The government of Trinidad and Tobago on Friday took control of CL Financial, one of the country's largest conglomerates, and ousted its Executive Chairman Lawrence Duprey.The new board will be headed by former Central Bank Governor Dr. Euric Bobb and includes three other government representatives: WASA chairman Shafeek Sultan Khan, Citibank managing director Steve Bideshi and permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance Alison Lewis.
CL will have three directors on the board: British Queen's Counsel Andrew Mitchell, Diego Martin Regional Corporation chairman Steve Castagne and CL Financial's group finance director Michael Carballo.
The CL group includes 65 companies in 34 countries and has assets of billions of dollars.
The CL companies include local rum producer Angostura Ltd, foreign spirits companies Burn Stewart Distillers and Lascelles de Mercado, as well as real estate company Home Construction Ltd and energy company Methanol Holdings Ltd. CL also has controlling shares in Republic Bank and several media organizations in the Caribbean.
The changing of the guard follows the signing of an agreement Friday with CL Financial shareholders and directors, which is a followup to the January 30 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by Duprey and Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira.
The new board has the authority to sell CL assets and manage its operations to keep it afloat. But the group's finance director says there would be no "fire sale" of CL's assets, which include a majority stake in Republic Bank and methanol and ammonia companies.
"Right now there are people knocking on the doors of Government and CL Financial, but there will be no fire sale and no assets will be undervalued," he told the Trinidad Express.
Acting Finance Minister Conrad Enill signed the agreement with the directors and shareholders of CL.
Nunez-Tesheira, whose involvement in the CL matter remains controversial because of her million-dollar shareholding in the company and allegations of insider trading, was out of the country.
The Ministry of Finance said shareholders representing more than 67 per cent of CL have indicated their support of the new directors. CLF will convene an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders on June 30 to approve the appointments.
“The MoU imposes requirements on CLF to sell its assets in order to repay the Government of T&T for advances and other costs arising from closure of CIB and the restructuring of Clico and BAT,” the government noted in an official statement.
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