Central Bank spends millions on effort to rescue ENNIA
PHILIPSBURG/WILLEMSTAD – The court in Curacao has increased the advance payment to the Central Bank for expenditures related to the restructuring of insurance company Ennia to 15 million guilders, the Antilliaans Dagblad reports. The newspaper obtained the information by requesting a copy of the relevant court-edict.
Initially, the court limited the costs to 500,000 guilders. The chairman of the Ennia’s supervisory board Faroe Metry complained in a letter that became public in November that the costs had risen to 8 million. In a reaction, the Central Bank stated that Metry’s letter contains inaccuracies, without contesting this number. Now it appears that the actual costs of the rescue-operation are much higher. The bank expects it will still have to make “significant expenditures” before the restructuring’s completion.
Until August, the Central Bank spent 13.2 million guilders on this project. The money went predominantly to legal fees, at home and abroad.
The Central Bank’s emergency measure is in place for Ennia Leven, Ennia Caribe Schade, Ennia Caribe Zorg, EC Investments, Ennia Caribe Holding and EC Holding. The measure puts management and supervisory boards under the Central Bank’s control.
On February 25, 2020 there is a bankruptcy hearing in the court in Willemstad. That day, the Central Bank is expected to present a substantiated report about the expenditures it has made.
Two third of all legal fees spent so far are related to the chapter-15 procedure the Central bank conducted in the United States. This procedure, the Antilliaans Dagblad explains, was necessary to get access to Ennia-funds in the US.
Ennia-owner Hushang Ansary used three large American law offices in his attempt to prevent at all cost that Ennia would get access to its own money.
The seemingly huge expenditures the Central Bank has incurred in its efforts to save Ennia, are dwarfed by the results of these efforts. The bank has managed to free up 450 million guilders. The expenditures up to August of 13.2 million represent just 2.9 percent of this amount.
