UK authorities maintain silence on $1.9B cocaine-in-timber find
Stabroek News
June 25, 2003
Sixty per cent of the net loan portfolio of the Globe Trust and Investment Company Limited as of December 31, 2000 may not be collected, according to a loan portfolio review.
According to the published abridged accounts of Globe Trust for 2000, the sum of $410M of the net loans of $677M at the end of 2000 may not be “collectible”.
The statement signed by administrator Conrad Plummer, said a loan portfolio review of the balance sheet of Globe Trust was done in compliance with the Financial Institutions Act and had determined that sixty per cent of this net loan position may not be collectible.
An annual general meeting to consider the 2000 and 2001 financial accounts of Globe Trust will be held on Monday at the King Solomon boardroom.
The financial institution, which is under the control of the Bank of Guyana for reorganisation, has had its 2000 and 2001 audits completed under Plummer. The 2002 accounts are still being audited.
An abridged version of the 2000 report was last week published in the Guyana Chronicle and a similar version of the 2001 accounts is expected to be published this week, Plummer indicated yesterday.
The 2000 accounts show a loss of $267.8M against a profit of $30.6M the previous year. The accounts show total assets of $932M and liabilities of $838M. The accumulated earnings of the institution stood at negative $234M at the end of 2000. Shareholders’ equity was $57M against $307M the previous year. The statutory reserve was $12.8M and the revaluation reserve was $16.5M. Deposits were $838M, an increase over the previous year’s $714M.
Auditors Deloitte & Touche, said in their report on the accounts that the financial statements, prepared on a going-concern basis, indicated “the existence of material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt on the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.
The auditors said the institution might not be able to realise its assets and discharge its liabilities in the normal course of business. The auditors also said that the financial statements at the end of 2000 did not give a “true and fair view in all material respects of the company’s state of affairs.”
The notes on the accounts cited the several breaches of the Financial Institutions Act prior to the Bank of Guyana’s seizure of the institution on September 21, 2001. These included the grant of unsecured loans to related persons in excess of 2% of the capital base of the company, inadequate provisions for bad debts, well-defined credit weaknesses, the primary source of repayment being insufficient and a large number of non-performing accounts.
Globe Trust has been out of operation since the seizure but Plummer is overseeing its reorganisation since the High Court threw out a Bank of Guyana motion for its liquidation.
