Wuh? // March 1, 2009 at 1:22 pm

I am reading.. but I want to say this to Royal Rumble (unemployed Sylvan Greenidge), Mia Mottley and the other critics: David Thompson is a master.
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Wuh! I would say you were dead on. Did you see Sylvan Greenidge posing his two questions to the PM tonight? ha ha ha ha ha

Both He Sylvan Greenidge AKA Royal Rumble and fat boy along with that twit Taitt were dispatched to the boundary for massive sixes, why would mottley really want to send three idiots to try to discuss the peoples business??

It just about sums up her options both in and out of the House of Assembly POOR RAKEY as hell.

I understand she tried to buy the other twit Henderson Bovell but he pointly turned her down as a joker.

Who on this blog give a “flying’ F about what your failed Guyana government is doing? stupes Um is only a matter of time before the Guyana government follows the same path as the blog.

@Adrian H

The more we read/investigate this issue we are in no doubt that although as RA, BU commenter 1,2,3 has stated earlier on this blog there is an overlapping of interest between the political and CLICO policyholders, in our view, it has become more tilted towards the political.

We listened with great interest to Sylvan Greenidge, a former government supporter, who read from a document which was posted on this blog 🙂 on the afternoon VOB callin show. Here is another question we have for leader of the opposition Mottley. If the statutory fund was in deficit from 2005/2006 according to the Prime Minister why was a CLICO subsidiary given approval to finance the judicial centre and the coast guard facility (thanks to a BU family member)?

David // March 2, 2009 at 1:53 pm

@Adrian H

The more we read/investigate this issue we are in no doubt that although as RA, BU commenter 1,2,3 has stated earlier on this blog there is an overlapping of interest between the political and CLICO policyholders, in our view, it has become more tilted towards the political.
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Indeed David: First you must never seperate people and their motivations though not publicaly stateD,…from their comments and opinions.

….Are you aware that RA is TOM ADAMS son, Rawdon Adams? It doesn’t get any more political than that!.

AH as usual you are right on the ball. Because Miss Mottley has said that OA will speak to these matters later on in the week!

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Are you aware that RA is TOM ADAMS son, Rawdon Adams? It doesn’t get any more political than that!.
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AH you serious or you just bluffing!

Wah you know that we dont know LOL!

JC i don’t live in Barbados, but Barbados lives in me. It really does. lol!

Thank you Adrian, is only through you and the Lord my eyes have seen, tell it like it is. God Bless, yuh meking meh laugh

@RA

It is very unfortunate that you would latch on to the comment(s) of one person when they are others who commended your contributions. For what it is worth BU recognizes the dispassionate way you attempted to explain the CLICO business. We hope you reconsider your position.

Wuh if you this thin skin some might wonder wuh part uh Tom rob off pun you. I have read your contributions, well written as usual, with a lot of bluster and needless complexity, but what came through clearly everytime was the comparison to Sagicor. Now i am a simple minded man and i choose to see your comparison as making the case for clico policy holder to, ..not wait, not trust the GoB approach to protecting their interest and to move their policies with haste to Sagicor. I could not in good concience hold my tongue on that. Not with the account of Douglas Lynch and his other goons deliberate denial of the majority policholders having a say in the running of THEIR company, as the concept of mutualization so allowed.

I remain convince that your submission were timely,only to further doubt, fear and panic, and to assist in the destruction of CLICO. I really do believe this, and as such they were viewed by me to be political in nature. I refuse to look at anyone’s comment in some “sterile” envoirnment.

Adrian Hinds writing about himself posted “Now i am a simple minded man…”. I can only say “Hear Hear! I agree. Confession is good for the soul!”

Anonymous // March 2, 2009 at 10:41 pm

Adrian Hinds writing about himself posted “Now i am a simple minded man…”. I can only say “Hear Hear! I agree. Confession is good for the soul!”
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ha ha ha wuh i can’t love life an be ashamed of muhself. I am nothing to most, but I am all I can ever be to me. RA shouldn’t be this thin skin, I learn not be in part by watching Tom.

Allison // February 11, 2009 at 12:27 pm

SAGICOR loses Millions but CLICO makes news.
As an investor in SAGICOR and a policy holder of CLICO and investor of a subsidiary company I can’t understand the noise that is being spread around about the later company. SAGICOR late last year admitted in the press that they lost a small portion of money (POLICY HOLDERS FUNDS) on the overseas stock markets. A small portion ($25 million) they said based on their asset base. Now I am in no way a financial guru but that seems to be a lot of “dinero.” As far as I have heard and I have to listen to the information given by the press, CLICO has not lost any money in the Trini/Bajan issue, so my concern is, “what’s the concern . . . so far?” It causes me to think that something other than what is being said is up by the media and those who influence the same media.

After a very, very, very small article in the press about the money SAGICOR lost and the fact that I and other investors had a decrease in our return on our investments no NOISE was kept about SAGICOR losing the $25 MILLION, no NOISE.

Now because of the size of the company I felt ok and comfortable that my investment is safe but again CLICO loss not a cent and they are being brandished all around the press every day with convenient politicians weighing in on the situation and causing panic for the Barbadian public with this non issue( my thinking).

Were they not concerned for the investments public and policy holders of SAGICOR? I don’t know because I didn’t hear their voices . . . at all. Could it be because CLICO is a black managed company and it has grown too large for some, especially only being around for a few years in comparison to SAGICOR’S over 150 years?
I believe without a doubt that my two investment companies are in great shape financially and we should not allow propaganda to influence us in prematurely moving our investments from neither company.

Just dropping by.Btw, you website have great content!

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Start Getting Paychecks For Easy Work That Fits Your Schedule, No Experience Required.

BAFBFP // March 3, 2009 at 12:39 am

I wonder where this RA lives though. (the lt) Leslie Barrow became a B.
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Leslie Barrow was great Dipper daughter? Never noticed her around the political scene. Is the fat woman at UWI business school Jenine Comma her sister? Having heard Comma speak on subjects she knew very little about convinced me she is a fraud.

These jokers with political family connections use the family name to jump from DLP to BLP and vice versa following the sweets.

Adams
You didnt have to hit the foolish idiot so hard. It aint his fault that he cant understand English. I doubt he can understand most of what you said, even though it was a beautiful piece of prose written logically by someone with a brain.

It will be most interesting to read his puerile response.

Man RA yuh shouldn’t hit muh suh hard. ha ha ha dam how do you expect me to respond to all of that? The truth is that i did read all of your contributions and found them to be very sound. But I could not help being mischevious even if it meant receiving the lashes you have thrown my way. So i cherry picked the few comments that i could, to blow them up into something that would get most people going. I wanted to see what you were made off and may bitten off more than i could chew, so be it. However i am still not absolutely convince away from the belief, that your visit to Bajan media at this time isn’t calculated, and I don’t think anyone can move me away from my views on sagicor no matter that a man like Bullets (Sir Hillary) now sits on the board. Sometime belief has no basis in reality. lol! I don’t drink Banks beer nuh more, How about scotch? ha ha ha ha

Your rise to the challenge was nostalgic for me. I know such is not your intent, but sometimes it is very difficult to hide who we are.

Don’t Worry Lionel I am committed to publishing my copy of the Mutual affair, online, and uh aint care wuh Bullets gine say or do.

[quote]
Lionel // February 13, 2009 at 2:22 pm

THE PERFECT RECIPE FOR
SABOTAGE
“POLITICS & PROPAGANDA”
What was meant to be destroyed has only become stronger. Clico Holdings Barbados has withstood the storm of politics and propaganda. This in my mind has unearthed some striking events and some unanswered questions.
The former Prime Minister of Barbados Mr. Owen Seymore Arthur has recently made a statement saying, “Government must come clean on the Clico issue”. Under the Arthur administration, Marion Williams, the Governor General of the Central Bank of Barbados, a lady with unquestionable character was chosen for that office, which successfully governs over all financial institutions in Barbados. This regulatory system in Barbados which is enforced by the Central Bank can boost of having the third best regulated system in the world, Canada first and Chile second. This is the same system that makes it absolutely imperative that Banks, Credit Unions and Insurance Companies fulfill their statutory requirements in order to protect the interest of customers, share holders, and investors. This is the same regulated system that Mr. Arthur had so much confidence in just over a year ago. I can agree with you Mr. Wickham, without a shadow of a doubt there is “something fishy”. Clico Holdings Barbados has to abide by the rules, regulations and restrictions of the Central Bank if not Clico runs the risk of insolvency, as a result giving the Central Bank the legal right to close the doors of Clico . That being the case, the Governor General of the Central Bank of Barbados and the Supervisor of Insurance has said in unison that Clico has fulfilled it’s statutory requirements so there was no need to panic. The Central Bank took it a step further by putting their money $10m where their mouth is.
The most amazing phenomenon is that Sagicor in Barbados lost millions dollars US last year because their investments were exposed in the US market where the genesis of the financial crisis took place, and not one word was uttered on the radio stations. White? Sorry I meant why? Not one word of concern came from the opposition leader, the former Prime Minister, Douglas Skeete or any of the so called educated intellectuals of Barbados. Why?
A few years ago Julie “N” was on track to becoming the next BS&T. What happen? Cleverly engineered espionage by the conglomerates who felt threaten? Who knows!
Apart from Clico, are there any other black owned conglomerates in Barbados?
Can anyone out there source the book entitled, “The Mutual Affair”? This book had the same affect in Barbados that the book “Satanic Verses” had on the eastern world, unmasking bitter truths. Whatever happened to the strong an authoritative voice of Mr. Beckles? What about Gladstone Yearwood? The publisher of Lighthouse Communications.
These are only a few of the striking events and unanswered questions the injustices of recent has unearthed in my mind.
The one question I can surely answer, Can Clico become the wealthiest conglomerate in the region? The famous words of Barrack Obama come to mind, “Yes we can, yes we can”.

“The government has implicitly guaranteed policy holders and the accusations of political panic mongering ought to take account of that.”

That being the case R Adams, what’s the point? Are you just jerking off on words? Or did Mia call out an Adams to bat simply to let Owen know she has pedigree?

Tell us.

AH, the record will show that I asked RA to make the comparison with Sagicor and he gracefully obliged. If you do not like his response and his analysis perhaps you can advance facts to refute them.

RA, I have been trying to find your recent Nation article online but the search facility does not seem to work properly on the revamped Nation website. Could you provide the article or a link to it?

A. Hinds is such a …simpleton but then again I would only be paraphrasing his opinion of himself. His pathetic response to the scolding from Adams, re “I wanted to see what you were made off and may bitten off more than i could chew, so be it” was only too typical of an insufferable blowhard.

@Wow & David

Thanks

@Adrian Hinds

It gives hope to see the door of reason open – even if you are keeping the security chain latched as tossing around words like “apologist”. What you think of Sagicor is rightly your business. But please don’t try to tell me what I think of them.

No, we have never had an exchange before. And how nice it would be to be taken at my word concerning reading your comments before: BFP before you were ridiculously banned (writing that under correction) and I stopped reading them; and Barbados Forum are two that spring to mind. And no, I have no wish to “stop’ the “blowhard” opinionating.

Prefer XO.

Of course there is calculation in writing here and to the press. Just not the sort you settled on. The public were not being fully informed of profound weaknesses in CF Financial and Clico Intl Life – they are both terribly exposed. Policy cannot be made successfully on issues where key information is lacking. And into the vacuum seeped politics, clouding much.

Now ICBL is in talks. That’s a good thing and it will be interesting to see the result given ICBL’s Bermudian parent, BF&M, is not much larger than Clico Intl Life. ICBL’s asset base, though, is two and a half time smaller than Clico Intl Life’s.

@Brutus

I’ll send the original it to David rather than take up space here with it, assuming he does not object to serving as a mailbox.

@Wuh?

*Sigh*. There are motivations other than the poetic and political ones you offer. In fact, you said it well enough yourself in related thread, just before claiming Clico was “safe”:

“This is about Barbados and jobs and investment. I am glad that our citizens are above the petty fray in this issue and ignore your silly commentators who have personal vendettas and acrimony.”

Admirable words everyone ought to try to live up to.

Here is the article written below by Rawdon Adams as it appeared in the Advocate Newspaper on March 1. It also appeared in the Sunday Sun.

Several life insurers in Canada have been placed on negative review or downgraded in the last two weeks. The UK’s Financial Services Authority recently asked its life insurers to stress test their portfolios for fear that the sector is incapable of surviving more financial market shock. And US life insurance stocks – previously considered bastions of prudence – collectively fell 72% late last year on fears that their capital bases are also becoming dangerously unstable.

Yet in Barbados 38,000 policy holders – in an island with not many more than double that number of households – are being told, on the basis of accounting data nearly 14 months old and a regulatory regime described yesterday by the IMF as lacking adequate supervision, that a local firm in the same business is weathering the storm comfortably. And this despite the additional concern posed by the acute solvency problems of its ultimate parent, CL Financial.

Apparently, Sir, some today claim it is “unpatriotic” and “scaremongering” to point these things out. Better that we all “pull together”. That is a difficult task when it is not clear in which direction to pull. The surest way to waste the public purse in this matter is to omit the step of defining the problem accurately, transparently and on the basis of timely data (unfortunately absent in this case). An accurate diagnosis will help forge consensus and a way forward.

With that spirit in mind the key financial facts are these:

1. All life insurers do similar things: take in premium income; check
to ensure policyholders are not suddenly living to be 150; control
expenses; and optimise their investment portfolios. It is no shock
they invest predominantly in the same international instruments
and mirror each other’s fortunes.
2. Clico International Life, some argue, is being singled out for
attention on political grounds. That may be true but the fact –
and it is a fact unless its 2007 accounts are wrong – is that they
are financially levered at twice the level of rival Sagicor and so
half as capable of absorbing financial shocks: for every $1 of
capital from the owners on the balance sheet there are over $15 of
assets.
3. Bearing in mind the parallel that individuals rarely secure more
than 3 times their income to buy a house, being levered 15 times
means a less than 7% decline in the value of one’s assets destroys
100% of one’s capital base.
4. Leveraging a balance sheet that high that works well in rising
markets but disastrously in falling ones. And financial markets
fell faster in 2007 and 2008 than at any time since the Great
Depression periods of 1937-1938 and 1929-1932. 15 times leverage,
therefore, is today a somewhat imprudent position to occupy.
5. The firm’s international bond holdings of $341m at end 2007, over
30% of all its assets, contain a great deal of what is termed
“investment grade” debt (IG). IG debt covers a broad church of
issuers: US sovereign and agencies, emerging markets, mortgages,
credit, high yield and so on. While Clico does not usefully detail
its portfolio composition it is a fact that the returns from these
different types of debt sat between +8% to –20% in 2008.
6. The suggestion that Clico’s regional and local property assets
offer it some kind of protection from the economic storm is
disingenuous. Not only are these assets illiquid and stressed,
they do not add up to much more than half the value of the more
important debt security portfolio.

Sir, the Government has explicitly guaranteed policyholders on several occasions. The remaining question suggested by the points above is what to do with an under capitalised and over leveraged private local insurer. Waiting in the hope the assets recover – in the regulatory jargon this is termed “forbearance” – is risky given the severity and length of this downturn. The prudent alternative is a re-capitalisation.

Re-capitalising a private firm caught out badly with an inappropriately aggressive financial structure raises pointed questions about its management and its strategy. And these, generally, are questions best resolved by those injecting the capital. They take the risk and they decide on replacing, or not, management and strategy – much as Clico did with some of its own local acquisitions.

If these capital-scarce times demand a public solution, rather than the preferable private one, let it be informed by a bipartisan bloc. All the more so if the choice is an indirect, sleight-of-hand solution such as the mooted public re-purchase of Barbados National Bank equity. Imaginative, but a proposal that in these hugely uncertain financial times – for banks above all others – carries the very serious risk to taxpayers of overpaying.

Yours faithfully,

RJH Adams

24 February 2009

RJH Adams, I pass my mantle over to you, a worthy opponent of poppets.

As your name suggests, these financial issues are waaaay too high for you.

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Anonymous,

What about your name? Real creative though!