(Trinidad Express) In its first published financial statements in several years, collapsed insurance giant Colonial Life (CLICO) has presented a balance sheet for 2009 ravaged by massive liabilities of TT$24.5 billion and a 34 per cent decline in income.
In the company’s consolidated financial statements for December 31, 2009, current CLICO chairman Gerald Yetming has said the company was finally in a position to present financial statements after “several challenging years”.
CLICO’s 2009 operating results “present a grim picture indeed as the board and management team grappled with the nonperformance of related party investments and the withdrawal demands of clients holding short-term investment and mutual fund products.”
Former CL Financial chairman Lawrence Duprey was forced to approach the then-PNM government in January 2009 after corporate and private sector clients demanded hundreds of millions of dollars back in short-term investments with CLICO.
The collapse of CLICO—the country’s largest insurer—is currently the subject of a Commission of Enquiry (along with the failed Hindu Credit Union) to probe why the company folded amidst third-party debts and the effects of the global economic meltdown on CL Financial subsidiaries.
At December 31, 2009, CLICO’s balance sheet showed assets of TT$15.1 billion (of which TT$1.9 billion was pledged as security to various loans) compared to liabilities of TT$24.5 billion, resulting in a deficit of TT$9.5 billion.
Its comprehensive income statement showed a loss of TT$4.8 billion.
“The loss for 2009 was mainly caused by significant impairments on related party investments totalling TT$3.1 billion and a 34 per cent decline in investment income,” Yetming said in his CLICO chairman’s statement published in the daily newspapers on Sunday.
Since its restructuring started in 2009, Yetming says the company has concentrated on retaining its client base and has kept the “majority of our client portfolio”.
