By Al Edwards, Business Co-ordinator 
Lalor (left) and Panton (right)
THE INSURANCE Company of the West Indies (ICWI) Group's decision to acquire Caribbean Equity Partners'(CEP) stake in Caribbean Basin Investor Limited (CBIL) takes the Dennis Lalor-headed organisation into a new direction.
Buoyed by the sale of some 230 million shares held in Life of Jamaica (LoJ) earlier this year, it appears that Mr. Lalor is again looking to make his presence felt.
Mr. Lalor placed a great deal of faith in Dr. David Panton, Dr. Nigel Clarke and Jeffrey Hall in raising equity for companies in the Caribbean region. He feels that faith has been more than vindicated with CEP managing to raise some US$50 million for the Caribbean Investment Fund (CIF).
DID WELL
CIF operates in two investing categories buyouts, which are investments in established companies that have perceived growth potential (with CEP having a mangement presence), and the provision of venture capital.
Started in 2000, CIF was operated as a limited partnership with a ten year closed end equity.
"Some deals were very good others proved less so, but in the main our partner CEP did well with CIF one only has to look at the Industrial Gases Limited (IGL), Salada and Malaika deals," said Mr. Lalor.
When CBIL formed a partnership with CEP, there existed a clause stipulating that two of the original three founder directors should hold an equity stake in CBIL. With both Jeffrey Hall and Dr. Nigel Clarke no longer spearheading CIF, ICWI decided it would manage the fund.
"We invoked that clause by mutual agreement and exercised our right, which means that CBIL has replaced CEP as the fund manager of CIF. Dr. Panton, Dr. Clarke and Mr. Hall duly resigned from CBIL and were replaced by four directors who are Oliver Holmes (investment banker), Jeffrey Cobham (former Managing Director of NCB), Bevon Francis (electrical engineer), Noel Levy (director, ICWI and partner in the law firm of Myers, Fletcher and Gordon," Mr. Lalor told Sunday Business.
Eleanor Brown has been appointed as executive vice-president.
Her job will be to review all the documentation between the fund and the companies in the portfolio, maintain investor relations and be responsible for CARICOM reporting and head of state relations. She will also seek to expand the involvement of the fund.
ICWI has also appointed Steve Holland (former chief financial officer) at Jamaica Producers) as the new CFO of CBIL. Employment has been offered to the support staff of CEP.
CIF has taken equity stakes in seven companies in its four-year existence with IGL, Salada and the Trinidadian company, Malaika, being the most successful ventures.
In November 2002, CIF took a majority stake in local coffee company Salada, following a rights issue of two million shares (underwritten by CEP) to raise $48 million to finance its debt and expansion plans.
Dr. David Panton was appointed chairman of Salada. He has long championed the need for equity financing in the Caribbean stating that the figure needed should be around US$1 billion.
BRIGHT FUTURE
He sees pensions as a very important area for equity financing calling for the lifting of restrictions to enable them to invest their capital in private equity.
As chairman of CEP, Dr. David Panton, said: "We are very pleased with what we have achieved with CEP. We managed to raise over US$50 million in debt an equity for investments across the Caribbean and investments worldwide. CEP saw CIF become the largest private equity fund in the Caribbean. We are very pleased with the terms of this transaction with ICWI and believe that the fund has a very bright future."
