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BS&T holds 90th AGM today at Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre
3/11/2010
TODAY Barbados’ largest conglomerate, the Barbados Shipping & Trading Company Limited (BS&T), now under the control of Trinidadian conglomerate Neal & Massy Holdings Limited, holds its 90th Annual General Meeting at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
The meeting will focus on, among other things, the performance of the group for the financial year ended September 30th, 2009, during which net income was Bds $25.8 million, a drop of 31.5 percent when compared to the $37.7 million recorded for 2008.
One of the group’s areas of business is that of shipping and air services, and due to the declining levels of trade and travel, 2009 proved to be a challenging year for these operations.
In the CEO’s report of the company’s annual report for the year, it was said that Seawell Air Services, operating at the Grantley Adams International Airport, endured a particularly challenging year.
It was noted that the commercial aviation industry was hit hard by the contraction in international economic activity as a result of the global meltdown, and therefore led to devastating losses even for traditionally successful airlines.
This affected Seawell from the point of view of revenue earnings, with a number of airlines reducing flight and/or aircraft size, along with ceasing flights for a particular period, while Air Jamaica was seen to have ceased operations into Barbados.
This, in addition to the fact that a joint-venture providing chilled storage for in-transit perishable cargo also saw a drastic reduction in volumes, meant that staff reductions for the company were inevitable during the year.
BS&T holds a 49 percent stake in Caribbean Airport Services (CAS) Limited, and this, unlike Seawell, reported an improved performance for the year.
CAS, a joint-venture with LIAT that provides ground handling services at Antigua’s international airport, improved its operating performance during the year, being able to achieve increases in certain handling fees.
2010 also appears to be shaping up to be another good year for CAS, as they have been awarded the contract to handle two additional carriers, one as of October last year, and the other from the 2009-2010 winter season.
As it relates to shipping, the Group is involved in Barbados through their ownership of Booth Steamship, which during the year under review, experienced a considerable decline in overall cargo volumes handled at the Bridgetown Port and accordingly its results were below target and those of recent years.
The outlook for the current financial year is also not an optimistic one, as the report noted that indications are that low volumes of imports into Barbados will continue through much of this year due to reduced demand. (RH)
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