Caribbean, Latin America Business In Brief
August 27, 2010
CaribWorldNews, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Aug. 27, 2010: High levels of debt and elevated inflation will continue to cast a shadow over the coming years` food and drinks value growth in the Caribbean, a new report claims.The latest Caribbean Food and Drink report claims that foreign direct investment in the mass grocery retail industry will be deterred by the lack of immediate rewards. Researchers said that although the Caribbean is not a homogenous food and drinks market, the fact that most of the region remains heavily debt-ridden poses downside risks to consumer outlook. `While we expect that debt will be more successfully managed in the medium term, this will be reliant on the successful implementation of the governments` fiscal stabilization strategies,` the report said, while adding that as European economies are grappling with the effects of debt overhang and deflation and the U.S. is already showing signs of another slowdown in economic activity, the outlook for tourism and FDI into the Caribbean does not look overly positive, with clear implications for food values growth.CAYMAN ISLANDS-BASED COMPANY FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY The U.S. operations and the Cayman Islands holding company of Trico Marine Services Inc., the Woodlands, Texas, offshore-energy-services provider, has filed for bankruptcy. In a late Wednesday statement, Trico Marine said it filed the petitions in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. The company has sold assets and cut costs, and Trico is `beginning to see indications of improved operational performance,` Chairman and Chief Executive Richard A. Bachmann, who took the helm at the company in May, said in the statement. But `the combination of a sluggish economy, a highly leveraged balance sheet and imminent interest payments due` led the company to conclude that a reorganization was its best option, he said. Funds managed by Tennenbaum Capital Partners LLC, the Santa Monica, Calif., investment firm, have committed as much as $35 million of debtor-in-possession financing, Trico Marine said.MASTERCARD LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN PURCHASE VOLUME UP MasterCard`s Latin America and Caribbean region has posted double-digit growth in gross dollar volume, purchase volume and transactions for its MasterCard-branded programs. Company officials say for the second quarter ending June 30, 2010, MasterCard cardholders in the LAC region used their MasterCard branded cards for 685 million purchase and cash transactions, up 12.7 percent versus the same period of 2009. ECUADOREcuador`s recent decision to place the Yasuni Ishpingo Tambococha Tiputini National Park under the protection of a UNDP trust fund is the first of its kind. This particular plot of Amazon forest is worth $7.2 billion because of the 846 million barrels of natural oil reserves resting quietly beneath its surface. But Ecuador refuses to cash in.Bisrat Aklilu, Executive Coordinator for the UNDP`s Multi-Donor Trust Fund Office, told MediaGlobal, `This is a very, very unique decision. No oil-producing country has ever chosen not to extract it, especially in a time of economic crisis. It`s a historic decision.`
