Monday, August 31 2009

COLONIAL Life Insurance Company (Clico) and its parent company CL Financial are the American International Group (AIG) of Trinidad and Tobago. This was how Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira described those entities as she expressed Government’s satisfaction with ongoing efforts to restructure them. As the Minister made this comment, top officials at CL Financial said the management changes at its subsidiary Angostura Holdings could be repeated in some of the conglomerates other subsidiaries.

Speaking at the post-Cabinet news conference, Nunez-Tesheira said the financial troubles at Clico were the reason why Standard and Poors placed the country on a credit watch earlier this year.

“Clico and CL Financial are our AIG,” the Minister stated. Nunez-Tesheira said Clico recently gave Cabinet an update on its restructuring efforts. She added that Cabinet was satisfied after that presentation that so far, Clico “have been able to manage their expenses”.

Nunez-Tesheira said while CL Financial’s assets have lost value, mainly due to the world financial crisis, they remain “good assets that will realise over the short to medium term”.

Describing the restructuring of Clico and CL Financial as “a dynamic situation”, the Minister said Government is confident that “we have the right people on both Clico and CL Financial boards”.

Meanwhile, CL Financial officials said what happened at Angostura could be repeated at other CL Financial subsidiaries as its new board of directors take steps to restructure the conglomerate in keeping with the January memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between Government and the group.

The officials said what was taking place were “purely business decisions” and the appointments at Angostura were not a Government takeover.

“The Government has not been interfering,” another official said.

Noting that former group chairman Lawrence Duprey was chairman of several CL Financial subsidiaries, group officials said it was only natural that steps would be taken to fill the vacancies left on these boards by Duprey and other persons who resigned from the boards of those companies. Duprey was also chairman of Clico, Angostura Holdings, World Brands and the DYL Group, a real estate company based in Florida.

Nunez-Tesheira has said that Government will not get involved in the operations of either Clico or CL Financial. She also said there would be no fire sale of the latter’s assets.