(Trinidad Express) A new agreement will have to be negotiated between Government and former chairman of CL Financial Lawrence Duprey for the State to be in a strong position to recover billions of dollars it invested to save the insurance and real estate conglomerate.
CL Financial chairman Gerald Yetming said on Thursday there were two areas of concern with regard to an agreement signed in January 2009, which ensured the then-People’s National Movement government would provide an injection of several billion dollars to rescue CL subsidiaries CLICO and CLICO Investment Bank. The first is the agreement expires in June 2012, Yetming told the Express during a telephone interview.
He was responding to a lead story in Thursday’s Express, which suggested Duprey was still meeting with executives of CL Financial subsidiary companies and could possibly be in a position to assume a level of control of the conglomerate when the agreement expires in 19 months. Duprey resigned as chairman of CL Financial and CLICO last year but remains a substantial shareholder in the group, which operated more than 70 companies in 32 countries.
Yetming said: “To some extent, I have to look after the Government’s interest, and the first area of concern is that the agreement expires in June 2012. The other area of concern has to deal with the sale of (CL) assets.”
He said: “The agreement as crafted does not give the Government sufficient flexibility, and it is clear that a new agreement has to be negotiated with Mr Duprey.”
Government sources have suggested while CL board meetings that include both Government-appointed and CL Financial-appointed directors have been professional and cordial, there is a challenge to agree on the possible sale of CL assets, so Government can recover some of the J$7 billion it has spent thus far to keep CLICO afloat and pay depositors and creditors.
Yetming said he was preparing to make a recommendation to Minister of Finance Winston Dookeran within a few weeks on what would be involved in negotiating a new agreement with Duprey.
