Jun 2014 Financial News

Former PS Alison Lewis joins Republic Board

Jun 26, 2014

Retired Permanent Secretary, Alison Lewis, has been appointed to the Board of Republic Bank Ltd effective July 1, 2014, according to a notice from the bank posted on the Stock Exchange Web site on Monday. Lewis replaces Stephen Pollard who is due to retire from the board with effect from July 14.

Lewis, who served as permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance for many years, proceeded on pre-retirement leave from the public service last year. Since then, Lewis has continued to work with the Ministry of Finance in crafting a resolution of the issues surrounding the collapse of the CL Financial empire.

Those issues include the settling of a new shareholders’ agreement between the Government and CL Financial that would pave the way for the group to reimburse the money—estimated to be in the region of $20 billion—that the State advanced to save CL Financial after its collapse in January 2009.

Speaking at the May 19 annual meeting of Angostura Holdings Ltd, that company’s chairman, Gerald Yetming said the new shareholders agreement was with the lawyers for the State and the group. Yetming is also the chairman of Clico and CL Financial.

The most recent extension of the June 2009 shareholders’ agreement is due to come to an end on Monday, June 30. Sources said it is likely the parties to the new shareholders’ agreement would seek a short extension of the existing shareholders’ agreement, pending the outcome of the arbitration tribunal matter involving the determination of a sale price for Clico’s 56 per cent stake in Methanol Holdings (Trinidad) Ltd. The tribunal is expected to report by the end of July.

The amount of money generated by the sale of the majority stake in Methanol Holdings is expected to be a significant factor in determining how much of what remains of CL Financial is sold to reimburse the Government and how much is retained by the shareholders of the group.

In a July 2013 letter of intent—which was supposed to form the basis of the new shareholders’ agreement—CL Financial stated that the main sources of the reimbursement for the Government would be the sale of Clico’s shares in the methanol company and the CL Financial stake in Republic Bank.

In its 2013 annual report, Republic Bank lists Clico Trust Corporation, which holds the bank’s shares that have been vested in the Clico Investment Fund, as Republic’s largest shareholder with a little over 40 million shares. The bank’s third largest shareholder is Clico Investment Bank (in liquidation) with 16.2 million shares. Clico itself still retains 11.8 million shares. All told, those three entities own 42.24 per cent of Republic Bank.

Lewis joins a 14-member Republic Bank board that is chaired by former Republic chief executive Ronald Harford and includes executive directors David Dulal-Whiteway, Nigel Baptiste and Derwin Howell.

The bank’s non-executive directors are: Russell Martineau, William Lucie-Smith, Christian Mouttet, WH Pierpont Scott, Chandrabhan Sharma, Kristine Thompson, Shazan Ali, Dawn Callender and Terrence W Farrell.


Source:
BG5
BUSINESS GUARDIAN www.guardian.co.tt JUNE 2014 • WEEK FOUR
Thursday June 26, 2014