Prospective investors must also show evidence that they can finance their projects.
Although tourism accounts for 50 percent of the Bahamas' gross domestic product, the financial services industry is in second place, at around 15 percent, employing more than 4,200 Bahamians and generating more than $400 million annually. Having established itself as a leading offshore financial center in the 1970s, the country's offshore banks and mutual funds now handle around $350 billion of other people's money. It is also a key operational base for many of the world's most recognized and respected banking and financial organizations.
We have proximity to the major financial centers of the world,said Owen Bethel, president and general manager of Montague Securities International. We also have a professional infrastructure, with all the major accounting firms, a wide selection of law firms, and a number of well-heeled financial institutions.
Montague Securities, which manages more than $70 million in assets, provides services ranging from the formation of international business companies (IBCs) to portfolio asset management and securities trading. The most important banks operating in the Bahamas are Citibank, Scotiabank, SG Hambros and the Royal Bank of Canada. In August, the local subsidiaries of two other prominent multinationalsóBarclays Bank and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) announced plans to merge, pending Bahamian government approval.
The new bank, to be known as First Caribbean International Bank (FCIB), would be the largest bank in the Bahamas and one of the most powerful in the Caribbean, with assets topping $80 billion. Barclays and CIBC would each own 45 percent of the new bank, and executives plan to sell the remaining 10 percent to investors throughout the Caribbean. The FCIB will operate from 15 countries, hold 800,000 bank accounts, and employ more than 3,000 people.
Although the economic prognosis for the country is good, the Bahamas must, in the short term, overcome several challenges. Tourism suffered both as a result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and a fire one week earlier that destroyed Nassau's historic Straw Market and adjoining properties, causing $75 million in damage. And in November, Hurricane Michelle hit the island nation, resulting in an estimated $120 million in losses.
The government must also respond to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) initiative against money laundering and offshore tax havens in which the Bahamas was listed with 34 other countries considered to be encouraging the movement of funds from developed countries to low-tax or no-tax jurisdictions. It was also cited, along with 14 other countries, for having weak monitoring or regulatory systems with regard to money laundering or drug trafficking.
Following publication of the OECD blacklist, the Bahamas legislature approved 11 laws aimed at, among other things, making it more difficult to form shell companies or use the country to launder drug money. Said Bethel, It's now easier to open a bank account in New York, Miami or London than in the Bahamas, in terms of documentation and verification of your source of funds.
To demonstrate its commitment to respond to the OECD initiative, the Central Bank of the Bahamas has revoked the licenses of 55 out of 410 offshore banks engaged in money laundering, causing offshore-company registrations to tumble by 70 percent.
I think we have satisfied the international community with the policies we're pursuing, said Francis of the Central Bank.
The effort to remove the Bahamas from the OECD blacklist has already prompted one of Bermuda's leading offshore groups, Lines Overseas Management Ltd. (LOM), to establish a Freeport sales office. LOM provides wealthy clients with services to invest in all types of securities instruments and already operates in Bermuda, Guernsey and the Cayman Islands.
We used three criteria in determining where to establish an additional office: stability of jurisdiction, potential for growth in the financial services industry, and quality of life for LOM personnel, said Craig Lines, general manager of LOM's Freeport sales office. Grand Bahama, and specifically Freeport, meets all of these criteria.
Scott Lines, managing director, added: We believe that the Bahamas, and specifically Freeport, will enjoy significant economic growth over the next 10 years, and LOM plans to be at the forefront in assisting the development of their financial services industry.
The two-year-old Bahamas International Securities Exchange (BISX) already lists 13 local stocks with a combined market capitalization exceeding $1.7 billion. The Bahamas is unique in terms of capital markets,said Keith Davis, chief legal and compliance officer at BISX. From day one, our capital market has been driven by the private sector.
Experts predict that the government's privatization efforts, such as the planned sell-off of state entities, including the Bahamas Telecommunications Corp. (Batelco) and the Bahamas Electricity Corp., will help boost the economy. Though a minimum price has not yet been set, the comp any is awaiting government approval to divest itself of 49 percent of its shares and is hoping that large telecom companiesósuch as British Telecom, AT&T and Japan's KDDówill be interested in bidding for them.
The government will offer an exclusivity period of three years to make Batelco more attractive to potential buyers and to prepare the telecommunications sector for the influx of competition in the liberalization process. The partner buying into the company would be allowed a three-year period to get the company up and running to another level, without having to be concerned about competition,said Batelco President Michael Symonette.
Although not nearly as important to the local economy in dollar terms as Batelco, the country's ship registry businessósupervised by the Bahamas Maritime Authority (BMA)óranks third in the world behind Panama and Liberia and is much better known. Cruise ships want to be associated with a quality register, and we have the largest concentration of cruise ships in the world, said BMA Director John Mervyn Jones.
Established six years ago, the BMA is based in London where 90 percent of all its ship registrations take place. It also maintains offices and agencies in the Bahamas, Tokyo, Seoul, New York and Athens. Interestingly, the bulk of cruise ships belonging to four of the world's leading cruise linesóRoyal Caribbean, Disney, Cunard and Carnivalóare registered in the Bahamas. In addition, the Lucaya Harbor cruise facility has undergone a $10.6 million upgrading program and can now welcome more than 600,000 cruise passengers a year.
While revenue from the ship registry business comes to $8 million, a rather modest amount compared to the overall services sector,said Jones, it gives the Bahamas a very high profile in international shipping.
Meanwhile, in just four years of operation, Freeport Container Port Ltd.óa subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings Group (HPH)óhas become one of the Caribbean's leading trans-shipment hubs.
The 88-acre port, constructed in three distinct phases, represents an investment of $165 million. There are advantages in being a dedicated trans-shipment port,said the port's general manager, Michael Sandpearl. This means we can build it as we want, without having the restrictions that other ports that have grown from handling bulk and general cargo usually posess.
The port project began five years ago as a 50-50 venture between HPH and the Grand Bahama Port Authority Ltd., which controls much of Freeport. But in mid-October, HPH bought out its partner's stake in the venture for an undisclosed amount.
Separately, HPH owns a 50 percent stake in Grand Bahama Airport Co. Discussions are now under way to establish an air-cargo hub for relay operations alongside the nearby container port, as well as an ambitious Grand Bahama Sea/Air Business Center on 780 acres of land between the seaport and the airport.
The center would provide a variety of warehouses and factory units tailor-built to meet the specific requirements of potential users. This could help speed air and sea intermodal trans-shipment for the region, with maximum security and minimum bureaucracy in a tax-free trade zone, while offering extremely cost-effective alternatives for companies selling in the U.S., Central and South American markets,said Sandpearl.
In positioning itself as a trans-shipment hub, Freeport has taken the lead over rival San Juan, Puerto Rico, which is vying to become a trans-shipment center for cargo moving between North and South America. Other competitors for the trans-shipment business include the Panamanian port of Manzanillo, Jamaica's Kingston and Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Currently, two customers, Mediterranean Shipping Co. of Switzerland and Maersk Sealand of Denmark, account for 90 percent of the port's business. But Freeport is especially attractive to U.S. companies. It offers an abundance of land, tax incentives, lower labor costs, English-speaking workers, and proximity to major Florida ports including Port Canaveral, Palm Beach, Port Everglades and Miami.
Geography is everything,said Sandpearl. We're ideally situated on the main routes between Europe, the Gulf of Mexico, Panama, and the east coasts of North and South America, as well as the Caribbean.
Larry Luxner is a regular contributor to The Washington Diplomat.
Thanks in part to this growing industry, the Bahamas today enjoys a per-capita gross domestic product of $12,600óamong the highest in the Caribbean. Unemployment stands at around 7 percent, inflation is restrained to under 2 percent, and the economy showed net growth in 2001 despite a slowdown in tourism resulting from last year's terrorist attacks. The outlook for the Bahamian economy is positive,said Julian W. Francis, governor of the Central Bank of the Bahamas. We are able to benefit from our history of a continuous presence as a major financial center.
On May 2, the opposition Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) regained control of the government in a major election ups et. The PLP led the Bahamas to independence from Great Britain in 1973 but was thrown out 10 years ago amid charges that then-Prime Minister Lynden Pindling had taken bribes from Colombian drug smugglers. The allegations against Pindling were never proven, but they caused a major rift with the United States that was not entirely healed until the change of government in 1992.
PLP leader Perry Christie, who defeated Tommy Turnquest of the ruling Free National Movement (FNM), has vowed to lead a government for all Bahamians and that no one need fear victimization.
Christie replaces the FNM's Hubert Ingraham, under whose long tenure the Bahamas has become one of the wealthiest countries in the Caribbean, thanks to offshore banking and tourism.
Even today, despite a downturn in Caribbean tourism after Sept. 11 and strong indications that the Bahamas has once again become a major drug trans-shipment point for Colombian cocaine the country continues to attract a flurry of foreign investment.
The biggest single project in the Bahamas is the $800 million Atlantis Paradise Island, a large resort owned by South African entrepreneur Sol Kerzner. Kerzner's company, Sun International Hotels, recently spent $450 million to double the size of the property, which now has more than 2,300 rooms and ranks as the Caribbean's largest island resort. It also boasts a casino that is the largest in the world outside of Las Vegas.
Not all investment projects are related to tourism. A joint venture between Hong Kong's Hutchison Port Holdings Group and the privately owned Grand Bahama Development Co. has so far invested $160 million in a Freeport container terminal, while a unit of El Paso Energy Corp. of Texas is talking about spending tens of millions of dollars to construct an 88-mile gas pipeline between Freeport and South Florida.
Philip Miller, deputy director of the Bahamas Investment Authority (BIA) in Nassau, the capital, says that in a typical month, he assesses up to 25 foreign business proposals, each one representing an average $10 million in investment. Some 90 percent of all proposals win full approval within six weeks.
Since its establishment in 1993, the BIA, which bills itself as a one-stop shop for investors has managed to attract investments totaling $2 billion, mainly from the United States and Western Europe. The agency, a division of the Prime Minister's Office, no longer considers investments of under $250,000. Prospective investors must also show evidence that they can finance their projects.
Although tourism accounts for 50 percent of the Bahamas' gross domestic product, the financial services industry is in second place, at around 15 percent, employing more than 4,200 Bahamians and generating more than $400 million annually. Having established itself as a leading offshore financial center in the 1970s, the country's offshore banks and mutual funds now handle around $350 billion of other people's money. It is also a key operational base for many of the world's most recognized and respected banking and financial organizations.
We have proximity to the major financial centers of the world,said Owen Bethel, president and general manager of Montague Securities International. We also have a professional infrastructure, with all the major accounting firms, a wide selection of law firms, and a number of well-heeled financial institutions.
Montague Securities, which manages more than $70 million in assets, provides services ranging from the formation of international business companies (IBCs) to portfolio asset management and securities trading. The most important banks operating in the Bahamas are Citibank, Scotiabank, SG Hambros and the Royal Bank of Canada. In August, the local subsidiaries of two other prominent multinationalsóBarclays Bank and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) announced plans to merge, pending Bahamian government approval.
The new bank, to be known as First Caribbean International Bank (FCIB), would be the largest bank in the Bahamas and one of the most powerful in the Caribbean, with assets topping $80 billion. Barclays and CIBC would each own 45 percent of the new bank, and executives plan to sell the remaining 10 percent to investors throughout the Caribbean. The FCIB will operate from 15 countries, hold 800,000 bank accounts, and employ more than 3,000 people.
Although the economic prognosis for the country is good, the Bahamas must, in the short term, overcome several challenges. Tourism suffered both as a result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and a fire one week earlier that destroyed Nassau's historic Straw Market and adjoining properties, causing $75 million in damage. And in November, Hurricane Michelle hit the island nation, resulting in an estimated $120 million in losses.
The government must also respond to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) initiative against money laundering and offshore tax havens in which the Bahamas was listed with 34 other countries considered to be encouraging the movement of funds from developed countries to low-tax or no-tax jurisdictions. It was also cited, along with 14 other countries, for having weak monitoring or regulatory systems with regard to money laundering or drug trafficking.
Following publication of the OECD blacklist, the Bahamas legislature approved 11 laws aimed at, among other things, making it more difficult to form shell companies or use the country to launder drug money. Said Bethel, It's now easier to open a bank account in New York, Miami or London than in the Bahamas, in terms of documentation and verification of your source of funds.
To demonstrate its commitment to respond to the OECD initiative, the Central Bank of the Bahamas has revoked the licenses of 55 out of 410 offshore banks engaged in money laundering, causing offshore-company registrations to tumble by 70 percent.
I think we have satisfied the international community with the policies we're pursuing, said Francis of the Central Bank.
The effort to remove the Bahamas from the OECD blacklist has already prompted one of Bermuda's leading offshore groups, Lines Overseas Management Ltd. (LOM), to establish a Freeport sales office. LOM provides wealthy clients with services to invest in all types of securities instruments and already operates in Bermuda, Guernsey and the Cayman Islands.
We used three criteria in determining where to establish an additional office: stability of jurisdiction, potential for growth in the financial services industry, and quality of life for LOM personnel, said Craig Lines, general manager of LOM's Freeport sales office. Grand Bahama, and specifically Freeport, meets all of these criteria.
Scott Lines, managing director, added: We believe that the Bahamas, and specifically Freeport, will enjoy significant economic growth over the next 10 years, and LOM plans to be at the forefront in assisting the development of their financial services industry.
The two-year-old Bahamas International Securities Exchange (BISX) already lists 13 local stocks with a combined market capitalization exceeding $1.7 billion. The Bahamas is unique in terms of capital markets,said Keith Davis, chief legal and compliance officer at BISX. From day one, our capital market has been driven by the private sector.
Experts predict that the government's privatization efforts, such as the planned sell-off of state entities, including the Bahamas Telecommunications Corp. (Batelco) and the Bahamas Electricity Corp., will help boost the economy. Though a minimum price has not yet been set, the comp any is awaiting government approval to divest itself of 49 percent of its shares and is hoping that large telecom companiesósuch as British Telecom, AT&T and Japan's KDDówill be interested in bidding for them.
The government will offer an exclusivity period of three years to make Batelco more attractive to potential buyers and to prepare the telecommunications sector for the influx of competition in the liberalization process. The partner buying into the company would be allowed a three-year period to get the company up and running to another level, without having to be concerned about competition,said Batelco President Michael Symonette.
Although not nearly as important to the local economy in dollar terms as Batelco, the country's ship registry businessósupervised by the Bahamas Maritime Authority (BMA)óranks third in the world behind Panama and Liberia and is much better known. Cruise ships want to be associated with a quality register, and we have the largest concentration of cruise ships in the world, said BMA Director John Mervyn Jones.
Established six years ago, the BMA is based in London where 90 percent of all its ship registrations take place. It also maintains offices and agencies in the Bahamas, Tokyo, Seoul, New York and Athens. Interestingly, the bulk of cruise ships belonging to four of the world's leading cruise linesóRoyal Caribbean, Disney, Cunard and Carnivalóare registered in the Bahamas. In addition, the Lucaya Harbor cruise facility has undergone a $10.6 million upgrading program and can now welcome more than 600,000 cruise passengers a year.
While revenue from the ship registry business comes to $8 million, a rather modest amount compared to the overall services sector,said Jones, it gives the Bahamas a very high profile in international shipping.
Meanwhile, in just four years of operation, Freeport Container Port Ltd.óa subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings Group (HPH)óhas become one of the Caribbean's leading trans-shipment hubs.
The 88-acre port, constructed in three distinct phases, represents an investment of $165 million. There are advantages in being a dedicated trans-shipment port,said the port's general manager, Michael Sandpearl. This means we can build it as we want, without having the restrictions that other ports that have grown from handling bulk and general cargo usually posess.
The port project began five years ago as a 50-50 venture between HPH and the Grand Bahama Port Authority Ltd., which controls much of Freeport. But in mid-October, HPH bought out its partner's stake in the venture for an undisclosed amount.
Separately, HPH owns a 50 percent stake in Grand Bahama Airport Co. Discussions are now under way to establish an air-cargo hub for relay operations alongside the nearby container port, as well as an ambitious Grand Bahama Sea/Air Business Center on 780 acres of land between the seaport and the airport.
The center would provide a variety of warehouses and factory units tailor-built to meet the specific requirements of potential users. This could help speed air and sea intermodal trans-shipment for the region, with maximum security and minimum bureaucracy in a tax-free trade zone, while offering extremely cost-effective alternatives for companies selling in the U.S., Central and South American markets,said Sandpearl.
In positioning itself as a trans-shipment hub, Freeport has taken the lead over rival San Juan, Puerto Rico, which is vying to become a trans-shipment center for cargo moving between North and South America. Other competitors for the trans-shipment business include the Panamanian port of Manzanillo, Jamaica's Kingston and Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Currently, two customers, Mediterranean Shipping Co. of Switzerland and Maersk Sealand of Denmark, account for 90 percent of the port's business. But Freeport is especially attractive to U.S. companies. It offers an abundance of land, tax incentives, lower labor costs, English-speaking workers, and proximity to major Florida ports including Port Canaveral, Palm Beach, Port Everglades and Miami.
Geography is everything,said Sandpearl. We're ideally situated on the main routes between Europe, the Gulf of Mexico, Panama, and the east coasts of North and South America, as well as the Caribbean.
Larry Luxner is a regular contributor to The Washington Diplomat.
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