Who is Wilfred Espinet? By now, almost everyone in the country is familiar with the name but very few know about the man.
A quick read of his bio shows that he has made great strides in the business community while still managing to keep his life private.
Espinet does not reside in T&T but instead regularly travels from Barbados where he has a home. He also regularly visits Malta where he also has a home.
His resume is lengthy and impressive, detailing links to a range of companies, not just in T&T and the Caribbean, but around the world.
It is well known that Espinet had been chairman at now-defunct Petroleum Company of T&T Limited from October 23, 2017. Less well known his chairmanship of Aeromarine International Logistics Company, which has operations in North America, Central America and the Caribbean and is affiliated with Mayfair, a cosmetic retailer with outlets throughout the Caribbean.
In addition, he was Group Chairman of Readymix (West Indies) Limited until September 30, 2015, and served as a director on the board from May 22, 2015, to September 30, 2015.
He was a director of Associated Brands Industries Limited (ABIL), a company chaired by his friend and business associate, Arthur Lok Jack and was also Managing Director of Consolidated Biscuits Limited and Chocolate Products Limited in Malta. That company is in charge of distributing ABIL’s Sunshine Snacks and Devon biscuits in Malta.
Espinet also sat as President Director General of Cheval Blanc S A in France.
Behind this long list of titles is a man with a reputation for working quietly but wielding a big stick. He commands a great deal of authority in the local business community.
Espinet is also linked to another prominent businessman, Jerry Hospedales, the man who oversaw the controversial closure of Caroni (1975) Limited. The two were directors of the San Juan Jabloteh football team.
In the case of Lok Jack, their business connection goes way back to the shut down of BWIA. At the time of the closure in 2006, Lok Jack was the airline’s chairman and Hospedales worked at the Ministry of Finance as the head of the Divestment Secretariat Division.
However, long before his name was linked to the shut down of Petrotrin, Espinet oversaw the restructuring of another state company, Trinidad Cement Limited.
Two months after Espinet was appointed the chairman of Trinidad Cement Limited on August 19, 2014, the company embarked on a restructuring exercise. It was Espinet’s first but by no means last and during that exercise there were clashes with the Oilfields Workers Trade Union (OWTU) which represented workers at the cement factory.
Espinet also oversaw the buy over of TCL by Mexican cement company, Cemex. It was later revealed that a Cemex subsidiary was quietly buying out shares through a subsidiary company, Sierra Trading, in order to increase its stake in the company.
When reports began to surface that the move was a hostile, but quiet take over, TCL warned its shareholders against it. It was later revealed, however, that Espinet was one of three TCL directors who agreed to sell their shares to Sierra.
According to reports at that time, Espinet and fellow directors Wayne Yip Choy and Arun Goyal indicated that they would accept the offer. That gave Cemex an almost 75 per cent controlling share of TCL.
By 2015, Espinet divulged that TCL had used a US$245 million loan to turn around the company. He said the company was able to source loans from two banks, Credit Suisse and Citibank.
Months later, he told shareholders that in addition to successfully restructuring its debt, TCL was able to generate positive cash flow and is “becoming a global company that will be able to operate and sustain itself over time in this global environment.”
The company recorded its first major profit, a milestone high $2.1 billion.
Financial results released by the company showed a profit after tax of $428.8 million—a major turnaround from losses of $211 million in 2014.
He said then that the company’s profitability came even after an 11 per cent debt prepayment discount and a US$15 million cash prepayment, which reduced its outstanding debt to US$245 million from about US$292 million at the end of 2014. According to Espinet, the company used the proceeds of the equity injection to finance capital expenditures, working capital and strengthen its cash balance.
One year later, TCL was in trouble again and recorded an operating loss of $49 million By 2018, the outlook worsened and news surfaced that 16 more workers had been retrenched and the company was bracing for the backlash because Espinet was also looking to send home “all, all, all” the workers from Petrotrin.
Questions were being raised about whether the same template would be used at the second state company.
After more than 100 years in the oil refining business, Espinet pulled the plug on the Pointe-a-Pierre facility. It was here that Espinet clashed with the OWTU for a second time over the dismissal of some 1,700 workers.
A newly restructured Trinidad Petroleum Holding Ltd (TPH) would oversee the operations at three new subsidiary companies: Heritage Petroleum, Paria Fuel Trading and Guaracara Refining. Espinet continued as chairman for the parent company and its subsidiaries.
This too was kept quiet until documents surfaced on social media and the matter was raised in Parliament last October. At that time, the company’s registration documents showed that Heritage Petroleum was incorporated on October 5 by Espinet.
The government quickly assured that there were no immediate plans to decommission, chop up or sell the refinery. However, Espinet may have revealed a part of the plan when he advertised a request for proposal (RFP) for the refinery last month.
Though Energy Minister Franklin Khan said the RFP was”inadvertently advertised”, just days later Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley defended the advertisement, saying Government was weighing its international options.
Questions were then raised about whether Espinet had indeed made a misstep, just jumped the gun with the advertisement, or simply knew more than he was willing to say.
With very little information in the public domain about how the new company was going to repay its billion-dollar debt which is due in August, a report in Reuter’s fanned flames of concern. It was reported that parent company, Trinidad Petroleum Holding Ltd (TPH), secured loans of up to US$1.4 billion before the maturity of the US$850 bond in August.
In that report, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Panamanian trade bank Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior (Bladex), First Citizens Bank and Ansa Merchants Bank were said to be arranging approximately US$1.2 billion to US$1.4 billion in loans.
In a 2017 interview, asked what were the key factors for success in business Espinet said: “Ethics, analytical thinking, and hard work. These are the key factors according to my definition of succeeding in business.”
He further said that his is driven by “the pleasure that one derives from doing a job well.”
He declared then: “I am motivated by success, not money.”
These days, however, he is much more tight-lipped. When he was approached recently by Guardian Media, his very brief response was that he is not granting any interviews until his communications team is in place.