Mar 2008 Financial News

Where's the money going?

Mar 07, 2008

National Commercial Bank paid out $1.8 billion in dividends last year, of which Michael Lee Chin's companies would have been allocated the majority of $1.3 billion by virtue of his 75 per cent ownership of the bank.

Lee Chin last week said he has reinvested the funds in Jamaica after shareholders questioned the billionaire on the disposal of millions of NCB shares held by AIC Limited.

"You ask where the money is going? We're putting it back into Jamaica," said Lee Chin, speaking at NCB's annual general meeting in Kingston.

Lee Chin, the chairman of NCB and AIC, said that AIC (Barbados) had committed to spend some US$150 million ($10.6 billion) through its cable company Flow and had already invested US$85 million (J$6.03 billion) this year.

But when pressed later by the Financial Gleaner on the amount of NCB dividends reinvested last year, Lee Chin's spokeswoman Jean Lowrie Chin said as private companies "Portland Holdings and AIC (Barbados) Limited do not disclose" such information.

"We can say that he has kept his word absolutely, and has been reinvesting his NCB earnings in the country," Lowrie Chin said.

Portland Holdings is the vehicle for all Lee Chin's assets.

Since February 2007, AIC has offloaded more than 38 million NCB shares, earning a possible $883 million from the trades, based on the market price of the stock over the period.

The company has refused to explain the transactions, though it is speculated that the proceeds will likely fund a new acquisition or project.

Lee Chin, at the AGM, referred to the renovation of old and new courthouses in Portland, acquisitions of Advantage General Insurance and Trident Hotel as investments made under Portland Holdings in the local economy.


Source:
Susan Gordon, Business Reporter
susan.gordon@gleanerjm.com
Jamaica Gleaner
Friday March 7, 2008

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