PORT-OF-SPAIN (Trinidad Express):
SEVERAL CONGLOMERATES, including ANSA McAL, are making bids to purchase the assets of the furniture and appliance chain Courts T&T, and other stores in the wider Caribbean, the Trinidad Express learnt yesterday.
Senior officials at ANSA declined comment but the Express learned that the company had indicated its interest in acquiring the outlets located in 11 Caribbean countries.
Anselm Frost, manager of the group's foreign operations, was not available for comment yesterday.
The proposed sale of the Caribbean business, which was described as 'very profitable', has caused some concern in the capital market.
At an RBTT Merchant Bank forum on Caribbean capital markets held last week in Miami, the sale of Courts to the 'Mr Bigs' of the Caribbean was criticised by former Minister of Finance Wendell Mottley.
"The Mr. Bigs within their respective countries, through their connections, they first see the biggest and best deals and successfully manage their money in such buyouts," he said.
Mottley said a good recent example of takeover by the Mr. Bigs is the bid of several hundred million U.S. dollars "taking place right now for the Caribbean operations of the Courts stores".
The ex-Finance Minister said the outcome of the sale might be good for the winning bidder, but "it would be a strain to argue that Caribbean development is advanced by such transactions".
Mottley said already an inordinate amount of private capital was being used for multimillion-dollar shopping plazas, apartment complexes, movie palaces and restaurants, none of which were clusters or sustainable globally competitive enterprises.
FOREX EXODUS
Robert Mayers of Caribbean Money Market Brokers, who considers the sale of Courts as nothing short of the migration of foreign exchange from Trinidad, said the flight of such huge capital was bad for the Caribbean.
"It is a bad thing from the capital outflow perspective that we don't need," he said.
Mayers said it was time that a culture was developed to cherish the country's foreign exchange and not use it for consumption.
Last year Thomas Pantin, managing director of Courts in Trinidad, had said that "the operations would continue with business as usual".
His statement had come in light of problems with Courts plc, the group's parent company in the United Kingdom. He had said that the company had appointed administrators to oversee its operations after it got into a £280 million debt.
At present there are 95 Courts outlets in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados, Belize, Antigua, St. Lucia, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St. Kitts, and St. Vincent.
These Caribbean outlets contributed some £181 million to the group sales of £637 million last year.
