Light at the end of the tunnel for TTFA

Creditors accept debt repayment proposal

CREDITORS OF the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) have voted unanimously in favour of a debt repayment proposal, through the Bankruptcy Act, that will see them getting between 63 cents on the dollar to 100 per cent of the monies owed to them.

The TTFA announced that the agreement came at a meeting on Thursday at the Home of Football, Couva, which was chaired remotely by the supervisor of insolvency who was in quarantine.

TTFA-appointed Trustee Maria Daniel developed the proposal.

Creditors were invited to vote after a comprehensive 45-minute presentation by Daniel that gave a full illustration of how the TTFA found itself in its current state of debt and the options that were considered before arriving at utilising the restructuring option available through the Bankruptcy Act option.

The proposal, which was developed by Daniel and her EY Team in collaboration with the TTFA’s FIFA-appointed Normalisation Committee, will be funded by an interest-free US$3.5 million instrument that the TTFA will have 10 years to repay.

Creditors owed up to TT$200,000 (US$29,497) will be paid in full and the balances above that will be pro-rated. They will also have the option to be paid in US or TT dollars.

299 CREDITORS LISTED

There were 299 creditors listed in the trustee’s repayment proposal with a total unsecured debt of TT$84.5 million (US$12.5 million).

Ninety-three of these submitted had claims amounting to TT$59.3 million (US$8.7 million), of which 88 were validated with a value of TT$34.4 million (US$5.1 million) before Thursday’s meeting. Fifty-one of them (or their proxies) registered and voted at the meeting.

Notably absent was the TTFA’s largest listed creditor, Austin Jack Warner, who topped the list with a debt of TT$22.7 million (US$3.3 million). Daniel advised the meeting that Warner did not submit a claim for validation.

The trustee’s original proposal, which creditors received on April 22, was enhanced prior to the meeting – total funding was increased by US$500,000 to US$3.5 million, and instead of allocating a TT$3 million (US$442,458) provision for the Board of Inland Revenue and the National Insurance Board, funds would now be set aside for outstanding payments monthly.

The meeting included representatives from the Office of the Supervisor of Insolvency; law firm Fitzwilliam, Stone, Furness-Smith & Morgan; EY; and Normalisation Committee chairman Robert Hadad and member Nicholas Gomez.