year to sell 40 percent of the jewellery business to Caribbean jewellery conglomerate Colombian Emeralds International (CEI) -- was never consummated.

Mr. Dickinson disclosed for the first time yesterday that the deal was blocked by the Bermuda Monetary Authority.

He was responding to an article in yesterday's edition about CEI boss, Stephen G.E. Crane, who is involved in a major dispute with his chief Caribbean competitor, Little Switzerland.

Last week, publicly-traded Little Switzerland complained that CEI affiliate Destination Retail Holdings Corp., with Mr. Crane as president and CEO, had failed to satisfy its contractual purchase of Little Switzerland shares for $68.6 million.

Little Switzerland is suing Destination Retail, Mr. Crane and "certain related entities'' in the US Federal Court for the District of Delaware, seeking undisclosed damages caused by the defendants' breach of the merger agreement.

CEI is one of the stable of companies operated by Destination Retail.

As early as November 1996, Mr. Dickinson confirmed that CEI -- one of the largest and most influential duty free shopping companies -- was taking a stake in his Bermuda company.

The plan, which was originally to be completed by December 1996, would have provided the Bermuda jeweller with access to Colombian Emeralds' huge inventory.

It was thought to be a done deal by April 1997, when The Royal Gazette ran a story with Mr. Dickinson defending his decision to take on CEI as a minority partner by selling a 40 percent stake.

But he said yesterday that the deal had still not been consummated by that time.