CL Financial majority shareholder Lawrence Duprey is back in T&T on personal business, his first visit back in several years, the T&T Guardian has been told.
Duprey, who has been living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for the past seven-plus years, arrived last Thursday just before the Budget, a spokesman confirmed.
The spokesman said he came on personal business, including to meet with lawyers—though they said he isn’t filing legal action against anyone. He will be meeting shareholders before he returns overseas.
The T&T Guardian understands that top CL Financial group members held a meeting with him last Friday— prior to the Budget delivery—and he also subsequently met senior representatives of some CL companies.
Some quarters have speculated that Duprey would not have come to T&T unless needed in positive efforts to resolve the Clico/CLF issue, and possible discussion concerning the Golden Grove Estate Clico owns in Tobago, where Government is pushing forward with the planned Sandals hotel development.
Duprey didn’t respond to email query on whether he had come to discuss, with colleagues or Government, the Clico/CLF issue or the hotel development on Clico’s 600 Golden Grove estate. That is owned by Clico subsidiaries Occidental Investments Ltd (OIL) and Oceanic Properties Ltd (OPL).
The estate is earmarked for development of the Sandals resort with which Government is forging ahead, following an August meeting where Clico and CLF representatives - including Duprey’s representatives - met with Finance Minister Colm Imbert and agreed in principle to the hotel development on the Clico estate. This will be as part of their moves to repay the $20 billion debt Clico owes Government for bailout following the 2009 collapse of the former insurance giant.
They also said they were encouraged to co-operate with Government since they understood they would be given first option to get back their companies. Consequently, they’re supporting the hotel development.
In Imbert’s 2017 Budget presentation last Friday, he detailed information confirming further developments on the resort plan in Tobago. He announced that Sandals’ plan comprises two hotels—a hotel for couples and a family hotel—and said construction would take two and a half years. Imbert said an average of 2,000 people would be directly employed.
“At completion and on start-up, over 1,500 direct employees are expected to be engaged. Hundreds more will be employed in indirect activities. After five years, once the Tobago Sandals Resort is fully established, the direct employment opportunity is expected to grow to near 2,000 persons in well paid jobs,” Imbert said in his presentation.
“Further, it’s expected Sandals will purchase in excess of $100 million annually in local goods and services, directly benefiting hundreds of local service providers, entertainers, tour guides and tours and attraction providers. Local transportation/taxi associations will benefit through contractual arrangements for transferring of visitors between the resorts and the airport, as well as to and from local sites and attractions daily.”
Imbert said original projections indicate Sandals’ contribution to T&T’s economy to be of the order of $500 million per year. He said the Sandals resort would be a catalyst for development and enhancement of the tourism industry.
“We feel certain a Sandals resort will attract other tourism investments in Tobago, precipitate the upskilling of the workforce, boost agricultural production and deliver better and more effective marketing of Tobago, as well as Trinidad as preferred tourism destination,” Imbert said.
The resort, scheduled for completion by 2018-19, is expected to be the signature project of the Rowley-PNM administration. In the 2016 Budget, Imbert had pledged to resolve the Clico issue finally in the interest of all.