Harry Harnarine, President of the Hindu Credit Union (HCU), addresses the meeting of shareholders on Saturday. PHOTOS: SHASTRI BOODAN

Hindu Credit Union (HCU) shareholders can call for the liquidation of the assets of the failed credit union, says Harry Harnarine, the HCU president. Harnarine addressed members of the HCU Shareholders and Depositors Group (HCUDSG) at the body’s first meeting for 2010, held at the car park to the rear of the HCU’s main building in Chaguanas on Saturday. He said liquidation would mean a small return for investors. He also believes there is a conspiracy to sell the assets of HCU for a fraction of their value. The standing orders of the credit union were still in force, and the HCU board was still in office, Harnarine said. He said a bailout would bring shareholders as little as 30 cents on the dollar. “If you all want to test the waters and say let us go for a bailout, it will only take 100 shareholders under the standing orders and the by-laws of the credit union to make an application to the secretary of the board or the Commissioner of Cooperatives and say we want a special general meeting,” he said.

“We want to stop all the court matters and we want now a bailout or a liquidation and I will never get in the way of your rights.” Harnarine said the group had successfully filed for a stay of liquidation before the court. If that order was not obtained, the liquidator would have sold the assets and given depositors a small return, Harnarine said. He said the court has ruled that the board of the HCU did no wrong and that the reason for HCU’s insolvency was that the $425 million asset value placed on HCU by an auditing firm was much lower than the $825 million estimated by the HCU board. Harnarine said the auditors used old figures and he cited the value of Banker’s Insurance as an example. Bankers Insurance was valued at $12 million, the price the entity was purchased for in 1999, according to Harnarine.

But, he said, Bankers Insurance has a value of $110 million based its present assets. Harnarine made the point that similar assets of the HCU were also undervalued. He said the HCUDSG has no plan to sell its assets but instead pass the assets into the hands of its investors. “We are not selling our assets because already $434 million of the large, small and medium depositors have agreed to divest or invest their monies into these assets and be the true shareholders of these assets,” Harnarine said. Speaking about depositors who want to get their money out of the credit union, Harnarine said HCU’s loan portfolio and other assets that can be sold, or traded to pay them. “We don’t want any bail out.”