The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

CLICO (Bahamas) liquidator has to-date been unable to prove that the insolvent insurer is the ultimate beneficial owner of a Grand Bahama-based building supplies company, threatening his ability to sell this asset for the benefit of creditors.

Craig A. ‘Tony’ Gomez, the Baker Tilly Gomez accountant and partner, in his ninth report to the Supreme Court on the winding-up of CLICO Enterprises, the insurer’s wholly-owned affiliate, said that thus far he had only obtained a management agreement relating to Grand Bahama Millworks and Building Supplies.

A 2000 agreement detailing its supposed sale to CLICO Enterprises had not been approved by the Ministry of Finance, Mr Gomez said, and he was forced to obtain a Supreme Court injunction against Grand Bahama Millworks earlier this year.

While the Supreme Court gave not details about the injunction or its nature, Tribune Business understands it was intended to preserve Grand Bahama Millworks documents and paperwork so the liquidator could attempt to determine the company’s beneficial ownership.

Describing the company, located in Freeport’s Civic Industrial Area at Forest Avenue/Yellow Pine Street, as a supplier of hardware, house are, lumber and other building materials, Mr Gomez said several documents had been obtained from Bahamian regulators.

These included a September 1, 2000, management agreement between Grand Bahama Millworks and CLICO Enterprises in the form of the latter’s predecessor entities, British Fidelity Enterprises and British Fidelity Holdings.

“This agreement appoints CLICO Enterprises as the manager for Grand Bahama Millworks for a period of 99 years, whereby CLICO Enterprises shall become the beneficial owner of Grand Bahama Millworks’ assets and its entire operations, including the operation of the hardware and building supplies stores,” Mr Gomez said.

“The agreement also stipulated that the manager will pay compensation to Grand Bahama Millworks in the sum of $100 per annum. The receipt of the payment was acknowledged in the agreement.”

The second key document was a purchase/sales agreement carrying the same date, listing Toma Beverages and Grand Bahama Millworks and Building Supplies as the vendor, and CLICO Enterprise and its successors as purchaser.

“However, this purchase/sale agreement was not approved by the Ministry of Finance,” Mr Gomez said. “This matter is currently being researched.”

The end result is that until Mr Gomez can conclusively prove that CLICO Enterprises is the 100 per cent beneficial owner of Grand Bahama Millworks and Building Supplies, he is unable to sell it to generate funds for creditors.

He has encountered a similar situation with the eight-unit Golf View apartment complex on Freeport’s Rum Cay Drive, where only seven of the units are recorded in CLICO Enterprises’ name.

This comes as CLICO Enterprises is shown as having a $90.13 million solvency deficiency, with assets of $36.802 million dwarfed by $126.932 million in liabilities.

Tribune Business reported last week that Mr Gomez is examining whether to sue CLICO (Bahamas) Trinidadian principals over the company’s collapse, after he gained the protection he wanted from an affiliate’s “harassment”.