(Trinidad Express) Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira says Clico is now back on its feet following government’s intervention to save the cash-strapped subsidiary of the CL Financial Group.
Nunez-Tesheira said in Friday the government was certain that Clico, with its new business model, would continue to grow from strength to strength.
She was speaking at the signing ceremony for the ex-Caroni Ltd workers’ pension plan agreements, which took place at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port of Spain.
Earlier this year, the government moved to bail the company out of liquidity troubles.
Also speaking at the event, Government-appointed chairman of Clico, Euric Bobb, said the company was at present working on restoring stakeholder confidence, which was in some cases eroded when their money worries were made public.
He said, “Illiquidity, if truth be told, insolvency is a signal of a really fatal end for most companies, but in the three-and-a-half months since we started the restructuring of Clico, the company has been diligently working throughout the length and breadth of this country to restore the confidence of the thousands of its policy holders, and of the national community as a whole.”
During the event, it was also indicated that the plans for payment of the former Caroni workers’ pension money were now finalised and they would receive their money as part of the national Senior Citizens Grant.
The signatories at the event were Nunez-Tesheira, Jerry Hospedales, chairman of Caroni (1975) Ltd, and the trustee, Republic Bank Ltd.
The trustee will purchase the workers’ annuities on June 1, 2009. The pension scheme is set to cost the government some $350 million.
