T&T govt to sell Clico-backed bonds

`Well-backed and secure’: Information Minister Stuart Young, left, speaks to Finance Minister Colm Imbert
`Well-backed and secure’: Information Minister Stuart Young, left, speaks to Finance Minister Colm Imbert

(Trinidad Express) Government’s highly-anticipated Initial Public Offering (IPO) for its National Investment Fund (NIF), through a company formed to monetise some assets recovered from the CLICO bailout, will run from July 11 to August 8.

The announcement was made by Finance Minister Colm Imbert on Monday in Parliament.

Imbert described the prospectus as a gift to keep on giving to the people of Trinidad and Tobago, from whom TT$23 billion in tax dollars was injected into the collapsed conglomerate.

The NIF will be founded with an assortment of shares pulled from various former portfolios of CLICO, with the majority coming from Republic Bank valued at TT$4.3 billion and representing 55 per cent of the Fund.

Government will also assign TT$200 million in One Caribbean Media (OCM) shares to represent two per cent of the company, TT$970 million from Angostura Holdings Ltd for 12 per cent of the Fund’s shares, Trinidad Generation Unlimited (TGU) at TT$2.025 billion with 26 per cent of shares and the West Indian Tobacco Company (WITCO) with TT$405 million at five per cent of the Fund’s shares.