The government of Barbados is expected to waive more than BD$2 million in taxes from the sale of the Almond Beach Village, the Barbados Nation reported last week, citing a PricewaterhouseCoopers report. Almond Beach is owned by the local Neal & Massy group.
According to the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report: "Management has not taken into account any amount in respect of stamp duty or property transfer tax on the sale of the transaction as they expect these charges to be waived by the government of Barbados."
PwC added: "While we have been provided with correspondence to support management’s expectation of an official waiver, we have not been provided with statutory instruments or other audit evidence adequate to support the actual waiver. Had the stamp duty and property transfer tax on the transaction been recorded, assets held for sale, total assets, revaluation reserve and shareholders’ equity would all have been reduced by BD$2.5 million."
On the same day, the Barbados Advocate reported that an "interesting bid (has been) placed for Almond Resort shares." Citing a trading report of the Barbados Stock Exchange, the Advocate said, "Someone wants to buy 100,000 shares of Almond Resorts Incorporated." The bid is outlined in the trading report of the Barbados Stock Exchange (BSE), which said the price being quoted is two Barbadian cents a share.
Quoting an unnamed financial analyst, the Advocate's Business Monday said that both the bid and the price are very interesting in light of Almond Resort's quoted price on the BSE. The last quoted price for Almond Resorts shares on the BSE was 32 Barbadian cents a share.
In its January 2014 Quarterly Bulletin, the IDB had said, "The falloff in tourism value-added and the effect it had on the other productive sectors resulted in the government of Barbados increasing its focus on the industry and earmarking it as a key sector to propel macroeconomic stability. As such, various tourism-related capital projects (for example, Four Seasons, Almond Beach Resort, and Silver Sands Hotel) have been listed and are anticipated to help take the economy out of recession and spur growth."
Almond Resorts Inc, a subsidiary of the Neal & Massy Holdings group, has been in asset disposal mode for almost three years after accumulating more than B$70 million in debt, as tourism in Barbados slumped causing the island’s economy to contract.