Price Waterhouse in Barbados is receiver of Mena Companies

We first broke the story last week regarding the decision of FirstCaribbean Bank to place Fresh Catch and Wood Depot into receivership. Not many details have been available but most business people we spoke with said they understood that Fresh Catch was having financial problems for some time, but that they expected that things would turn around. Sources close to News Five say that the decision by FirstCaribbean is now the subject of serious scrutiny by attorneys and that the matter could end up in court. We can report that the Wood Depot was not having financial problems and so there is a legal cloud over that receivership.

Sources say that an offer of nearly ten million dollars was made to FirstCaribbean, days before they put the companies into receivership. The investment was from a highly credible local institution and business persons we spoke with have said that they cannot understand why it was not accepted.  As we understand it, it will be difficult to find a buyer for Fresh Catch in the near future and until that happens, the bank will have to finance its operations. It is also known that on July twentieth, First Caribbean appointed Christopher Sambrano and Craig Waterman from Price Waterhouse in Barbados as receivers. Both are reportedly in Belmopan and have indicated to staff that they will soon be running the two companies from Barbados. Sources inside Fresh Catch report that for more than two weeks, no feed has been ordered and an environmental catastrophe is looming as some four million fish have not been fed. We wish to point out that we attempted to get answers, but the bank did not respond to our questions.