NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Prime Minister Philip Davis yesterday confirmed that the government has engaged the global financial group Rothschild & Co as an independent advisor on its $11.8 billion debt portfolio.
Davis confirmed the company had been contracted on the sidelines of a Water & Sewerage press conference yesterday.
“They are not restructuring the government’s debt,” he said.
“They were engaged to assist us in looking at the profile of our debts with a view of seeing how best we could respond to dealing with creating more headroom for the country to be able to move ahead.”
The Opposition’s Shadow Minister for Finance East Grand Bahama MP Kwasi Thompson on Tuesday called on the Davis administration to confirm whether it has engaged the global financial group Rothschild & Co to provide advisory services on its debt portfolio and if so, to release the terms of the engagement.
Thompson in a statement referred to a report in the Tribune, which claimed that the government has engaged Rothschild & Co to provide advisory services on its debt portfolio.
“Given all the possible implications on the country’s credit risk profile, the government must confirm if it has engaged the services of this company and provide the public with its terms of engagement if so,” said Thompson.
He added: “As always, the Opposition will always support any and all efforts to enhance the country’s debt profile. Nonetheless, we are concerned that we have had no mention of this engagement by the Ministry of Finance in the public sphere, nor did the government indicate its intent to engage private consultants in its 2022 Annual Borrowing Plan just released earlier in July.
“If there is such an engagement, the lack of transparency and clarity on the matter may send an entirely wrong signal to the market. We recognize with concern as well that our listed Bahamian debt bonds continue to trade near historic lows, with the 20/32 series trading at 64.78 cents on the dollar.“
Thompson noted that the bond series have been on a consistent and unrelenting downward trend over the last 10 months.
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