(Trinidad Express) In the past four years, collapsed conglomerate CL Financial has sold eight assets for TT$5.5 billion, even though they were valued only at TT$3.7 billion.
This is TT$1.8 billion more than it had hoped to make on the sale.
The Sunday Express obtained a list of the CL Financial assets that have been sold in the past few years.
The sale of some assets such as Primera Energy and Lascelles De Mercado have been public while some sales have not been, such as Burn Stewart Distillers.
In all cases, the sale price was more than the valuations placed on the assets.
The sales of Valpark mall and Atlantic Plaza were made public in an exclusive Express story.
Valpark was sold for TT$99 million although it was valued at TT$61.7 million and Atlantic Plaza was sold for TT$59.5 million even though it was valued at TT$33 million.
While CLF made more money on the sales than the valuation had determined, it was still a loss to the company given the initial capital that was spent to acquire the companies.
For instance, former chairman Lawrence Duprey acquired the Jamaican company Lascelles de Mercado, a deal which is regarded by financial experts as the one that “broke the camel’s back with CLICO” at US$750 million.
A few years later, it was valued at US$393 million and sold for US$534 million.
But when it comes to CLF’s failed insurance company CLICO, it would appear that Government is not getting value from the valuations.
In the last two weeks, both CLICO and CLF have offered its 56.53 per cent shareholding in Methanol Holdings Trinidad Ltd (MHTL) to Consolidated Energy Ltd for US$1.175 billion (TT$7.485 billion) following a ruling by the Europe-based International Court of Arbitration.
While Finance Minister Larry Howai said the value was significantly lower than what they expected for the shares (Government was hoping for US$2 billion), Central Bank Governor Jwala Rambarran last week said the value was “fair” and “reasonable”.
Last week, the Sunday Express reported that CLICO had sold its W Fort Lauderdale Hotel.
CLICO had spent US$430 million on the construction of the hotel. The CLICO board in a newspaper statement said the hotel was sold for US$234 million.
And chances are, Government is unlikely to recover the TT$23 billion it would have spent in bailing out the cash-strapped CLICO after Duprey approached the former government in 2009.
With civil matters proceeding, a criminal investigation being undertaken by the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service and a report still outstanding from Sir Anthony Colman following his nearly three-year Commission of Enquiry, the costs of CLICO are yet to be finalised.
Last week, the CLICO Policyholders Group called on Government for transparency on the sale on the assets of both CLICO and CLF.
According to the Shareholders Agreement signed by the government and CLF in June 2009, the government can sell CLF assets to recover the cost of the bailout.
