(Trinidad Guardian) Colonial Life Insurance Company (Clico) on Monday reported after-tax profit of TT$2.30 billion for the year ended Decem-ber 31, 2023. That was 271 per cent more than the TT$621.4 million the company declared in its 2022 financial year.
The insurance company reported a TT$1.99 billion gain on the disposal of its subsidiary, Methanol Holdings International Ltd, and generated TT$958 million in gross profit from its energy operations.
According to the Clico financials, “On December 22, 2023, the sale of the subsidiary, Methanol Hold-ings International Ltd (MHIL) to Consolidated Energy Ltd (CEL) was completed pursuant to the approval of the shareholders of Clico.
“Clico sold 5,653,700 shares or 56.53 per cent of the issued and outstanding shares in Methanol Hold-ings International Limited.
“By this transaction, Clico effectively relinquished control of MHIL and all balances from the statement of financial position were not included as at the year end.
Clico’s shareholders are CL Financial with 51 per cent and the Government with 49 per cent.
Clico withdrew its abridged financials from publication in the media on Saturday, but the accounts were posted on its website on Monday.
The publication of the company’s results for 2023 were delayed because the insurance company discovered an error, according to Clico chair, Jennifer Frederick.
CL Financial liquidator promises Bahamas “payments shortly”
The Bahamas government says the liquidator of the insolvent CL Financial, is proposing to declare payments shortly, the Caribbean Media Corpora-tion reported yesterday.
“We have been made aware that there has been a settlement with the liquidators and the Trinidadian government or authorities that would make the Clico policyholders whole. The issue we have at the moment is getting the liquidator present to sit down so that we can resolve these things,” Prime Minister Phillip Davis told Parliament.
Last year, Clico (Bahamas) liquidator was given the authority to accept a US$110.827 million settlement that could fully repay all debts owed to policyholders, creditors and the government.
Chief Justice Sir Ian Winder, in what had been hailed as a potential “quantum leap forward” for the policy holders, gave Craig A. ‘Tony’ Gomez, the Baker Tilly Gomez accountant and principal, the go-ahead to accept the sum offered by liquidators for its Trinidad-based parent, CL Financial.
“The official liquidator be at liberty to accept the amount of US$110.827m adjudicated by the official liquidators of CL Financial on Clico (Bahamas) proof of debt filed on May 16, 2018, in CL Financial’s liquidation,” the Chief Justice wrote in a July 24, 2023, order filed with the Supreme Court.
The figure represents the settlement of the Clico (Bahamas) claim against its Trinidadian parent. CL Financial had guaranteed US$58 million or 79.5 percent, of the monies its Bahamian subsidiary had advanced to another group entity, Clico Enterprises, which subsequently defaulted on the loan repayments.
Davis, who was responding to a question from opposition legislator, Shanendon Cartwright, as to when the Clico policyholders would be paid, said “I’m advised that the liquidator is proposing to declare payments shortly.
“Where we are, and what government has paid out, the government would be entitled to receive their share of what’s been paid back to the liquidator and then ensuring that the policy owners get what is due to them. So that’s why knowing that the funds are available from the rightful source, there was no need for us to budget for it,” Davis told legislators.
But Cartwright asked why the government pay the Clico policyholders now and then receive the funds from the liquidator, who has promised a payment, would have directed Baker Tilly (Gomez) to accept, but there is still the issue of when that money will be available. We don’t know when that money is coming, so why in the meantime doesn’t the government just stand in the gap?
Cartwright said that each of the policyholders would have executed an assignment of their dividends to the government “so that when the monies come in, the government would be repaid anyway.
“So why not pay the policyholders in the meantime, particularly that the government is going to get the money, because right now the policyholders, about 10,000 of them, feel as though the government has abandoned them on this issue.”
