Two holding companies, British Virgin Islands-based Granvalor Holding Limited and International Bancorp of Miami, registered in Coral Gables, signed a written agreement with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, according to which they pledged to devise a plan to support the Bank of Miami, owned by them. The Bank was hurt by loan losses, which brought the net loss of $38.6 million in 2009.
The companies agreed to provide a plan to maintain sufficient capital within 60 days. To conserve capital, the pact restricts the payment of dividends or interest on certain debt without regulatory approval.
The agreement with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta was signed on March 22, while formal agreement with the Bank of Atlanta and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency was signed on January 5, 2009. In this regulatory action, the OCC had directed the bank to come up with a strategic plan, to strengthen lending practices, and to hammer out a plan for maintaining adequate capital.
According to regulatory notices, additional funds invested by Granvalor Holding Ltd into the bank in December 2009 increased its stake in the bank from 49 to 60 per cent.
On March 19, mining magnate Khumalo said he had missed for technical reasons the deadline to file papers in the matter concerning mining company Metallon International, registered in the British Virgin Islands. The order was handed down by the British High Court in December 2009, after Khumalo and BVI company failed to repay the loan. Khumalo was ordered personally responsible for the $5 mln debt, together with interest and costs.
In October 2009, claimants Bellevue Investment Corporation (registered in the Marshall Islands) and Baker Abdullah Saeed Mohammed Al Sadi, agreed to a consent judgment allowing Metallon International to repay the debt. When the BVI company failed to pay, the claimants went for Khumalo.
After Khumalo missed the deadline to file papers, he said that he was negotiating with Bellevue and Metallon’s managers to try to settle the matter out of court, rather than appealing the order in the court.
The Kyivenergo power distribution company has paid a UAH 170 mln gas debt to the Gaz Ukrainy gas company, clearing its debt for the natural gas it used for generating electricity in November 2009.
Kyivenergo is a joint-stock company 50% plus one share of which are owned by the state of Ukraine (this stake is contributed to the statutory capital of the national joint-stock entity the Energy Company of Ukraine), 20.35% are owned by Kapiton Trading Limited (Cyprus) and 15.72% are owned by the British Virgin Islands company Bledsoe Holdings Limited. The Haz Ukrainy actually is a subsidiary of the National joint-stock company Naftogaz of Ukraine.
The amount of debt paid by Kyivenergo for the previous periods is UAH 5 million. In the statement of company’s financial director, it is said that the situation with payments for fuel used for getting thermal energy is still complicated, as Kyivenergo cannot settle it in full amount.
According to the information from Gaz Ukrainy, as of December 9, 2009 the power company owed UAH 865 mln for gas supplied to it since last year. By earlier information of Ukrainian News, Kyivenergo paid Gaz Ukrainy debts in the amount of UAH 130 mln on October 14, and UAH 157.4 million on October 30.
BVI-registered freight-logistics company UTi Worldwide reported its financial results for the first quarter of the year 2009, which appeared to be even worse that it had been expected by Wall Street. After announcing the results, the stock of the company fell down 5% - much more than average.
For the period ended April 30, 2009, the BVI company named the earning figure of US$9.8 mln on revenue of US$768.4 mln - much lower that market analysts’ expectations of nearly US$938 mln; and both these figures were much lower than a year ago - 27% and 35% respectively. Among the reasons for so dramatic fall of revenues of UTi Worldwide, there is the large slowdown in worldwide shipping volumes. The company has already reported losses for the period ended January 31, 2009, and now the downfall continued.
The company also has cut expenses during this period to about US$292 mln - 20% if compared to the same last year period.
The BVI company said its earnings figures included restructuring costs and the sale of real estate in South Africa. Also, the company blamed currency fluctuations of its losses.
CEO of UTi Worldwide, Eric Kirchner, said in a statement that he wants to heighten company’s sales efforts to improve revenue growth, but did not specify what kind of measures these could be.