by GERALYN EDWARD

DIRECTORS OF ALL CLICO Holdings Barbados companies will meet this morning with Prime Minister David Thompson to discuss developments within the company.

This was confirmed late yesterday evening by William Layne, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance.

Very reliable sources also said yesterday that a Venezuelan company, a Trinidadian concern, as well as a consortium of Barbadian companies had expressed interest in buying the CLICO insurance portfolio from the CLICO Holdings Barbados group.

This news came just hours after the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Ltd (ICBL) announced it had pulled out of attempts to "find a solution to protect Barbadian policyholders" of CLICO Insurance.

Speaking to the WEEKEND NATION yesterday from his Hamilton, Bermuda office, ICBL chairman John Wight said: "The board of directors came to the conclusion that we had, upon the request of the Barbados Government, tried to do everything possible to see whether we could play a role in the solution for the Barbadian policyholders, but the process was simply taking too long to come to any natural conclusion."

He added: "We just felt it was in [ICBL's] best interest at this time to discontinue discussions."

Wight said also his board had failed to get a confidentiality agreement signed by CLICO that would have enabled ICBL to begin a due diligence process.

Asked whether ICBL was interested in buying the company, Wight said: "I couldn't answer that because we just never got to the point of being able to perform due diligence."

Meanwhile, Tony Hoyos, a businessman and former ICBL chairman said: "A lot of things are going on outside of the public's knowledge which is fair because CLICO is still a privately-owned company and you can't force them to do anything."

However, Hoyos said Government should use "whatever leverage" it had, "whether moral suasion or legal remedies", to bring about a solution to the CLICO insurance issue and "ensure that it survives and services its policyholders, and the sooner the better".

The last statement from Government indicated CLICO was $54 million in deficit of its statutory reserve requirement. The company is a subsidiary of CLICO Holdings Barbados which is wholly owned by CL Financial in Trinidad and Tobago which is now in the hands of the Trinidad and Tobago government after falling into financial difficulty.

In a release last night, Opposition Leader Mia Mottley said the discontinuation by ICBL "tears into shreds the Government's strategy for CLICO".

She called on Government to "urgently seek" to have the Supervisor of Insurance apply to the courts to place the company under judicial management "to protect the interest of these 40 000 policyholders and investors given the sizeable Statutory Fund deficit".

"This still leaves CLICO Holdings Barbados or the Supervisor of Insurance to pursue the option of the sale of CLICO Life or any part of its assets therein under the provisions of the Insurance Act," she added.

Several calls made yesterday to CLICO Holdings president Terrance Thornhill, were not returned up to Press time.