“We at the Barbados Chamber of Commerce & Industry [in 2016] . . . remained that trusted voice of reason and work[ed] harder at ensuring that an enabling environment is made so as to attract investors . . .”
– Lisa Gale, outgoing executive director, Chamber Biz newsletter, February 2017; reprinted in Barbados Business Authority, February. 27.
ALTHOUGH THERE WERE three elephants in the room, it did not have to turn into a gaudy circus with the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry as the self-appointed ringmaster. But it did.
The three were Simpson Oil Ltd. and Rubis Caribbean Ltd. – both of which had bid to purchase the Barbados National Terminal Co. Ltd. – and KPMG, which advised the terminal’s parent, the Government-owned Barbados National Oil Co. Ltd., to select SOL as the preferred bidder. All three elephants being members of the BCCI.
The BCCI picked sides with two of the three, and left the other elephant to twist in the wind.
It sided with SOL and KPMG, saying that “the sale of the BNTCL [to SOL] does not appear to negatively impact the interest of the petroleum industry, the business community or the economy of Barbados”.
And with that – sorry for the change in metaphors – it threw Rubis under the bus. It also undermined is own philosophy expressed in the quotation carried above, that as 2017 opened it remained “that trusted voice of reason” doing all it could “to attract investors” to Barbados.
Just for the record, let me summarise a little bit about Rubis that the most basic web search yields:
Rubis is a France-based international company which specialises in the storage, distribution and sale of petroleum, LPG, food, and chemical products, not only in France, but also in Switzerland, Bermuda, Madagascar, Morocco, Senegal and many countries in the Caribbean. The company’s business is carried on by several subsidiaries, among them, Rubis Terminal.
According to the website energy-oil-gas.com: “Rubis Terminal stores petroleum products, chemicals and liquid gases in both Rotterdam, Europe’s busiest port, and Antwerp, the second busiest, in partnership with Japanese group Mitsul.”
After making several investments over the past 30 years, it says, “Rubis Terminal set the foundation for it to become the number one independent operator in France and fifth in Europe.”
In 2012, Rubis Group also acquired 50 per cent of the Delta terminal in Ceyhan, Turkey, and plans to increase its storage capacity to one million cubic metres and to build a jetty able to receive huge “Suezmax” oil tankers.
Did you note that 50 per cent in the Delta terminal? That’s what it is asking for in the BNTCL. And it is willing to meet SOL’s price by paying US$50 million for the stake.
Would you therefore agree that this company is at least a qualified bidder for joint ownership of our terminal at Fairy Valley, Christ Church?
Well, the BCCI, like KPMG, didn’t. Despite its clearly proven track record in operating oil terminals, and despite all of the reasons put forward by Rubis Caribbean as to its unease about suddenly having its sole competitor in Barbados become its landlord at the terminal, the chamber’s February 25 statement intoned: “The BCCI, based on all of the facts presented, including the details released by the Fair Trading Commission (FTC), has construed that the bidding process was properly managed.”
I have no doubt it was, but that is a dodge. The question remains: Was the decision fair? That consideration doesn’t seem to have bothered the chamber up to the time it issued the February 25 statement, in which it undermined its self-proclaimed mission to foster an “enabling environment” to “attract investors.”
It picked one equally qualified investor over another without acknowledging that it would be just as good a partner in owning the terminal and without giving any reasons why it could not recommend Rubis, choosing instead to hide behind KPMG’s petticoat. Way to go to attract foreign investment, BCCI.
But surely such obvious unfairness could not be allowed to stand, and, less than a week later, on Thursday, March 2, the chamber went into reverse. And I do mean reverse. A reverse that would have taken it all around Bushy Park circuit in record-setting time, like some of those car-reverse scenes you see in The Mechanic movies, where our hero Jason Statham is driving backwards along a busy Parisian street at about 60 miles per hour trying to escape from the bad guys.
The chamber sent out another email, saying it wanted to “qualify its statement issued on 25th February, 2017 regarding the sale of BNTCL”.
“We regret that our original statement may have unintentionally appeared to favour one of the bidders over the other.”
Really, BCCI? Who would have thought that?
Suddenly, the light of knowledge, possibly gained from more painstaking research – like googling Rubis’ Wikipedia page – had led the chamber to the epiphany that SOL and Rubis “are both suitably qualified to own, operate and manage a terminal of this nature in a highly professional manner”.
Yes, that’s what it said, after dismissing Rubis so easily less than a week earlier.
Suddenly, the BCCI remembered that its mission was to “promote transparency and competition in the marketplace”.
I expect the FTC to remember that that is their mission too, although it is probably expressed in bigger words.
Anyway, I am glad about the revelation, but I am worried about the chamber putting us on notice that it “will continue to closely monitor and comment further on the privatisation of the BNTCL when the relevant authorities have concluded their due diligence on this purchase”.
Please, BCCI, don’t bother – you’ve already said more than enough on that matter.