• CBL Insurance was placed in interim liquidation on 23 February 2018 following the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s application to the High Court
• The RBNZ believed one part of CBLI – its French construction insurance business – was significantly under-reserved
• This belief has since been disproven by the sale of those relevant liabilities at a value based on the value of the reserves held for them in the CBL accounts
• The interim liquidation, later to become a full liquidation in November 2018, has had far-reaching consequences for CBLI policyholders, CBL shareholders and other stakeholders
• All of this was avoidable, as the dispute between CBL and the RBNZ about reserving for the French business could have been resolved – among other options, CBL had $500m of cash in the bank and was ready to raise additional capital if required, and had announced it would sell the rest of its French business assets on an orderly basis
• The RBNZ was not willing to let CBL move forward on that basis
• Since the interim liquidation it has stymied attempts by Peter Harris and Alistair Hutchison to back recovery plans that could have restored value to policyholders, shareholders and others
• Peter and Alistair remain interested in trying to obtain some sort of value for shareholders
• If you share this interest and/or would like to be kept informed on this matter, please register at rbnzcbl@gmail.com