Business

Three Years After Mapp Severed Ties With Rating Agencies, Bryan Administration Reestablishes Relationship With First Investor Call

Gov. Albert Bryan and his key lieutenants spent Monday morning walking risk-taking Wall Street investors through the details of the Virgin Islands’ recovery and rise from Hurricanes Irma and Maria. “We re-introduced ourselves to the market,” Mr. Bryan said at the weekly Government House press briefing, this week on St. Thomas. The V.I. Public Finance Authority-Investor Presentation 2019 live webinar provided investors reassurance that post-storm tourism is ticking upward and other signs of resilience are taking hold. “The recovery is moving along, but never fast enough for me,” the governor said. “We thought it was important that after almost three years of not reporting to the investor market, that we re-establish ourselves.” Normally, an investor call between a government and investors would not have made news, but former Governor Kenneth Mapp in August 2017 revealed that he had cut ties with the three top U.S. rating agencies -- Moody's, Fitch and Standard and Poor's. “I’m not...