7 new members appointed to NIF board as 4 resign

THE board of the National Investment Fund Holding Company Ltd (NIF) is seeing changes as four members of the board have resigned and seven more were appointed.

An advertisement in local newspapers said Chairperson Jennifer Lutchman along with board members Nadira Lyder, Dexter Jaggernauth and Cindy Pierre resigned from the board with effect from October 28.

Another advertisement in local papers announced the appointment of seven new board members: Lutchman was replaced by Dr Sandra Sookram as chairperson, Patrice Jameela Ayoung-Chee was appointed deputy chairman and Aiden Boodoo, Shivanand Maharaj, Vandanna Singh-Maharaj and Dexter V Ragoonath were appointed to the board.

The advertisement said the new board of directors would be appointed for two years from October 28.

The government formed NIF in 2018 to hold assets received by the government from the shareholding of assets of Clico as a means of recovering funds owed to it from the $4 billion government bailout of Clico in 2009.

The five assets were Republic Financial Holdings Ltd, One Caribbean Media Ltd, West Indian Tobacco Company Ltd, Angostura Holdings Ltd and TT Generation Unlimited.

The bailout was fully repaid on October 5 2018. In 2019 it made its first payment to about 7,894 bond holders.

In August this year it made its 14th coupon payment of more than $85 million to bond holders of the Series B and Series C bonds of the NIF.

Another NIF bond offer, the NIF 2, was launched in 2022. It has made three coupon payments, the latest amounting to $9 million.

Since the establishment of the NIF in 2018, the company has made $2.4 billion in interest distributions.