TRINIDAD – A GROUP of CL Financial shareholders has issued a pre-action letter to the government challenging the Central Bank’s continued control of CLICO, the insurance company that collapsed in January 2009, and the bank’s proposed sale of the insurer’s traditional portfolio to Sagicor Financial.
The letter, written by attorney Nalini Jagnarine, is dated January 31 and was addressed to Minister of Finance Colm Imbert, Central Bank Governor Alvin Hilaire and Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi.
The group of 15 CL Financial shareholders includes Hayden Duprey, Roger Duprey, Kirk Carpenter, Joyce Ali, Tony Fifi, Dalco Capital Management Company and First Capitol and they say they constitute the majority shareholders of the group.
On the issue of the Central Bank’s failure to relinquish control of CLICO, the CL Financial shareholders quote statements made by Governor Hilaire on November 15, 2018 that “CLICO has returned to solvent status with an asset value which exceeds its liabilities even after allowing for the outstanding preference share liabilities that remain owing to the government.”
The CL Financial shareholders cite section 44G(2) of the Central Bank Act, which states that the Central Bank “shall relinquish control and shall not continue to carry on the business of an institution where:
a) the circumstances on the basis of which the bank assumed control of the institution under section 44D have ceased to exist;
(b) the bank is of opinion that it is no longer necessary for it to remain in control of the business of the institution; or
(c) the bank has sold or otherwise disposed of the property, assets and undertakings of the institution.
(Trindad Express)