(Trinidad Guardian) The liquidator of Clico Investment Bank has begun the process of selling the assets of the bankrupt company, which collapsed in January 2009 under the weight of its inter-company debt and risky real estate loans. The first items to go would be CIB’s office furniture and equipment, which are due to be sold at auction on Saturday at CIB’s Rust Street, St Clair head office.
Tables, chairs, copiers, televisions, computers, filing cabinets and other office furniture are due to be sold at the fall of auctioneer, Gary Gregoire’s hammer on Saturday. Eventually, CIB’s properties in San Fernando, Chaguanas, Scarborough and the two Rust St properties will be sold and the proceeds distributed to CIB’s creditors according to their rights, after the payment of costs of the liquidation.
A statement of affairs conducted by Ernst & Young and submitted to the Commission of Enquiry into the collapse of the CL Financial empire placed a value of TT$3.05 million on CIB’s furniture and fixtures, TT$6.23 million for motor vehicles and TT$58.5 million for its lands and buildings.
The Ernst & Young document also found that CIB had total assets of TT$6.4 billion and total liabilities of TT$11 billion as at January 31, 2009. This means that CIB has negative net worth of nearly TT$4.7 billion. The High Court on October 17, 2011, ordered that Clico Investment Bank Limited be wound up and appointed the Deposit Insurance Corporation (DIC) as the liquidator—a role that is being performed by DIC’s general manager, Dr Earl Boodoo, who is on secondment from the Central Bank.
The DIC’s normal function is to manage a fund to provide insurance protection for depositors against the potential loss of their deposits should a member financial institution fail. As a liquidator, the DIC’s Web site states that among Boodoo’s responsibilities is that he must take all reasonable steps to ensure that he has identified and obtained control of all available assets. These “assets” include rights against directors or others who may have abused their relationship with the company.
