Rampersad Motilal has resigned as the chief executive officer of Methanol Holdings (Trinidad) Ltd, T&T's largest majority locally owned company.MHTL's chief financial officer, Nello Ramkissoon, yesterday confirmed that Motilal had resigned on Tuesday "for personal reasons," that the board of the Point Lisas methanol producer had not appointed a successor and that all other questions should be referred to the company's board.Chairman Jagdeesh Siewrattan, told the T&T Guardian that Motilal's resignation came as a "surprise" to the board, which did not have a succession plan in place.
Motilal's departure comes just weeks before an international arbitration body is due to deliver its final decision on a claim by MHTL's minority shareholders challenging the 2009 transfer of shares in the methanol producer and its Oman-based sister company from CL Financial to Clico.In March 2009, former Minister of Finance Karen Tesheira agreed to a proposal from then CL Financial corporate secretary Gita Sakal to transfer 6.541 per cent of MHTL and 7.529 per cent of Oman-based Methanol Holdings (International) Ltd to Clico.That transfer of shares gave Clico a 56.531 per cent stake in MHTL and a 57.429 per cent stake in MHIL.Clico received the shares in the methanol companies in exchange for the discharge of a$1.13 billion debenture that the insurance company held over the fixed and floating assets of its parent, CL Financial.
The value placed on the shares of the methanol companies in the 2009 debt-for-equity swap assumed that both companies were worth $17.3 billion in 2009 and that Clico's stake was then worth $9.75 billion.Since March 2009, the value of the Clico-owned methanol companies would have increased substantially as a result of the sharp increase in North American methanol prices, which have jumped by 72 per cent from US$309 a tonne in October 2009 to US$532 a tonne this month.While a current market value of MHTL was not available up to press time, the share price of the methanol company's Canadian rival, Methanex, increased by 35 per cent between January 1 and April 29 and has gone up by 62 per cent over the last five years as a result of higher methanol prices, according to a report in Canadian Business on April 29.
Motilal, a UWI-trained engineer, was one of the longest serving local CEOs on the Point Lisas Industrial Estate, having been appointed as the CEO of MHTL's predecessor, T&T Methanol Company in 1997. In 2011 testimony before the Colman Commission of Enquiry into the collapse of CL Financial, Motilal estimated that MHTL's balance sheet comprised assets of about US$3.2 billion, that it generated annual turnover of about US$2 billion, with net income of between US$300 and US$350 million. MHTL has the capacity to produce 4 million tonnes of methanol a year along with about 1.5 million tonnes of urea ammonium nitrate and 60,000 tonnes of melamine.
