00:00The policy of TT NGL, of the company that does business in U.S. dollars, is to pay your dividends
00:09in U.S. dollars.
00:10National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago Group Chairman, Gerald Ramdeen,
00:14speaking during a media conference about a subsidiary of the state-owned gas company, Trinidad and Tobago NGL Limited.
00:22During the time that the former administration was in charge of TT NGL, the price collapsed from $24 to $2
00:32.50.
00:34In 10 years, that is their record.
00:39Mr. Ramdeen declared a turnaround in TT NGL's share price since the new board he leads was appointed under the
00:47UNC-led government
00:48after the 2025 general election in April of last year.
00:52In six months, the price of a TT NGL share has increased 302%.
01:03Never before a publicly traded company has seen that kind of increase in value of its shares in such a
01:13short period of time.
01:14Mr. Ramdeen referred to a special resolution that was proposed during TT NGL's annual meeting at the Hilton Trinidad and
01:23Conference Center earlier this month on March 5th.
01:27And I can tell you today, publicly, that the special resolution was passed unanimously by the shareholders.
01:37The result of which, TT NGL, for the first time in four years, is going to be in a position
01:46to be able, for the board that I lead,
01:49to consider the payment of a dividend to its shareholders for the first time since September of 2022.
01:59Chairman Ramdeen was responding to recent statements made by Opposition MP Stuart Young when he spoke with the media outside
02:06the parliament on March 13th.
02:09MP Young is a former prime minister and a former minister of energy during the former PNM-led government.
02:15I am not a shareholder, so it's not a matter of whether I agree with it or not.
02:19But the question you have to ask is, why do it in that methodology, when the country knows we have
02:26a forex shortage?
02:27So I'm happy for some of the smaller TT NGL shareholders, because they get some foreign exchange in their hands
02:34for their investments that they've had over years.
02:36But again, the question that needs to repeatedly be asked is, what is the government doing with all of this
02:40money they're draining out?
02:42Mr. Ramdeen is the chairman of the NGC and the chairman of TT NGL.
02:47The money that is sitting in the accounts as retained earnings, the president will tell you and confirm, is in
02:55U.S. dollars.
02:57We don't have to go to Republic and FCB and convert and get U.S. dollars.
03:05It is in U.S. dollars.
03:08And the policy of the company is to pay it in U.S. dollars.
03:12And we intend to do that, to give you the option to do that.
03:16Because that is what the shareholders expected when they made that investment.
03:22NGC incorporated TT NGL in 2013.
03:25Chairman Ramdeen made reference to TT NGL's first initial public offering of shares.
03:32In 2015, people rushed at the IPO.
03:37Because it was the first time, as I said, that they got the opportunity to invest in an energy company.
03:43But more than that, more than that, they got the opportunity to invest in an energy company that does business
03:49in U.S. dollars.
03:51TT NGL had an additional IPO in 2017.
03:55Can you imagine what it is like for an old woman to come and sit in an AGM that could
04:01hardly walk?
04:02She's in her 80s.
04:04And she's asking why she hasn't received, before she dies, her dividends.
04:11And you have people playing with her money, losing a billion dollars and not accountable for it?
04:24We've put an end to that.
04:25Chairman Ramdeen said TT NGL has approximately 11,500 shareholders and added that by next week,
04:33the board will determine the exact amount of the dividends shareholders will receive.
04:38Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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