The Judicial Managers of BAICO have made significant recent progress regarding the proposal of a Plan to facilitate the distribution of BAICO’s assets to its policyholders. The Plan, which will require legislation to be passed in various OECS jurisdictions, will set out a framework for agreeing final claims against the company and will require a Court-Ordered Meeting of Creditors to vote on the proposals.
At present, the legislation has been adopted in St Vincent & the Grenadines, Grenada and Antigua & Barbuda. Efforts are being made for other affected jurisdictions to adopt the law as soon as practicable.
In order to bring policyholders up to date with developments, and to provide an explanation of the Plan process and proposals, the Judicial Managers have issued notice of a series of Consultation Meetings to be held across the Eastern Caribbean during the week commencing 14th March.
If you are a policyholder and you wish to attend one of these meetings, you can register your intention to do so at the following:
http://www.kpmg.com/BS/en/Pages/BAICO.aspx
It is not necessary to do so but it will assist the Judicial Managers in planning the event if you do.
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Background to BAICO:
British American Insurance Company Limited was incorporated in The Bahamas in 1920 and is a subsidiary of CL Financial Ltd. It operated subsidiaries, affiliates and/or branches throughout the Caribbean region. Through these operations the Company sold life insurance, annuity business, and other insurance products to policyholders.
The Company is insolvent. It was placed into Judicial Management in late 2009 in numerous jurisdictions including the Bahamas, Antigua, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent & the Grenadines. The Anguilla branch was also placed in Administration at this time and an Agent of the Judicial Manager was appointed in Dominica.
Given the multi-jurisdictional nature of this matter, it is the opinion of the Judicial Managers that there is no consistent process currently available to allow for payments to be made to policyholders on a coordinated and consistent basis across the EC territories. As a result, the Judicial Managers in conjunction with the Judicial Manager in the Bahamas, have developed new legislation with the relevant governments in the region to be implemented, specifically to allow BAICO to propose a “Plan of Arrangement” to its policyholders.
This legislation, if it can be enacted quickly, will provide a mechanism (the Plan) for a payment to be made to insurance creditors in a much reduced time frame than would otherwise be the case.
The Plan will be a Court driven process, which will require approval of the Company’s creditors, and will allow the Judicial Managers to make a distribution of the remaining assets of the Company on a consistent basis across the region.
Details of Consultation Meetings:
Notice of the meeting can be found at the following website:
http://www.kpmg.com/BS/en/Pages/BAICO.aspx
