• After a delay in submission, Dolphin Cove Limited (DCOVE) released its Audited Financials for the year ended December 31, 2024 (FY24), which showed it recorded a 40.3% decline in net profit to US$1.83Mn. The decline was primarily driven by lower revenues, which outweighed marginal savings on total costs.
• Revenues fell by 10.6% to US$7.51Mn as both programme^[1] income (-14.1%) and ancillary services^[2] (-7.0%) declined. DCOVE’s revenues were impacted by a decline in the number of park visitors, amid severe weather, primarily Hurricane Beryl, which led to park closures for 5 to 8 days. Additionally, a drop in flights to Montego Bay, particularly from major U.S. markets in the wake of the US Travel Advisory, also contributed to the decrease in visitors.
• Lower revenues were met by marginal savings on total costs, which were down by 1.7% to US$10.59Mn. Direct costs were relatively flat, but its administrative costs were 31.0% lower, reflecting the absence of a one-off expense due to a GCT liability in FY23.
• However, most of these savings were offset by higher operations and selling costs, up by US$0.29Mn (+7.6%) and US$0.36Mn (+13.3%) respectively. DCOVE also faced higher net finance costs, which rose by 86.4% to US$0.59Mn, as lower finance income amid lower FX gains was met by higher finance costs after the drawdown of a 12% Sagicor loan worth US$1.27Mn.
• With lower revenues and marginal total cost savings resulting in a falloff in net profit, earnings per share declined from US$0.74 in the prior year to US$0.47.
• At the market close on Thursday, DCOVE’s stock was J$11.50, down by 62.2% since the end of last calendar year. News that its parent company was filing for bankruptcy and boardroom disagreements contributed to the depreciation in the stock price. At its current price, DCOVE trades at a P/E of 17.10x, which is above the Junior Market Others Sector average of 16.20x.

(Source: Dolphin Cove Limited & NCBCM Research)

^[1] Programme attraction revenue represents programme fees from hotels, cruise ships and walk-in guests.

^[2] Ancillary services revenue represents revenue from the operation of restaurants, gift shops, photo shops and other adventure tours.

• The multibillion-dollar Southern Coastal Highway Improvement Project (SCHIP) is 90% complete, Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation with Responsibility for Works, Hon. Robert Morgan, has advised.
• Addressing Wednesday’s (April 30, 2025) post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, he said work has been completed on Part A, which entails the May Pen to Williamsfield toll road extension.
• “We have given the public the benefit of no tolling over the last several months. Part B-2, Harbour View to Yallahs Bridge, which is a four-lane highway, is also open to the public, as well as Parts B-3 and 4, Yallahs to Port Antonio and Morant Bay to Cedar Valley, which is a two-lane highway, which was divided into three tranches. One and two are substantially complete, and we have minor outstanding works there, and tranche three is now significantly complete,” the Minister further informed.
• Meanwhile, Mr. Morgan disclosed that the Cabinet recently approved the Port Antonio Bypass. “The US$81Mn investment will ease traffic congestion and open up Port Antonio to more development as well as give persons better access to that side of the island,” he said.
• The J$1Bn Grange Lane dualisation project in St. Catherine is 92% complete and is expected to be completed by June, Mr. Morgan advised. “Cabinet has also approved the $2.4Bn Braeton Road as part of the Hellshire main road. This contract has been awarded to S&G [Limited], and it will commence in June of this year,” he indicated.

(Source: JIS)

• Political parties in the Cayman Islands scrambled to form coalitions on Thursday, May 1, 2025, after no single party clinched a majority following a tight general election. The People’s Progressive Movement won seven seats in Parliament, the most out of all parties, but was three short of a majority, according to preliminary results.
• Meanwhile, two newly-formed parties, the Cayman Islands National Party, founded by a former manager at Ernst & Young, and the Caymanian Community Party, established by members of the dissolved United People’s Movement, won four seats each.
• Three independent candidates also won seats in Parliament, and parties are expected to court them and form a coalition. The leader of the party that wins at least 10 of the 19 elected seats in Parliament would become the new premier.
• Voters on Monday also participated in a nonbinding referendum. They voted in favour of decriminalising the possession and consumption of small amounts of marijuana and of creating a national lottery. But they rejected a proposal to develop cruise berthing infrastructure, which environmentalists had opposed.

(Source: ABC News)

• The Central Bank of Barbados has lowered its growth projection for 2025 to 2.7%, down from the 3.0% forecast issued earlier this year, citing mounting global economic pressures and signs of slowing momentum in key sectors.
• In its economic review for the first quarter of the year, the Bank reported that the economy expanded by 2.6% between January and March, led primarily by tourism, construction, and business and professional services.
• Governor Dr Kevin Greenidge described the domestic fundamentals as “solid” but underscored that the Bank has revised its inflation forecast upward, now expecting the 12-month average rate to range between 1.7% and 3.5%, compared to earlier projections of 1.5% to 2.5%.
• He attributed this to the potential impact of global trade tensions, shipping disruptions, and adverse weather conditions affecting food production. “There are risks that could affect both prices and growth,” Greenidge noted as he presented the report.
• He further pointed to uncertainties stemming from the ongoing US-China trade dispute and the possibility of renewed supply chain shocks. Despite these risks, the Bank reported that international reserves remained healthy at $3.4Bn, or 32.4 weeks of import cover. It also noted that unemployment had declined to 7.1% by September 2024, based on data from the NIS claims, and that the government posted a primary surplus of $662.8Mn, or 4.6% of GDP.

(Source: Barbados Today)

• U.S. construction spending unexpectedly fell in March amid broad declines in outlays on private and public projects. The Commerce Department's Census Bureau said on Thursday that construction spending dropped 0.5% after a slightly downwardly revised 0.6% increase in February. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast construction spending gaining 0.2% after a previously reported 0.7% jump in February.
• Despite the month-to-month slump, construction spending still increased by 2.8% year-on-year in March. Spending on private construction projects fell 0.6%. Investment in residential construction slipped 0.4%, with outlays on new single-family projects edging up 0.1%.
• High mortgage rates and tariffs on imported goods are constraining homebuilding. The National Association of Homebuilders estimated last month that the latest round of tariffs, including boosting duties on Chinese imports to 145% and imposing a 25% levy on foreign steel and aluminum, had increased construction costs by $10,900 per home.
• Outlays on multi-family housing units were unchanged in March. Investment in private non-residential structures like offices and factories declined by 0.8%. Spending on public construction projects eased 0.2%. State and local government spending also fell 0.2%, while outlays on federal government projects decreased 0.4%.

(Source: Reuters)

• Wall Street stocks rallied, and gold prices slid on Thursday as solid earnings from big tech bolstered investor risk appetite. All three major U.S. stock indexes began the month in positive territory, with upbeat quarterly results from Meta Platforms and Microsoft, benefiting the Nasdaq most, sending the tech-laden index up 2.3%.
• "Clearly sparking (Thursday's) rally was better-than-expected earnings from Microsoft and Meta, and once again calming some of the over-the-top recessionary worries that we were dealing with just a couple of weeks ago," said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group in Omaha. "But the good news is stocks have now recovered from the selloff after 'Liberation Day.'"
• U.S. President Donald Trump announced steep tariffs on April 2, which rattled world markets for much of last month. The dollar advanced as the yen took a hit after the Bank of Japan cut its growth forecasts due to uncertainties surrounding U.S. tariff policy. Trading was thin throughout Asia and Europe due to May Day holidays. There were no major announcements regarding trade negotiations following Trump's April 2 announcement.
• First quarter earnings season is well past its halfway point, with 325 companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Of those, 74% have beaten analyst expectations, according to LSEG. Apple and Amazon are due to report after the closing bell, the fifth and sixth members of the so-called "magnificent seven" to post quarterly results, leaving chipmaker Nvidia, which is expected to release its first-quarter earnings on May 28.
• "The reality is the economy is slowing but not dropping off a cliff, and some of these large tech companies are confirming that," Detrick added. "It's nice to talk about something besides tariffs, especially when it's backed by some solid earnings overall by some of the large tech companies." On the economic front, U.S. factory activity remained in contraction, while jobless claims increased more than analysts expected.

(Source: Reuters)

• Image Plus Consultants Limited (IPCL) recorded net profit of $43.93Mn for the financial year ended February 28, 2025, a 79.3% YoY decline from $211.93Mn in FY2023. A scan of IPCL’s income statement shows that lower revenues and rising costs caused the decline, even as the company continued its capital expansion strategy following its 2023 IPO.
• Revenues fell by 9.6% ($114.79Mn) to $1.08Bn, reflecting lower diagnostic volumes and pricing pressures across services, particularly X-Ray and CT scans, according to management. With revenues down, gross profit also slipped to $712.3Mn, down from $764.8Mn a year earlier.
• Reflecting higher professional fees and general inflation, administrative expenses also increased, rising by 9.7% YoY to $524.0Mn. More notably, depreciation and amortisation expenses nearly doubled to $108.4Mn, owing to the ramp-up of high-value imaging equipment, including MRI and mammography machines.
• With interest payments on a suite of new loans taken to fund equipment purchases and facility upgrades, finance costs doubled to $38.7Mn from $14.2Mn in FY2023.
• With lower revenues and higher expenses driving the 79.3% decline in net profit, earnings per share declined from J$0.17 in the prior year to $0.04.
• At market close on Wednesday, IPCL’s stock was J$1.03, down 1.9% from Tuesday and 39.9% since the start of the year. At its current price, IPCL trades at a P/E of 25.75x, which is above the Junior Market Health Sector average of 23.26x.

(Source: IPCL & NCBCM Research)

• Jamaica’s trade deficit at the end of 2024 decreased by 3.0% to US$5.42Bn when compared to US$5.59Bn in 2023 according to data from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN). The decline was driven by lower import spending outweighing lower exports.
• For the full year of 2024, Jamaica’s spending on imports totalled US$7.28Bn, down US$0.30Bn (4.0%), while the country earned approximately US$1.86Bn from exports, down US$0.13Bn (6.7%).
• This 4.0% reduction in import spending was largely due to a decline in imports of Raw Materials/Intermediate Goods and Fuels and Lubricants, which declined by 10.6% and 6.9%, respectively. On the export side, the 6.7% decline reflected a 62.9% decrease in the value of re-exports¹, which was partly offset by an 11.0% increase in domestic exports.
• The top five import markets during the period were the United States, China, Brazil, Japan, and Colombia. However, import spending from these countries fell by about 4.0% to $4.45Bn, largely due to lower spending on imports of Mineral Fuels. On the other hand, Jamaica's biggest export markets included the United States, Russia, the Netherlands, Canada, and Iceland. Export revenue from these markets rose by 20.0% to US$1.39Bn, largely due to higher exports of Crude Materials.
• Given the U.S. administration’s announcement of a minimum 10% tariff on all trading partners, this policy shift could lead to a decline in total domestic export revenues for Jamaica, with the U.S. being Jamaica's top trading partner, estimated to account for over 40% of total goods exports. This would create a higher trade deficit balance, reversing the decline witnessed in 2024.

___________________
¹Re-exports apply to any goods that are brought into the country from abroad and then resent to another country.

(Sources: STATIN & NCBCM Research)

• To reduce the risk that the Barbadian government will be forced to bail out the National Insurance and Social Security Service’s (NISS) pension fund, the administration is banking on the effectiveness of three actions: boosting the working-age population, adjusting contribution rates, and strengthening governance of the fund.
• According to the Government of Barbados’s 2025 Fiscal Risk Statement prepared by the Fiscal Risk Unit (FRU) in the Ministry of Finance, Economic Affairs and Investment, social and long-term risks including the island’s quickly ageing population, low birth rate, increasing costs to support healthcare, and the current social welfare programmes, are seen as “unsustainable”.
• Addressing the impact of the island’s ageing population and the long-term fiscal implications, the ministry document acknowledged Barbados was “experiencing significant demographic changes”, which posed major fiscal challenges. These included a dwindling workforce and concurrent revenue decline, as well as a smaller working-age population that would support an increasing ageing population.
• To reduce the impact on the NISSS, the government said several steps were being taken to ensure the State does not have to shore up the pensions fund, which the 17th Actuarial Review showed the NISSS liabilities exceeded its assets. However, the administration was confident that introducing policies to increase the working age population, adjusting the NISSS contribution rates, and tightening governance and management of the fund would stave off the necessity to pump money into the social security system to support rising pension demands.
• The report noted that a life expectancy on the island of around 79.92 years in 2025, and a GDP per capita income of $22,673 in 2023, suggested overall health and wellbeing of Barbadians, as well as a “high standard of living”.  However, it warned that the population dynamics remain a challenge to the sustainability of social welfare programs and labour productivity, and that these issues demand strategic planning and ongoing policy adjustments to safeguard government resources and societal stability.

(Source: Barbados Today)

• Mexico's economy performed better than expected in the first quarter of the year, preliminary data released by the national statistics agency INEGI showed on Wednesday, April 30, 2025. Still, analysts continue to warn of a difficult path ahead.
• Latin America's second-largest economy grew 0.2% in the first quarter from the final three months of 2024, INEGI said. That outpaced market expectations in a Reuters poll for zero growth and marked a rebound from a 0.6% fourth-quarter contraction. However, economists continued to sound a cautious note in light of the trade shock generated by U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats.
• "The quarter-to-quarter gain helped the Mexican economy avoid a technical recession, but it does little to alter the weak trajectory," Pantheon Macroeconomics chief Latin America economist Andres Abadia said in a note to clients. He mentioned heightened domestic uncertainty, tight financial conditions and ongoing risks from the U.S. trade war, noting that leading indicators already point to a challenging outlook.
• Compared with the same quarter a year earlier, the Mexican economy expanded 0.8% in the January-March period, the statistics agency said, also boosted by primary activities. Economists expected 0.6% year-on-year growth.
• Capital Economics emerging markets economist Kimberley Sperrfechter said the data, which suggests that Mexico headed into the second quarter with weak momentum, should reinforce the central bank's concerns about the health of the economy. "This should pave the way for another 50 basis point rate cut at Banxico's meeting next month," she said, which would represent the third such consecutive reduction, even as annual inflation ticked up in early April.

(Source: Reuters)