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Sabga upset over Facebook
International tech companies undermining local media
Sean Douglas
Global technology giants like Facebook that operate online in TT without paying taxes undermine local media houses that make investments and create jobs, Ansa McAl chairman, Norman Sabga said yesterday.
He shared his views as he replied to Newsday’s query about a recent $11 million loss by Guardian Media Ltd (GML), after he presented the conglomerate’s latest half year report at the Tatil Building, Port of Spain.
“I have a problem with Facebook, Twitter and the other international companies being able to sell media in TT without paying a significant penalty,” he said, likening it to tax-free online shopping. “I don’t think these (foreign) organisations have any employees on the ground, I don’t think they pay tax, and they take foreign exchange because payments go to them in foreign exchange. They have a huge advantage in the market-place but they have nothing on the ground.” They do not invest in TT, he added.
Sabga did not object to locals using those platforms, but said local media must be able to enjoy a level playing field with them.
“That does not exist, because we have property, we pay taxes and business levies and every other cost associated with the market and we employ 600 (workers).”
Otherwise, Sabga said Ansa McAl had invested very heavily in automation for GML and expects to see a return on it. He expressed commitment to GML.
“We think we’ll reverse the trend and improve on the returns. We are in a transitional period.”
The region’s biggest conglomerate made a $303 million profit after tax for the first six months of 2019, down six per cent from the same period last year ($323 million), while revenues were up one per cent ($3.1 billion) verus $3.06 billion last year.
Asked whether a lull in the local economy was a cause for the two per cent drop in profits (despite the one per cent rise in revenues), Sabga said the reason for the dip was certain one-off costs plus a rise in some costs, such as $25 million for restructuring.
“Our volumes are on par and gross profits are on par, so it is not a result of the economy.”
Sabga also referred to a new $150 million furnace at Carib Glassworks to produce cheaper, lighter and stronger beer bottles; a newly acquired wind-farm in Costa Rica and an ongoing $300 million investment in a clay-block factory. Newsday asked how the conglomerate was coping with foreign exchange shortages in TT, group finance director Aneal Maharaj said the company was now doing business in euros (plus US dollars) but said a six per cent currency conversion fee for euros was an “astronomical” charge to the low-margin distribution business. The fee amounted to $10 million, even as he said obtaining foreign exchange remains a challenge. He said the group is trying to increase its efficiency.
“The cost of doing business is increasing,” said Maharaj, saying TT is disadvantaged relative to other Caribbean nations.
Andrew Sabga, Ansa’s CEO, said the Carib Glassworks upgrade now opens up new export markets for the conglomerate to earn more foreign exchange.
Earlier Norman Sabga confirmed the conglomerate had lost the local dealership for BMW but said, in terms of their overall operations, that was financially negligible, as its contribution to pre-tax profit was less than 2.3 per cent.
“BMW established a master dealer and he decided he wanted the brand, because of the good work we had done to build the brand. So he is taking it over. He’s excited. He wants a good thing.”
While vigourously shaking money laden fistsLes Bain wrote:Literally Old Man Yells at Cloud.
MG Man wrote:GML is primarily what....radio and newspapers.....he vex because his dying platforms are losing out to the global shift in consumer behaviour?
Why pay TT$250 for a radio spot where you have no clue how many people hear it, and no clue how many of those are in your target demographic?
He should look at trinituner,com as an example of how to survive....I can run a banner ad here, and get very detailed stats on my target audience. I can tailor my ads to rotate all throughout the day, and I know my cost per click
He vex because his scores of Lok-Jack EMBA in Innovation managers can't innovate?
There are people and tuners that defend these 1% folk.DTAC wrote:The 1% neo-colonialists want Trinidad to remain third-world forever. Everything should remain the same. Pay over the odds for anything not considered basic and be grateful for anything better. You think there isn't 1% money in digital agencies here.
Everywhere else in the 21st Century world, old money giving up ground to new tech money. The 1% neo-colonialists biggest fear or a Trinidadian Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos coming up and usurping them as the richest and most powerful people in the country. Keep Trinidad down, fortify their position at the top of the pyramid is their raison d'etre.
dogg wrote:He's right though.
As someone in the communications field, I see first hand how devastating digital advertising is to traditional media.
Newspapers, Radio stations, printers, ad agencies and the like have been decimated in TT
maj. tom wrote:Businesses are always going to have to be dynamic based on the technology available to get products to consumers. Jeff Bezos should have sat his ass in a bookstore and cried like these Sabgas right? Fred Smith (FedEx) should have just stuck to the norm at the time and let ships carry their mail every 2 weeks right? Instead of investing and buying airplanes and technology and giving the world overnight shipping.
btw imposing the skybox online tax did what exactly? Nothing but cost the consumers more. They didn't stop or reduce purchases and force people to buy locally. It's just now more of a pain in the ass.
Elite class who don't want to adapt to changing times and technology and maintain that middle-class gap. Make sure the gap continues to exist while crying about losing jobs and taxes and other scapegoat excuses. Why don't they actually create a viable platform to compete with what the world is offering instead of complaining? If it were up to them alone, Trinidad would still be transporting sugar cane on donkey carts and Sabga would own all the carts and donkeys.
MG Man wrote:GML is primarily what....radio and newspapers.....he vex because his dying platforms are losing out to the global shift in consumer behaviour?
Why pay TT$250 for a radio spot where you have no clue how many people hear it, and no clue how many of those are in your target demographic?
He should look at trinituner,com as an example of how to survive....I can run a banner ad here, and get very detailed stats on my target audience. I can tailor my ads to rotate all throughout the day, and I know my cost per click
He vex because his scores of Lok-Jack EMBA in Innovation managers can't innovate?
MG Man wrote:He vex because his scores of Lok-Jack EMBA in Innovation managers can't innovate?
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