After nearly two years without dividends, shareholders of Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) Ltd. (FBB) can look forward to an estimated $0.07 per share next week following the bank posting $3.18 million in net income for first three quarters of 2011. The bank recently announced that all shareholders of record as of Nov. 28, 2011 would receive the dividend, payable Dec. 5, 2011.

Representing an over 665 percent improvement on last year's third quarter results, the bank's Chief Executive Anwer J. Sunderji told Guardian Business in an earlier interview that FBB has been adjusting the composition of the loans in its portfolio.  The bank has been focusing on the higher-risk, higher yield consumer loans and reducing the amount of mortgages on its books.

"We have primarily been a mortgage bank, but we are increasing our footprint in the area of higher yielding loans, so we're going up the yield curve a bit," Sunderji told Guardian Business earlier this month.

Mortgages traditionally accounted for about 90 percent of the bank's loan portfolio, but Sunderji said that has come down into the 70 percent range, with more of the loan book now in higher yielding facilities.

He forecast that net income would exceed $4 million by the bank's Dec. 31 fiscal year-end. The higher yielding portfolio, and its 14 percent growth together helped produce a 27 percent increase in the top line interest income to the Sept. 30, 2011 third quarter end at $19.29 million, up from $15.18 million year-on-year.

Despite the spike, interest expense only grew 2.6 percent for the nine months, resulting in a 61 percent increase in net interest income to $10.21 million and setting the income statement up for strong growth in the bottom line.

The riskier loan classes FBB is pursuing may have prompted its 67 percent increase in provisions for loan losses - that line expanding $459.2K to $1.144 million by Sept. 30.  It accounted for about a third of the 15 percent expansion in total expenses.

But it was salaries and employee benefits that kicked in the most to the growth of expenses, that line ballooning 20.8 percent to $4.91 million.  CFAL's senior research analyst, Jamaal Stubbs, told Guardian Business the expansion of FBB's collections department was likely behind much of that growth.

In a media release from Fidelity at the release of its third quarter results, Sunderji noted that non-performing loans were up to 8.4 percent of the loan book.  With loans and advances to customers at $242.7 million, that's about $20 million in the non-performing classification.
The CEO said he would still like to see better performance in delinquent loans, and that the bank remained focused on reducing them.

At Sept. 30, Fidelity's total assets were $326.65 million, with total liabilities at $288.75 million.  Deposits from customers grew 18.7 percent year-on-year to $261.95 million. Total equity came in at $37.9 million. Return on shareholder equity was 11.7 percent for the first three quarters, with return on assets coming in at 1.4 percent.

AT LAST, the waiting is over, and the face of Kerzner remains. For weeks, Bahamians have been nervously speculating on the future of the mega-resort across the harbour -- the largest  private sector employer in the Bahamas.

Almost 8,000 Bahamians depend upon Atlantis and the Ocean Club to provide the means for them to support their families and send their children to school -- many to private schools.

There were whispers that a hedge fund, which held Kerzner International's $175 million debt, was about to take over the resort because of its increasing difficulty in meeting its payments. To Bahamians, a hedge fund means the "numbers crunching boys", only interested in the bottom line of t ...

ONE of the most controversial subjects in the Bahamas, a topic which has often been too taboo for public discourse, will come to life in an hour-long documentary at the Bahamas International Film Festival this Friday.

In "The Real Voodoo", documentary filmmaker Sandra Whiteley gives viewers a behind-the-scenes, inside look at the national religion of Haiti, Voodoo.

When she applied to have her film included in BIFF, Ms Whiteley said she knew only of a loose connection between Voodoo and the Bahamas' indigenous spiritual practice, Obeah.

She knew very little about the historical relationship between the two countries and the deep social tensi ...

A magistrate yesterday found Bishop Earl Randolph Fraser guilty of having a sexual relationship with a teenage girl in his congregation who had come to him for counseling. Deputy Chief Magistrate Carolita Bethell sentenced Fraser, who recently celebrated his 16th pastoral anniversary as the head of Pilgrim Full Baptist Temple, to three years in prison.  With time off for good behavior, Fraser will serve two years. Fraser and his wife, Jacqueline, appeared stunned at the verdict, but they put on a stoic front outside the courtroom where a large crowd of onlookers applauded the verdict. Fraser, 54, of Eastwood Estates, stared blankly as officers escorted him to a holding cell at the Central Police Station with his hands cuffed behind his back. His wife, who gasped as he was led from the courtroom, praised God as she left the Bank Lane courtroom surrounded by relatives and congregants.  Just a few hours earlier, Fraser, his wife, and their small entourage had smiles on their faces when they arrived at court. Fraser began the illicit affair with the 16-year-old girl shortly after their counseling sessions began in July 2005, the evidence revealed.  The sexual relationship ended in February 2006, the girl said. According to the evidence, the troubled teen's mother put her out of her home after hearing reports of misbehavior.  She moved in with her grandmother, who agreed to allow Fraser to counsel her.  Fraser was also supposed to counsel the accuser's mother separately, but he never did. In her testimony, Fraser's accuser said that the bishop told her that no one would believe her and that he knew people in high places. At the end of it all, Bethell said she found the accuser's account "convincing."  She added that the witness was "solid and truthful" when confronted by rigorous cross-examination.  In contrast, Bethell found the testimony of Fraser "untruthful." Mrs. Fraser clasped the hand of her brother-in-law John Forbes' and whispered "Jesus, Jesus" when Bethell said she did not believe her husband's denials of the affair. The accuser said she and Fraser had sex on Mondays and Wednesdays on the floor of his office before services, and occasionally at his home when his wife was not there.  Police found Fraser's semen on carpet swaths collected from the church office. Under cross-examination by Franklyn Williams, the deputy director of public prosecutions, Fraser and his wife said that they had intercourse on the floor of the office when they stayed in the administration building during power outages at their home. During his plea of mitigation, defense attorney Jairam Mangra said Fraser was a "respectable, prominent member of society" who until his conviction had a stellar character. Bethell, who has a sentencing cap of five years, said she had no difficulty imposing the maximum sentence.  However, Bethell said she took into account that this was a retrial and Fraser had the case "hanging over his head since 2006." A magistrate in 2007 discharged the case against Fraser, but the appellate court ordered a new trial before another magistrate in 2008. Bethell said Fraser breached the trust the girl's grandmother had in him.  She said his conduct "must have been a terrible let down for members of your congregation." Mangra said he intended to appeal the decision and he asked the court to consider releasing Fraser on bail pending appeal.  Bethell said she would deal with the issue of bail once the documents were filed. Police took Fraser to prison at lunchtime.