Monday 17, May-2004
Senator Allan Fields, the man who has led the country’s biggest conglomerate, Barbados Shipping & Trading, for the past five years is preparing to step down from that office.
The s comes a month after he demitted the post of head of the Barbados Private Sector Association (BPSA), now led by financial management consultant Chris de Caires.
Senator Fields revealed in an exclusive interview with BUSINESS AUTHORITY over the weekend that the island’s most important private sector employer had already started its recruitment process and by next month the list of possible candidates for the top job will be narrowed down.
He is expected to step down at the end of the company’s financial year in September.
“I came to BS&T five years ago and I committed to them that I would be with them for a minimum of five years and I have indicated that I would like to retire at the end of the financial year,” he said.
Sir David Seale, Kyffin Simpson and Sir Allan Fields are men, white men who have dominated the business landscape of Barbados over the last 30 years. Unlike Sir David and Simpson, Sir Allan has been contented to exercise his management skills to consolidate the hold which white owned companies have had on the distribution sector in Barbados over the years, in case you don’t get our drift, distribution means food! Some of the companies which Sir Allan has blessed with his business acumen are Barbados Light & Power, Tropical Battery, Neal & Massy, Banks Breweries and Barbados Shipping & Trading Company Ltd. The power base which he has developed as a consequence has ensured that he firmly wears the title of one of the most powerful men in Barbados. No doubt Prime Minister Arthur is aware of Sir Allan’s influence on the economic elite in the country and has co-opted his support in key areas of managing the economy, at the top of the list must be his involvement in the Social Partnership, a tripartite arrangement comprised of private sector, union and government. His appointment as pinch hitter as Chairman of the Board of the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation and Ambassador to China clearly demonstrates his positioning in the mind of Prime Minister Arthur.
Recently we heard that the merger with Neal and Massy was being crafted for over six years. We found the statement interesting if only because no business analysts in Barbados appeared to have believe that it would happen. As far back as 2004 Sir Allan gave a clue that BS&T was working towards a close association with Neal & Massy with a view to a possible merger. He was quoted in the Business Authority back as saying:
As the Caribbean business environment becomes characterized by take-overs and mergers, Senator Allan Fields says he loses no sleep over the possibility that Barbados Shipping & Trading (BS&T) could become the target of such a corporate manoeuvre. Fields, the chief executive officer of BS&T, and who until recently headed the Barbados Private Sector Agency, said if the company had become an attractive target for a take-over “it naturally follows that the attractiveness would be in the shareholders’ best interest”.He was responding to concerns raised that when BS&T sold just over half of its 20 per cent shareholding in the Trinidadian giant Neal & Massy, it opened the company to a possible take-over.
According to the top executive: “We sold some of the shares in Neal & Massy for very good economic reasons. We had explored and exploited all the synergies with Neal & Massy in Barbados and it was in the shareholders’ best interest that we capitalized on the increased value of the Neal & Massy shares. “We still have a significant interest and a significant investment in Neal & Massy and I don’t think that selling them made us more vulnerable to any possible take-over; far from it.” Arguing that the island’s largest private sector operation did not need to “protect itself” from such a possibility, he said: “It does not mean that if BS&T was taken over that it would close down. It means that it would be part of a global marketplace and part of whatever company found it that attractive to come in and purchase it.”
According to Fields: “I don’t lose any sleep over the possibility that the company could be taken over. We in Barbados see BS&T as this big player, but in fact, it is a fly in the ointment when compared to companies outside Barbados.” In a wide-ranging interview with BUSINESS AUTHORITY, the BS&T boss revealed that the conglomerate, with investments in Canada, United Kingdom, United States and St Lucia, was seeking to achieve more of its growth from outside the country. “We have a core business in food distribution and retail, which do very well, and that has to be part of the focus of going outside Barbados. In insurance, United Insurance has been in the forefront of expansion outside Barbados over the last four years and has grown significantly in the last three. In tourism, Almond produced the best results in its history last year,” he said. And as the Caribbean market confronts a fully liberalized environment, the BS&T head said the conglomerate was prepared to meet the competition head-on, whether within or outside the region.
BU is tempted to ask how ethical would be the behavior of Sir Allan if it were to be proven that he conspired to work with Neal & Massy to sell Barbados lone conglomerate. We suspect that he would feel the venom of the famous Barbadian tongue. BS&T has fattened itself at the expense of Barbadians through the years and the idea that it can be picked-off by cash rich T&T companies we find to be extremely distasteful. The business climate in Barbados is a simple one designed to support a public good as well as to create shareholder value.
For those in our country who continue to focus on shareholder value only, we say go and come again, Barbadians have had enough! It is no secret that at BU we believe that BS&T MUST remain in Bajan hands. If Barbadians win this battle there is hope yet.
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