Among the bits of public information, which emerged from the 14th Annual General Meeting of the Anguilla Electricity Company, was that ANGLEC spent roughly over 19 million dollars, close to twenty million, of “out of pocket” money to restore the island-wide power supply disrupted by Hurricane Irma.
The information was disclosed at the company’s Annual General Meeting which immediately followed a Special Meeting at Ellen Conference Room at La Vue Boutique Inn on Monday evening, February 5. Among the main agenda items of the AGM, was the presentation of the company’s informative and glossy 67-page Annual Report and Accounts for 2016. With that date, the report had nothing to do with ANGLEC’s current operations which was generally understood by the over 20 shareholders – the number which formed the quorum for the meeting.
The estimated cost of the 2017 restoration of island-wide electricity was given by ANGLEC’s CEO, Mr. David Gumbs, and the Financial Officer, Mr. Peter LaMontagne during questions from the shareholders. “In terms of the preparation of the financial statements, that have to be assessed and considered, the rough estimate of the expenses, incurred for the grid restoration is about 19 – say 20 million dollars,” Mr. Gumbs disclosed. “Much of those expenses are capital expenditures that will be…depreciated over the life of those assets, so much of that is not going to be a hit to the life of the organisation. In addition, we are going to receive income from our insurance claims for business interruption and other claims we put through. As we recover from those claims, there is going to be other income for the organisation so we will actually end up in a very positive income position.”
Mr. Gumbs explained that, among other things, ANGLEC would be replacing a number of its fixed assets, such as its 1 megawatt solar farm at Corito which was completely destroyed by the hurricane. “There is much work to be done yet, but it is very likely that we will have a positive income position when our books are closed,” the CEO added.
The meeting was very interactive, with searching questions from various shareholders. The main persons posing questions included Mr. George Kentish, Mr. Sutcliffe Hodge, Mr. Timothy Hodge, Ms. Karen Hodge, Mrs. Olive Hodge; and Mr. Kent Webster and Mr. Harold Ruan both having served on the company’s Board of Directors.
The questions included such matters as the approximate EC$6 million dollars expended on legal fees as recorded in the 2016 Annual Report; payment of dividends; write offs of bills in favour of Government and some consumers unable to pay; the duration of appointments of directors; and various other operational and accounting matters of interest to shareholders.
At the head table, to answer questions, were: Mr. Gareth Hodge, Chairman; Mr. David Gumbs, CEO; Mr. Peter La Montagne, Chief Financial Officer; Mrs. Jeri Richardson-Charles, Corporate Secretary; Mr. Claudel Romney, Managing Partner of BDO, the auditing company; and Ms. Jacinth Jeffers, Legal Adviser from Caribbean Juris Chambers.
