May 2012 Financial News

New representation for CLF shareholders

May 16, 2012

CL Financial shareholders, at an extraordinary general meeting on Monday night, unanimously agreed to grant a limited liability company called United Shareholders Ltd (USL) the authority to negotiate the future of the once-might conglomerate on behalf of its shareholders.

Voting at the meeting, the shareholders also approved a resolution that the board of CL Financial form a shareholders’ sub-committee, consisting of individuals appointed by USL, and that that committee shall have the authority to negotiate and recommend to the CL Financial board any agreement, consent, extension or any other documentation supplemental to or derived from the Memorandum of Understanding of January 30, 2009 and the Shareholders’ Agreement of June 12, 2009.

The meeting, which attracted about 40 of CL Financial’s 360 shareholders, was held at the Clico box at the Queen’s Park Oval. The two founding directors of the USL are Kurt Carpenter and Roger Duprey. Former CL Financial executive chairman, Lawrence Duprey, who is the conglomerate’s largest single shareholder, will be represented on the company by an attorney.

The establishment of USL allows the Government to negotiate the extension of the Shareholders’ Agreement, which comes to an end on June 12. The Government wants to extend the agreement so that it can make a claim on CL Financial, in accordance with January 2009 Memorandum of Understanding.

The meeting also heard a synopsis of CL Financial’s financial position, as at the end of April 2012 from Marlon Holder, a Government-appointed director on the CL Financial board, who chaired the meeting in the absence of CL Financial chairman, Gerald Yetming.

Holder said CL Financial had assets of $7.46 billion and liabilities of $7.29 billion at the end of April. Its major asset is its 87 per cent stake in Jamaican spirits giant, Lascelles deMercardo, which is worth $4.2 billion. Although CL Financial owns 51 per cent of Clico, the insurance company cannot be accounted for within CL FInancial because the conglomerate no longer controls it.

Colin Soo Ping Chow, the head of Ernst&Young’s Caribbean office told the shareholders that there were eight reasons why CL Financial could not produce consolidated financial statements for any period after December 2007.


Source:
Trinidad Guardian
Wednesday May 16, 2012

http://www.guardian.co.tt/business/2012-05-16/new-representation-clf-shareholders