No proposals for investments by CLICO – Jordan clarifies

CLICO/Guyana fallout

…says company wanted data on debt owed

Finance Minister Winston Jordan clarified on Monday that former Executive Chairman of CL Financial (CLF), Trinidadian Lawrence Duprey did not make any proposal to the Guyana Government regarding investment here, but rather made queries about the amount of money the insurance company owed Guyanese.

Duprey and CL Financial could be taken before the court as the Trinidad

Government has applied to the High Court to wind up the conglomerate as it is reportedly unable to meet its $15 billion debt in that country. The $15 billion is the balance owed to the Government for its bailout of CLF subsidiary CLICO in 2009.

With this in mind, Guyana Times sought to enquire whether – considering the financial condition of the company – Government here would still go ahead with the “proposals” made when Duprey met with the Finance Minister in late March. But Minister Jordan said that the official did not make any proposals.

“First of all, no proposals have been made. He just said he would like to know

what debt he owes to Guyana and he would like to honour that debt and at the same time, he would like to explore opportunities in investment… I don’t know of any proposals that were made. Nothing is on the table as yet until both sides understand what is the debt that he owes…and could come to the agreement on whether that debt attracts interest. I don’t know that he made a proposal; I know he made an approach with regard to the debt CLICO owes, no proposals as yet,” Jordan told this publication.

He said, however, that any queries regarding this would have to be made with the Bank of Guyana, which he said CLF has been in contact with regarding the debt.

In early April, Minister Jordan had told Journalists that Guyana was open for business to anyone and would welcome the insurance company to invest here, if it was able to settle its local debt.

“It does not mean that we are open to business to rogues and so on, but the guy made some overtures to us and he is willing to repay the money, he’s willing to apologise. He asked for the evidence for what is outstanding and he also said he is interested in doing business in Guyana,” Jordan had said.

Among his interests are re-investments in housing, providing solar energy at competitive prices, as well as introducing a financial model that would generate savings and alleviate poverty.

Last week, Bank of Guyana Governor, Dr Gobind Ganga had reported that CLF has not yet begun repaying its debt as it was still gathering data on the amount of monies owed.

A statement from the Finance Ministry late March said Duprey wished to apologise to Guyanese for the consequences they bore as a result of CLICO’s collapse.

It also said that CLF would try to make amends for the approximately US$40 million debt owed mainly to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS). CLICO had failed across the Region, and many policyholders in other Caribbean States were unable to receive their monies at face value.

CLICO Guyana had approximately $6.9 billion invested in the regional insurance company when it collapsed in 2009. Among the local investments was an investment of $5.2 billion by the NIS.