AIC Chairman Michael Lee Chin.
JAMAICAN-CANADIAN BILLIONAIRE Michael Lee Chin is expected today to reveal details behind his acquisition of the controlling stake in the United General Insurance Company (UGIC), as well as the controlling interest in the CVM Group, informed sources say.
The interest being sold in the cash-strapped general insurance giant is owned by Neville Blythe's UGI Group. The company has been hit by new insurance regulations requiring a substantial boost in its assets.
An agreement has been reached for Mr. Lee Chin's AIC Barbados company to take the 75 per cent UGIC stake, although the deal is subject to regulatory approval. The insurer is the biggest operating unit in the UGI Group.
A STAKE IN CVM GROUP
But Mr. Lee Chin is also expected to make an announcement regarding the acquisition of a stake in the CVM Group, which includes CVM Television along with Hot 102, X-News and the Teen Herald. The CVM Group is another subsidiary of the UGI Group.
The CVM acquisition is expected to cost $250 million and involve a 64 per cent stake. Mr. Lee Chin is to pump $300 million into the acquisition to provide it with necessary equipment.
Mr. Lee Chin already has a 50 per cent shareholding in Columbus Communications which has controlling interests in Cable Bahamas. This company owns a cable television station in Trinidad and New World Network which owns Arcos Network, the provider of a fibre-optic ring around the Caribbean, Central America and South America. It also owns Flow, the new communications provider in Jamaica.
Mr. Lee Chin also controls a 10 per cent stake in the RJR Communications Group.
Efforts last night to get comments from UGI and the CVM Group were unsuccessful.
