The results of a lawsuit launched by a garment factory against the collapsed Indochine Insurance Co will determine how much other policy and stakeholders will receive from the bankrupt insurance company’s liquidated assets, officials said Wednesday.
John Ginnane, director of liquidator Baker Tilly Consulting Group, said if the court finds that Grandtex International Co’s $3 million claim falls under the auspices of Indochine, the majority of the insurance company’s $100,000 assets will be directed toward the garment factory’s owners.
Thousands of other Indochine policyholders could receive only 5 percent to 20 percent what they are owed, he said.
But if state-owned Caminco insurance company is ordered to pay Grandtex’s claim, Ginnane said the other creditors will receive a much larger chunk of what they are owed.
“If the compensation of Grandtex won’t fall under Indochine, the rest of the claims could receive 50 percent that Indochine owed them,” he said at a newsconference in Phnom Penh.
Philippe Lenain, Indochine’s former managing director, has long maintained Indochine was acting as an agent for Caminco when it sold the Grandtex policy in 2002 and so Caminco is at least partially responsible. The Municipal Court has also ruled that Caminco should cover the claim, Lenain claimed last month.
Ginnane said compensating former Indochine staff will take priority and everyone is waiting for all staff members to submit their claims.
“Once the staff issue is resolved, it has been agreed that all other Indochine creditors will be paid on a [percentage] basis,” he said.
The total owed to Indochine’s creditors, including 1,612 policy holders and Grandtex, is $3,543,133.98, Ginnane said.
Ginnane said negotiations were continuing with Lenain, but it’s unlikely any type of legal action could be taken against the former director.
Government lawyer Nou Tepirith said no one knows when the Grandtex case will be resolved because the court is waiting for both parties to submit their evidence.
But he said the government is fighting to be the first creditor compensated.
