British-American creditors to get a payout by December 19
Life insurance policyholders of the folded British-American Insurance Company (BAICO) will get back at least some of the money they are owed by Christmas.The Official Receiver, Stephen Lowe, announced last night that creditors will be able to pick up cheques from the BAICO building at 133 Front Street from Monday, December 19.The office will be open from 9am to 4pm, Monday to Friday.The liquidators were hoping to be able to give creditors their full allocation in one distribution, including their share of funds from the sale of the BAICO building, which is part owned by the branch.Negotiations with the party interested in buying the building are “at an advanced stage”, last night’s statement said, adding: “The OR is still optimistic that the sale can be concluded soon.”BAICO owns 40 percent of the building with the other 60 percent belonging to the BAICO Bermuda pension scheme.In April this year the liquidator’s agents KPMG Advisory Ltd put a $3.6 million price tag on the building. The proceeds would add significantly to the money to be divided among creditors.The liquidators were hoping to complete the sale before the payouts were distributed, to avoid the extra costs of a second distribution eating into what creditors will receive.And they have not given up hope of achieving that. A further announcement will be made on or around December 12 to confirm whether the December 19 payment will be an interim or final distribution.“While the OR acknowledges that a one-off payment to creditors would minimise the duplication of cost and effort in making multiple distributions, the OR is also sympathetic to creditors’ frustration with the time it is taking to make a distribution to them,” the OR’s statement added.“It is for this reason that the OR will be making a distribution to creditors in December.”BAICO’s Bermuda business, which is a branch of its parent company in the Bahamas, went into receivership in August 2009. It has assets of almost $11 million with liabilities of around $21 million.For more information contact KPMG Advisory Ltd at infoba[AT]kpmg.bm or visit the website at www.kpmg.bm/ba or call the British American hotline on 294-2651.