Nobody buying Republic Bank

Imbert said an allegation by Opposition Senator Wayne Sturge, that HSBC was going to purchase 20 percent of Republic Bank, “is preposterous, wrong and false.”

He told senators, “One must understand the shareholding of Republic Bank.” Imbert said 25 percent of the bank’s shares are held by the Clico Trust Corporation, “which is the collateral for the Clico Investment Fund (CIF), which trades on the Stock Exchange.” These are, “the units given to policyholders who sold their policies for years 11 to 20.”

Imbert said instead of receiving cash, these policyholders received units in the CIF, the bulk of which was financed by Republic Bank shares. “So in order to sell those Republic Bank shares, one would somehow have to pay all of these unit holders, somewhere in the vicinity of about $10 billion,” Imbert said, and money would have to be found, “in order to clear off all these units and monetise all of these units which are trading on the Stock Exchange.”

He added that Clico Investment Bank (CIB) is in the hands of a liquidator, the Deposit Insurance Corporation.Imbert said the 18 percent shares of Republic Bank held by CIB cannot be disposed of, “because there is a dispute as to the ownership of these shares which has to be settled by the court.”

He also said Clico itself owns seven per cent of Republic Bank, and “the ownership of these shares is tied up in a claim...a counter-claim coming from CIB.” The only entity which could sell any part of Republic Bank was CL Financial, which was not the Government of TT, he said, adding, “That is owned by the Duprey family and other shareholders of CL Financial.”