NIBJ acquires Thermo-Plastics' assets

- Contributed

Receiver/Manager of Thermo-Plastics, Richard Downer, left, of PriceWaterhouse-Coopers, hands a document to Lloyd Pinnock, right, National Investment Bank of Jamaica senior vice-president for finance and administration, following the signing of an agreement for the Bank to acquire the assets of the Thermo-Plastics Group. Beside Mr. Downer is NIBJ President, Rex James. Others, from left, are Megan Deane, NIBJ's director of project investments; Portia Nicholson Clarke, director of the Portfolio Monitoring Unit, and Marva Gordon Simmonds, legal officer.

THE National Investment Bank of Jamaica (NIBJ) has acquired the assets of the financially-strapped Thermo-Plastics Group of Companies in St. Catherine in a move aimed at saving the jobs of more than 200 workers, as well as to expand its productive capacity.

Last week's move by the NIBJ came some three years after the National Commercial Bank (NCB) sent in Receiver/Manager Richard Downer, senior partner of PriceWaterhouse-Coopers, to take control of the Twickenham Park, Spanish Town-based plant to recover a debt of $650 million.

Since then, Mr. Downer has been trying to dispose of the business, which manufactures a variety of plastic items including plastic bottles, PVC pipes, electrical conduits, fittings, crates, buckets and tubs, and has an annual turnover of some US$14 million.

The NIBJ, which announced the deal last week, did not say how much it paid for the assets, but said the purchase was the result of a complex deal between the Bank and the receiver, that would see the immediate winding up of Thermo-Plastics as a company and the transfer of its assets to a new entity, which it did not name.

It said the new company was created by the NIBJ to replace Thermo-Plastics (Jamaica) "mainly to expand production, save the jobs of over 200 workers and satisfy both local and overseas orders."

The Thermo-Plastics Group is comprised of three entities -- Thermo-Plastics (Jamaica), Plas-Pak and Caribbean Tooling -- which are involved in the manufacture of plastic products for the Jamaican and export markets, the NIBJ said in a release.

According to NIBJ President, Rex James, who signed the agreement with Mr. Downer, "NIBJ is committed to the development of the Jamaican economy and by taking over Thermo-Plastics we are not only saving jobs for Jamaican workers, but we are also facilitating new investments, which will ensure foreign exchange earnings and increased revenue for the country."

Mr. James said the Bank was currently negotiating with two potential operators of the new entity, but in the interim the NIBJ would maintain a presence at the facility.

The release also quoted Mr. Downer as saying that the NIBJ's was one of several offers he had received to purchase the assets of Thermo-Plastics.

Although he did not identify other offers, in 1999 St. Andrew-based plastic manufacturer, Omni Industries, offered $120 million cash to acquire the assets of Thermo-Plastics, but PriceWaterhouseCoopers rejected it as being too low.

Thermo-Plastics is sited on 16.5 acres of land, has a combined workforce of about 251 persons, and manufactures more than 1,000 plastic items under its own brands Thermoco and Countess, as well as unbranded products under four broad groupings - construction products, industrial items, household products, and bottles, containers and caps.

In a newspaper advertisement on Friday, the receiver/manager invited employees of Thermo-Plastics, Plas-Pak and Caribbean Tooling, including those laid off before the receivership and had not received a severance payment, to collect cheques at the company's offices. However, there was no indication as to whether they would be re-employed by the new company established by the NIBJ.

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