The Bahama Journal reports that shareholders of Colina have a move afoot to terminate President of Colina Insurance Company James Campbell.
There has been a total loss of confidence in Mr. Campbell’s decision-making, the Journal has learnt.
Well-placed sources in the insurance industry say Mr. Campbell has already been terminated, but this could not be immediately verified late last night.
It is reported that the decisions that Mr. Campbell has made upon the recent assumption of control of Imperial Life Assurance, both from the policy level and the administrative level, have been questioned and in some cases objected to by the other major shareholders.
The reason for the planned termination was not immediately known. However, sources in the insurance industry have indicated that there was a split in the strong brotherhood between Chairman Emmanuel Alexiou, Anthony Ferguson, one of the principals, and Mr. Campbell.
It is said that Mr. Alexiou and Mr. Ferguson found that Mr. Campbell wanted his own way in controlling the management and finances of the company.
Mr. Campbell has retained a lawyer to represent him in the matter and has pledged to “go down fighting. He did not return calls to the Bahama Journal on Thursday.
Mr. Campbell informed our sources that he has been the architect of the whole enterprise and complained that Mr. Alexiou and Mr. Ferguson met to oust him from the company.
He also claims that he has 45 percent of the shares and Mr. Alexiou has 45 percent while Mr. Ferguson has 10 percent.
The shares of Mr. Alexiou and Mr. Ferguson reportedly came together to form the majority.
Mr. Campbell reportedly said that he was interested in putting in place rules of good corporate governance and certain initiatives were objected to by his partners.
It was reported that the matter was taken to the Board of Directors of the company, which includes Dr. Myles Munroe, Charles Carter and Sandra Knowles.
Colina bought Imperial Life Assurance recently and paid between $22 million to $25 million in the controversial acquisition and has since lost a number of policyholders who decided not to continue with the new owners.
In addition to this, the vast majority of the employees of Imperial decided to withdraw their pension funds from the company amounting to some $7 million.
The acquisition of Imperial by Colina has been the most significant transaction in the capital market of The Bahamas and the departure of Mr. Campbell from the company could have major implications for the organization.
It is understood that local regulators and the Office of The Prime Minister are aware of what is being called a major split in the board of Colina.
The heart of the problem is the way the restructuring of the company is being done and the reported “shabby way in which the staff of Imperial Life Assurance are being treated, the Journal has learnt.
As part of the approval of the Imperial Life deal, the government attached 21 stringent conditions and warned that Colina would face penalties if it failed to adhere to those conditions.
The conditions included a restructuring of the various boards of the Colina group, which consented to the removal of at least one of the three principal owners of Colina Financial Group from the board of directors of the three entities to be replaced by independent non-executive directors to be approved by the regulators.
According to a well-placed source in Colina, the restructuring is being done unprofessionally and callously displacing some of the most experienced executives in Imperial.
In addition, the assignment of positions of the top management staff, the amount of shares that is being negotiated for certain shareholders and their remuneration have proven to be problematic.
The source said the “botching of the restructuring process is a key reason for Colina’s latest troubles.
Another Colina official told The Bahama Journal that there are some “serious issues that the principals are dealing with, but he said on Thursday that at that point everything appeared to be “bubbling under the surface.
However, regulators were said to be locked in a meeting yesterday evening discussing the matter.
By The Bahama Journal
