Black Immigrant Daily News

Benoît de La Salle
b.delasalle@agmedias.fr

Cédric Chaillot est formel, il était armé, mais il n’est pas responsable de la mort de Daniel Duville. • CROQUIS D’AUDIENCE STÉPHANIE DESTIN/FRANCE-ANTILLES

Hier, les accusés ont livré leur version à la barre de la cour d’assises de Martinique. Ils ne reconnaissent pas les faits qui leur sont reprochés. 

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Baie-Mahault

Par Anthony BASSIEN-CAPSA
a.bassien-capsa@agmedias.fr

Chantier d’un équipement d’ordre collectif sur le Morne Bernard. • ANTHONY BASSIEN-CAPSA

Deux opérations immobilières sont en cours de réalisation sur le territoire baie-mahaultien, à la Jaille et au morne Bernard. Respectent-elles vraiment les lois d’urbanisme ?

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Finance Minister Colm Imbert. – COURTESY OFFICE OF THE PARLIAMENT

Finance Minister Colm Imbert said distribution of shares and bonds to Clico unitholders will begin in January 2022, after the termination of the Clico Investment Fund (CIF) on January 2, 2023.

In the Senate on Tuesday, Imbert gave a breakdown of the status of the fund, which was established by the government in 2012 to redeem the 11-to-20-year series of bonds issued to holders of short-term investment products sold by Colonial Life Insurance Company (Clico) and British American Insurance Company.

“The Clico Trust Corporation, established as a wholly-owned state enterprise, is the trustee of the CIF and is governed by a trust deed. The CIF is a closed end fund comprising of 204 million units which is traded on the TT Stock Exchange. The fund has a life of ten years with a redemption date of January 2, 2023. The CIF consists of a mix of 40,072,299 RBL Financial Holdings Ltd shares and government bonds with a face value of $702,867,000 with a coupon of 4.25 per cent and a term of 25 years.”

He outlined how the distribution would take place as defined under clause 19 of the Clico Investment Trust Deed. Clause 19.2 says after the trust is terminated, the trustee shall distribute the RBL Financial Holdings shares, any other assets comprising the deposited property and the fund income in specie (a Latin term meaning in actual form), to the unitholders.

“The trustee shall be entitled to retain out of any monies in its hands, any part of the deposited property full provision for all costs, debts, liabilities, charges, expenses, etc., in accordance with the termination of the fund. As at September 30, 2022, the CIF had 6,227 unit holders. In accordance with the trust deed, the deposited property, less costs of winding up, is to be distributed in specie, which means in actual form, to the unit holders and will be allocated as follows.

“Unitholders will receive 0.1964 Republic Bank Financial Holdings Ltd shares for each unit held, calculated as 40,072,299 shares divided by 204,000,000 CIF units. Clause 19.2.1 states where the distribution in specie of the shares would result in fractional shares being distributed, the number of shares shall be rounded down to avoid any absurd result. The bonds will be similarly pro-rated and unitholders will be entitled to 3.445 bonds per unit held. Any residual amount due to unitholders resulting from the above distribution will be paid in cash.”

Imbert outlined the timeline over which the property would be distributed and the actions leading up to the termination of the fund.

“The last date for trading of CIF units on the Stock Exchange will be December 30, 2022, and the transfer of shares and bonds will commence from the week of January 2023. Once transfers have been made and expenses paid, CIF will be de-registered from the Stock Exchange and wound up.

“During November 2022, the trustee Clico Trust Corporation will place ads in the newspapers advising of the closure of the fund, letters will be issued to the Stock Exchange and the Securities and Exchange Commission formally advising of the closing of the fund on January 2, 2023, and the lead broker will hold discussions with the brokers of the unitholders in the transfer of shares.”

Imbert was responding to a question by Opposition Senator Wade Mark prior to the adjournment of the Senate. Mark asked for clarification as to how the fund would be terminated and distributed, and what value unitholders would receive.

“There’s a need for government to give an idea to unit holders what they are going to do with the units which we understand amount to 204 million, because the value of these units has fallen the from time issued to $27 per unit, so if you have to convert that into shares, it would be cheaper than when it was originally purchased at $31 per unit. I looked at the share price of Republic Bank Ltd and I saw about three or four weeks ago it was at $140 a share, and a couple days ago it was at $133 so there is some uncertainty from the market so the government needs to clear the air.”

Imbert said Mark’s information was wrong, as the units were given a face value of $25 when the fund was first established, not $27 or $31.

“The value at which the CIF units trading most recently is $28.54, so the units are now worth more than when they were first issued under the CIF declaration of trust on October 31, 2012, which is when Senator Mark was associated with a former government. There have been a series of distributions since then, dividend payments on the CIF units from 2012 to now, so I don’t think it’s fair to even insinuate that CIF holders have lost out over the period.”

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In this August 2021 file photo, WASA workers do maintenance work at the North Oropouche water treatment plant, off Valencia Road, Valencia. – AYANNA KINSALE

AS MANY citizens have started to realise, heavy rains do not necessarily equate to a better water supply.

TT once again faced the wrath of flooding between Wednesday and Thursday, and thousands were also left without pipe-borne water after surface-water treatment plants started shutting down, particularly in the north, east and in Tobago.

Increasingly often, communities which receive pipe-borne water from treatment plants fed by surface water, especially rivers, are left with flooded yards and dry taps after a few hours of heavy rain.

Intakes at water-treatment plants become clogged when rising river levels increase turbidity (measurement of silt and other debris in water from a river or lake) and can only be cleared when the levels subside.

The Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) hosted a news conference just after midday on Thursday, at which time the worst of the day’s weather seemed to have passed.

The authority’s chairman, Ravindra Nanga, and acting director of operations, Shaira Ali, gave updates on the affected plants and the communities they service.

Ali said the weather earlier on Thursday presented “significant challenges at the authority with respect to the surface-source treatment facilities.”

In other instances, conditions were improving and WASA was able to restart several plants.

Nanga and Ali expressed optimism about the restoration of service to most of the affected areas within 24 hours if the weather allowed for it.

On November 5, WASA also announced that its Tompire water-treatment plant in north-east Trinidad was similarly affected by high turbidity levels which resulted in clogged screens which left the plant inoperable.

However, while the TT Meteorological Service lowered the severity of its riverine alert from orange to yellow on Thursday afternoon, it also forecast a medium (60 per cent) chance of thunderstorm activity between Thursday afternoon and night, which could affect WASA’s ability to have the treatment plants up and running and water restored on Friday.

Ali said there were a handful of other issues affecting the water supply to some communities.

“Yesterday (Wednesday) we encountered two breaks on the 42-inch transmission main (at Daniel Trace and Pine Settlement, Valencia) that supplies water from the plant to several of the off takes which supply the communities.”

Ali said crews were immediately mobilised to both sites and had been working intensely overnight.

He said because of “the challenges with the weather system, the high levels of rainfall and the river conditions,” WASA was “able to mobilise works last night. Crews were working (continuously) with the weather conditions as they were.”

A crew remains at Daniel Trace where there were several challenges, particularly the terrain, being in a forested area, as well as at Pine Settlement where restoration was hampered on Thursday by the high river levels.

But, Ali said, “We have equipment mobilised. We have the expertise, the engineers, the managers; they are all on site and all efforts are being made at this time to go into the second repair and have that completed over the next several hours.”

She admitted the timeframe for completion of repairs would depend on the weather at the various sites.

Ali said WASA was also engaged in other “major items of works” being co-ordinated in east Trinidad, particularly at the North Oropouche water treatment plant in Valencia, which services over 100,000 customers in the East-West Corridor, from Sangre Grande to Five Rivers, Arouca.

WASA said customers can call its hotlines (800-4420 and 800-4426) to receive truck-borne water, but it added that places such as schools and health centres will get priority.

Communities without water:

Sangre Grande and environs

Guaico Tamana Road

Toco Road

Manzanilla and environs

Cumuto

Wallerfield

Tumpuna Road

Malabar Phase I, III and IV

Brazil

La Horquetta

Carapo

O’Meara (including the industrial estate)

Mausica Road (north and south)

Maloney Gardens; Five Rivers

Bon Air West and surrounding communities.

Affected plants:

Plants out of operation at the time of the news conference included:

Quarry water treatment plant, affecting Valencia and environs

La Pastora/McDavid intakes in Lopinot

North Oropouche water treatment plant

Guanapo water treatment plant, which supplies Arima

Matura and Tompire water treatment plants, which supply Toco, Matura and environs

Blanchisseuse water treatment facility

La Fillette

Rincon

Las Cuevas

Charlotteville (Tobago)

Hillsborough West (Tobago)

Highlands (Tobago)

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