CGI of Barbados to buy CLICO general insurance

The CLICO Holdings board in Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados has approved the sale of the assets of CLICO's general insurance company to CONSUMERS GUARANTEE INSURANCE (CGI) Limited of Barbados.

No details on the purchase price have been revealed.

CGI director Peter Harris told the NATION newspaper, "We were among a number of companies that made a bid for CLICO International General Insurance Company. We are under a confidentiality agreement, and a public announcement will be made shortly,"

The paper said the new comes 24 hours after a special committee, headed by Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, William Layne, approved a bid by the Barbados Public Workers' Co-operative Credit Union Limited's to buy CLICO Mortgage and Finance Company.

Earlier this year, Barbadian Prime Minister David Thompson rejected calls to put CLICO Holdings in Barbados under judicial management.

Instead he opted for a special committee, comprising top government officials and some members of the CLICO board, to sell the assets of CLICO General Insurance Company, CLICO Life, CLICO Mortgage and Finance Company Limited, and the CLICO Balanced Fund.

This move was prompted when the parent company of CLICO Barbados - CL Financial in Trinidad and Tobago - faced near collapse last year, and had to be bailed out by the Trinidad government to the tune of billions of dollars.