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Nassau flagship drives 1/3 of parent’s income
from 07242023 BUSINESS
by tribune242
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
NASSAU Cruise Port is being hailed as a flagship investment by its controlling shareholder with The Bahamas now accounting for almost one-third of its total group adjusted revenues and operating income.
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Global Ports Holding, in its justreleased annual results, touted its $322m-plus transformation of Nassau’s “iconic” port as “a testament globally” to its development abilities as it revealed the facility generated some 31.2 percent of its total adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) during the 12 months to end-March 2023.
The 49 percent equity owner also disclosed that the $34.2m in adjusted revenues generated from port operations during that period meant Nassau was responsible for 29.4 percent of the $117.2m total generated by a 27-strong worldwide portfolio of cruise ports.
And Nassau’s increasingly important contribution to Global Ports Holding’s financial performance was further highlighted by the fact that, over the 12 months to end-March 2023, it had received 3.8m - or 41.4 percent - of the total 9.2m passengers that passed through the group’s operated cruise ports.
Michael Maura, Nassau Cruise Port’s chief executive, told Tribune Business that this nation’s proximity to the world’s largest cruise passenger source market in the UScombined with the industry’s shift to shorter three and four-night cruises post-COVID - meant this nation had recovered more quickly than other cruise-reliant countries and ports in Global Ports Holding’s portfolio.
And, while its controlling shareholder’s ports in the Mediterranean were impacted by cruising’s regional seasonality, with ships diverted to others regions during the colder winter months, Nassau and the wider Bahamas benefit from the act that the industry is a consistent yearround business in this area when hurricanes strike. Given that Global Ports Holding had just two operating ports, Nassau and Antigua, in the Americas
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