The Finance Minister says that CLICO is not a State enterprise as the Government has a minority shareholding of 49 per cent.
This, as he dismissed claims by an Opposition Senator that this country is losing out on foreign exchange due to the sale of CLICO's shares in a facility outside of this country.
00:00Leader of Opposition Business, Wade Mark, raised the motion in the Senate about the sale of 56.53% of the shares in Methanol Holdings International Limited, or MHIL,
00:12which had been owned by Clico to the only other shareholder, Consolidated Energy Limited, or CEL.
00:19The government of TNT, through its ownership of 49%, Clico had dispose of not 36.53% that they were initially going to dispose of, but they dispose of 56.53%.
00:45Finance Minister Colin Imbert responded to Senator Mark's reference to the government's past bailout of and its present shareholding in Clico.
01:15Senator Mark said CEL is owned by Proman Group, which operates methanol plants in Trinidad, as he noted that the MHIL plant is based in another country, Oman. He then spoke about valuations in TT Dollars.
01:452.258. It's gone down by $323 million dollars. The same year that they did their internal valuation to sell the shares, 56.53% of the shares, to who?
02:12CEL. To who? Proman. This government was getting foreign exchange for 25 years and 30 years respectively. You know what they did? They sell out. They sell out our shares. They sell out the country.
02:37The Finance Minister said Charles Rivers Associates valued the sold MHIL shares at US $337 million dollars, about 2.3 billion TT Dollars.
02:50He said we were getting hundreds of millions of US dollars all the time. Who we? Colonial life is controlled by the liquidator. They own 51% of the company. It's a private company. The government has a minority shareholding in the company. What we are you talking about? There are no we. Any dividends paid by MHIL were paid to colonial life, not to the government.
03:17Senator Mark said he had evidence of a meeting in April 2022 at the Diplomatic Center.
03:22I have it on video where Mr. David Cassidy, CEO and President of the Proman Group, had an audience with the Prime Minister and the Minister of Energy.
03:43I also heard today he has a video of a meeting with the Prime Minister. Produce the video. Produce it. Bring it. Absolute rubbish.
03:56Senator Mark wants the Senate to call on the government to commission an independent forensic audit into the sale agreement if certain documents are not produced by the government in 14 days.
04:07It's a private company. I must compel colonial life to disclose to you confidential valuations and confidential minutes of meetings. Look, Mr. Vice President, I really don't have time for this. I don't have time for this nonsense.
04:24The Finance Minister told Senator Mark to go and try and compel a private company to disclose their confidential information. Jule Brown, TV6 News.
04:37I don't have time for this nonsense. I don't have time for this nonsense. I don't have time for this nonsense.
04:43I don't have time for this nonsense. I don't have time for this nonsense.
04:47I don't have time for this nonsense. I don't have time for this nonsense.
04:51I don't have time for this nonsense. I don't have time for this nonsense.
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