Shareholders postpone meeting

A decision was made to postpone the meeting, called at 3.30 pm, since at that time, the Court of Appeal had not yet given its decision on an appeal by Government against a ruling last week of High Court judge Kevin Ramcharan which put a halt to the state’s plan to appoint liquidators and have the company wound up.

The shareholders met at the CLICO Box at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain yesterday with the specific task of appointing two additional directors - Carpenter and Reis - to the seven-member CL Financial board which at present has more government-appointed directors than those appointed by the majority shareholders.

Chairman of the Clico Policyholder’s Group Peter Permell said that Carpenter and Reis had given an undertaking not to offer themselves for election to the CL Financial board until October. He said that undertaking was an interim measure pending a full hearing of the matter involving the appointment of the provisional liquidator.

“In other words, it gives everybody some time because the four Government-appointed directors who are there remain in control...

so there is no shift in the balance of power. The Government remains in control until such time as a meeting is held to elect the two additional directors or a provisional liquidator is appointed,” Permell said.

The Court of Appeal, in a 6 pm ruling, gave government the green light to appoint two provisional liquidators to preserve assets of CL Financial, as it seeks to recover a $15 billion debt left from the 2009 bailout.

Speaking before the ruling, Permell said the appointment of a liquidator would be a stain on CL Financial.

“Once you appoint a liquidator, that sends all sorts of signals to the financial community and the economy of Trinidad and Tobago. This is not a parlour, as our attorneys have argued, this is a multi-billion dollar company that they are seeking to have wound-up. These are matters that you have to take very seriously and serious consideration has to be given, certainly by the judges in making their final decision,” Permell said.