– liquidator mulls move to court
Nizam Ali and Company, liquidators of Globe Trust and Investment Company Limited (GTICL) has said that debtors need to pay up and or “come in and say something”, as the push towards an earlier liquidation intensifies.
Debt collection has been non-existent despite solid attempts to reclaim some of the $750 million handed out in unsecured loans, Nizam Ali said on Tuesday. He asserted that the time has come for the liquidators to publicly appeal to those who owe Globe Trust to repay the organization. Globe Trust debtors failed to respond to letters sent out to them within the past few months.
By failing to respond to Ali’s letters, debtors are essentially signalling that they are disinterested in the process; something which the liquidator hopes will change before he approaches the court. Directors of the organisation were also among those who borrowed, and Ali told Stabroek News that even they have not responded to his letters about repayments.
He said the signs have not been encouraging so far, things can turn around if the message is consistently sent out to debtors that they need to repay, however small the initial payments might be.
If there are no positive indications soon, Ali said, moves would be made to the court, but he noted that Globe Trust is already in court over outstanding balances. The liquidation process can only move forward if the monies are repaid, and Globe Trust is not in a position to refund depositors and cover other expenses if these monies are not paid back.
Ali had previously described the court process as a protracted one noting that the matter could be tied up there for years. He had stated his intentions to have the liquidation process completed in a year, but had pointed out that this was not likely.
In October last year, Chief Justice (ag) Ian Chang issued an order for the compulsory liquidation of Globe Trust following a High Court application by the Bank of Guyana (BoG).
The company came crashing down after issuing many unsecured loans among other dubious practices. The BoG filed an application asking that an order be granted for the compulsory liquidation of GTICL as provided for under the Financial Institutions Act after an investment deal for the troubled institution failed to materialise. It was the second such application; the first was filed in 2002 after which numerous depositors had intervened.
