New UTC boss pledges to go it alone

Newly appointed executive director of the Unit Trust Corporation (UTC), Michael Alexander, has allayed fears that the Corporation will be merged with, or acquired by any other financial institution in the near future. Speaking to reporters on Monday night after delivering the Corporation’s financial report for fiscal 2003 at Queen’s Hall in St Ann’s, Alexander explained that while any decision regarding mergers and acquisition was ultimately left up to the political directorate, no such move was “in the cards” at this time.

He attributed this decision to public outcry nine months ago when Government announced that it was considering a suggestion from chairman of First Citizen’s Bank (FCB), Ken Gordon, that the UTC be merged with FCB. “I think the route has been a little stormy in the past six months,” Alexander noted, “and no one wants to invoke the wrath of the public anymore. “The public was very vociferous and the unitholding public has a voice that said to leave the Unit Trust alone. I think that was quite clear. “As to whether or not there will be political interference, I don’t want to be the one to say that. I don’t even want to harbour a guess,” he continued. “I just want to say that if that’s the mandate, the political directorate will determine that, not the executive director. I can only steer the ship.”

Questioned about whether or not the UTC would ever be listed on the local stock exchange, Alexander said that would only happen if the Vesting Bill was brought to the table by Government. “This legislation,” he said, “would affect not only the UTC but all other mutual funds, serving to level the playing field. “I would not stand here and suggest that we are in control of that, because we are not,” he maintained. “If the opportunity arose and we ever went public, then we would want to give preference to small unitholders as shareholders. We would never want any one large unitholder to have controlling interest.” This decision, Alexander explained, was part of the Corporation’s mandate towards a wider shareholding democracy, with an intention to spread the concept of mutual funds throughout the country.

He said, “Eric Williams’ intention was clear that the smallest man in the street get a piece of the rock and right now this is the only way that the smallest man is going to earn a piece of the rock. “I think that his intention was to share the wealth and get involved in the mutual funds market and we have done so successfully. Others have followed and done well but we continue to consider ourselves the prime mutual fund corporation in this country,” he said.