There will be no United States dollar financial windfall for Massy shareholders resident in Barbados.
In the face of suggestions that its decision to pay 276 foreign resident shareholders dividends in US dollars should be extended to all shareholders, the Trinidad and Tobago business group with major operations in Barbados says shareholders based here will continue to receive their dividend payments in Barbados dollars.
The same policy will obtain for Massy shareholders in Jamaica, who will continue to receive their returns in Jamaican dollars, says the group’s chairman Robert Riley.
However, in a policy that took effect on August 7, future foreign resident shareholders living outside of Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and Jamaica will not be paid in US dollars, but Trinidad and Tobago or Jamaica dollars, depending on if their shares are listed on the stock exchange in either country.
Massy delisted from the Barbados Stock Exchange in January 2017, but shareholders have still received their dividends in Barbados dollars. The group cross listed its shares on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) in January 2022.
Controversy arose recently after former general counsel of Massy Holdings, Angelique Parisot-Potter raised questions about a minority of Massy shareholders resident overseas being paid in US dollars when others were not accorded similar treatment.
The Trinidad Express reported on July 21 that Parisot-Potter wrote Riley and the Trinidad and Tobago Securities and Exchange Commission on the matter and voiced concern about transparency, accountability, and the potential preferential treatment of shareholders.
“My repeated attempts to obtain clear and consistent information about US dollar dividend payments, both during my tenure as general counsel and subsequently as a shareholder, have been met with silence,” the Express reported her as stating.
Among other things, she called for “the precise criteria used to determine eligibility for US dollar dividend payments, ensuring clarity and equal treatment for all shareholders”.
Addressing the issue in a September 3 circular to Massy shareholders on behalf of the company’s board, Riley said: “Historically, the company’s shareholders resident in Trinidad and Tobago where the company is primarily listed were paid dividends in Trinidad and Tobago dollars and Barbados resident shareholders where the company was cross listed until 2016, were paid dividends in Barbados dollars, respectively.
“Shareholders resident in other countries were paid in the currency of their respective countries or in a currency that they could utilise when they received their dividend cheques.”
He explained that from about 2016 and 2017 many shareholders were unpaid after the Trinidad and Tobago Central Depository Limited (TTCD) was no longer able to source foreign currency through the commercial banks, to pay Massy’s foreign-based shareholders.
Riley said Massy informed unpaid shareholders in 2017 that “moving forward, the company will be making dividend payments to its foreign resident shareholders in US dollars, to ensure that all shareholders are paid at the same time”.
He said that Massy funded its TTDC US dollar bank account in Trinidad from which the group “arranges for payments to be made to its foreign resident shareholders – shareholders not resident in Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados or Jamaica”.
Sharing that the Massy board “has sought the advice of external legal counsel”, the chairman said in the two-page circular that the following was decided effective August 7:
To maintain the existing payment arrangements to its current foreign resident shareholders only.
Shareholders resident in Barbados and Jamaica will continue to receive their dividend payments in Barbados and
Jamaican dollars respectively. Future foreign resident shareholders, that is, shareholders resident outside of Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Jamaica after August 7, 2024 will be paid in Trinidad and Tobago dollars or Jamaican dollars, if their shares are listed on the JSE and not in US dollars.
