CGI PULLS OUT

CONSUMERS GUARANTEE INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED (CGI) has pulled out of an agreement to purchase CLICO International General Insurance Limited (CGI), a subsidiary of CLICO Holdings Barbados Limited.The DAILY NATION understands that top management of CLICO Holdings Barbados Limited received an official letter yesterday from CGI informing the company that they would be “withdrawing their offer” with respect to the purchase arrangement.When contacted, a senior executive at CGI confirmed the company had “officially pulled out”.Asked for reasons, the source said: “We can’t comment on that because we are bound under a confidentiality agreement.” The source also said he could not comment on what repercussions, if any, CGI’s pull-out would have for CLICO.However, the DAILY NATION understands that relevant documentation from CLICO which had been requested by CGI had not been provided, and this had a bearing on the decision.Yesterday, CLICO Holdings Barbados Limited’s executive chairman Leroy Parris declined to comment.This latest development comes just three weeks after permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance and chairman of the Oversight Committee set up to manage the sale of CGI, William Layne, said “a sale agreement has been concluded with Consumers Guarantee Insurance for the sale of CGI”.The Oversight Committee is also seeking to sell another subsidiary, CLICO Mortgage and Finance Corporation (CMFC), to the Barbados Public Workers’ Co-operative Credit Union Ltd (BPWCCU). Anthony Griffin, president of the BPWCCU disclosed in March that its purchase of CMFC was imminent. Efforts so far to attract a buyer for a third subsidiary, CLICO International Life Insurance Limited (CIL), have been futile because of the company’s liquidity problems and the deficit in its Statutory Fund.The Government-backed Oversight Committee has another 19 months to sell CIL before a $300 million demand on the company is due.That’s because the bulk of CLICO Life’s Executive Flexible Premium Annuities (EFPAs) – which promised high interest rates on deposits – become due in 2012.In March, Layne said if the Oversight Committee failed to find a buyer for CIL by 2012, the CLICO assets would have to be sold.CLICO has been at the centre of a financial firestorm over the past 15 months, following the near collapse of its parent company, CL Financial, in Trinidad and Tobago.With assets estimated at more than $1 billion, CLICO has already paid out over $118 million to policyholders.•wadegibbons@nationnews.com