WILLEMSTAD - The Central Bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten (CBCS) is unimpressed by Hushang Ansary's threats to initiate legal actions if CBCS proceeds with the sale of its Banco di Caribe.
Ennia, which is owned by the 94-year-old Iranian-American, has been under the guardianship of the Central Bank for years under an emergency regulation. As a result, the board came into the hands of the CBCS. The sale of Banco di Caribe is deemed necessary to improve Ennia's precarious financial position.
According to Parman, Ansary's company, of which Ennia and Banco di Caribe are subsidiaries, prior approval from the parent company's shareholders is required for any shares to be sold.
In his view, this is therefore an 'illegal sale' of Banco di Caribe because there is talk of 'expropriation'. And that, according to Ansary, is in violation of the provisions of the Most Favored Nations clause of the treaties between the United States and the Netherlands.
Shareholders' meeting
In a response, the CBCS says that a shareholders' meeting has been organized on May 25, 2021 in which decisions had to be made about the intended sale of the shares in Banco di Caribe.
In the context of the invitation to this meeting, a written explanation of the agenda was given to Parman as shareholder in Ennia Caribe Holding N.V. Parman did not appear so that no decision-making could take place.
The law provides that the CBCS, as the competent authority under the emergency regulations, can then itself provide the necessary decision-making. The CBCS has made use of this.
In addition, the judge in preliminary relief proceedings also ruled that the authorization to the Central Bank in the context of the emergency regulation also extends to the sale of assets.