Sabrina N. Gordon, Business Reporter

The Dyoll Group building in New Kingston. The company decided on January 31 to petition the court for an order to wind up the company. - File photos

Dyoll Group Limited, whose business was grounded in 2004 by insurance claims it could not afford to pay, has opted for voluntary liquidation, but needs the approval of shareholders in order to follow through on the board decision.

The directors of the company, whose insurance business had been its lifeline, met in an emergency session January 31, and voted to seek approval to wind up the group.

Dyoll chairman, Damien King, was off the island and unavailable for comment, nor was Wednesday Business able to locate any of the current directors.

The board said in a filing to the Jamaica Stock Exchange that its next move was to convene an extraordinary meeting for shareholders to approve the wind-up petition to the Supreme Court, saying "it is not trading or likely to resume trading in the near future".

The company in its last published unaudited financials at September 2006 - two years after Hurricane Ivan hit - was reported to be carrying debts of just under $65 million, had an accumulated deficit of $82 million and negative working capital of $32 million.

Mounting troubles

King

The only thing left of the company, after regulator Financial Services Commission took control of Dyoll Insurance Company in early 2005 and placed it in liquidation, was the group's coffee business via holdings in Wataru and its real estate/property segment.

At the point when the group began to falter, its insurance arm was reportedly bringing in more than 95 per cent of revenues.

And, as its troubles became public, the stock price tanked to 26 cents slicing its market value to $15 million. Long before it hit rockbottom, however, brokers had been issuing recommendations to clients to sell off the stock.

Dyoll has long been suspended by the JSE for not filing its earnings reports on time. At today's date (February 6), the company would have been 357 days or one week shy of a year late with its financials.

The Dyoll board meeting to approve the winding-up of the company was previously scheduled for last September 26, but was stalled by a surprise lawsuit brought against Dyoll by joint liquidators John Lee of Jamaica and Ken Krys of The Cayman Islands for "overcharging" on management fees billed to its former subsidiary Dyoll Insurance Company (in liquidation), by $117 million. A ruling in the matter is pending in Jamaica's Supreme Court.

Liquidators became aware of the Dyoll board's decision to liquidate only after Wednesday Business called for comment, and were unable to say imme-diately how the suit, in which hearings were to have begun in November, would be affected.

Attorney, Dennie-Ann Gordon, to whom Wednesday Business was directed, did not return calls for comment.

Last year, King said the lawsuit was a surprise and that Dyoll's actions were defendable. But, he added that if the case were to go against Dyoll, the group had sufficient cushion from a US$3-million judgement debt against Drax Hall Limited to cover the damages.

sabrina.gordon@gleanerjm.com