Sir Charles not on BS&T board

Publication: Weekend Nation
Paper Section And Page: 11
Paper Date: Fri, Mar 16, 2001

IN THE MARCH 12, 2001 edition of the NATION newspaper an article on Page 10, carrying the headline A Contrived Marriage, states in the first paragraph that Sir Charles Williams has been appointed as a director of Barbados Shipping & Trading (BS&T).

This is not true and since it is on the premise of this appointment that most of the article is based, a great deal of misinformation has unfortunately been put into the public domain. A careful check by the author would have revealed that Sir Charles was recently appointed to the board of Barbados Farms Limited, not BS&T. Barbados Farms Limited is a company in which the largest shareholder is Barbados Mutual Life Assurance Society.

The only others to hold more than five percent of the shares are BS&T (Pensions) Ltd. and Sir Charles. BS&T owns no shares in Barbados Farms.

Barbados Farms Limited is not a subsidiary of BS&T. Some of the property owned by this company was formerly owned by BS&T and was sold 17 years ago. As such it should not be a surprise to the author that "hardly a whisper was heard" about Sir Charles' appointment because it did not happen.

I trust that this matter has now been laid to rest and no further unsubstantiated and reckless accusations will be levelled at BS&T.

- ALLAN FIELDS
Managing director/CEO