Susan Gordon, Staff Reporter
DR. KING
DR. DAMIEN King, chairman of the Dyoll Group of Companies, says the funds from the sale of its shares in Dyoll Wataru Company Limited will be channelled into new areas of investment for the group.
Dr. King, a prominent University of the West Indies lecturer in economics, chose not to give any details about the investment plans for Dyoll, but hinted that real estate could be one such area of investment. In August 2005, Wednesday Business reported that Dyoll had plans to offload its coffee operations, Dyoll Wataru Company Limited, by September 2005. This plan was actually finalised on April 13 of this year.
The Dyoll Group sold its 51 per cent interest in the coffee company for J$200 million. Wednesday Business understands that the shares in the coffee company was purchased by Nipon Farms Limited, owned by a prominent automobile dealer.
GOING INTO REAL ESTATE
"It provides the cash flow for the company to go into new areas which were discussed at the last AGM," said Dr. King, speaking of the sale.
"We have a claim on some properties which is part of the resources that we are going to effect our transaction with," continued Dr. King. And when Wednesday Business asked him outright if the group was thinking of going into real estate, he answered, "That was an area that received the positive reactions at the AGM."
He said the group is pursing the strategies that its shareholders have recommended, and underscored that what is taking place at Dyoll Insurance is completely out of his hands.
WATARU SALE
The chairman said the sale will not have a dramatic impact on shareholders. He explained that plans to sell the coffee interest preceded the difficulties faced by Dyoll Insurance Company. These plans were motivated to focus on the group's core business.
Dyoll Insurance had been the main operating subsidiary of a group which included Cayman Insurance Centre Limited, the defunct Dyoll Caribbean Financial Services Limited and the property development company, Seville Development Corporation Limited, which has the significant holdings at Drax Hall in St. Ann.
He said all that is left of Dyoll now, following the liquidation of its core Dyoll Insurance business and the sale of its coffee business, are the Dyoll Group as a holding company and some properties.
Dr. King, however, declined to give a time line when the Group would fully launch into its new strategies since he estimated the liquidation process could last for an undetermined period.
The Dyoll Insurance and Cayman Insurance companies encountered financial difficulties when Hurricane Ivan stormed across Jamaica and The Cayman Islands in September 2004, leaving an insurmountable load of claims on the insurance company. In February 2005 the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) temporarily suspended trading in the Dyoll Group's shares, based on rumours that the insurance company was in trouble.
Auditors at KPMG Peat Marwick said the insurance company had net current liabilities of $1.4 billion, a shareholders' net deficit of $1.1 billion and a net loss of $1.6 billion.
The shares, which traded above $23 last year, ended trading at 82 cents yesterday.
