Town & Country Resorts, the failed hotel operating company which JLP leader Edward Seaga put up for liquidation five months ago, owes creditors more than $443 million, according to its statement of affairs filed with the authorities.

Approximately 55 per cent of the debt is owed to the government, of which 63 per cent or $155.23 million, related to a general consumption tax (GCT) case over which Seaga waged a long court battle.

With the firm showing no assets on the filed statement, it remained unclear last night whether sufficient assets can be realised from another company – Premium Investments – which Seaga is winding up to meet its own liabilities as well as the obligations of Town & Country Resorts.

Neither the liquidators nor Seaga’s spokespersons were available for comment last night. But accountants suggested that it might be difficult for the sale, when it happens, of Premium’s key asset, The Enchanted Garden hotel in Ocho Rios, to generate the necessary cash.

“Assuming that there is not much else on the assets side of Premium’s balance sheet, Enchanted will have to fetch a price capable of clearing its own mortgage and any other liabilities, then have a sufficient surplus to cover Town and Country’s creditors,” explained one accountant. “That, on the face of it, could be difficult.”

Seaga, the Opposition leader, in August announced his decision to wind up both Premium and Town & Country into liquidation after the Privy Council ruled that it was the latter that was responsible for the GCT debt. Seaga had argued that the liability belonged to an American company that had the contract to manage The Enchanted Garden.

“I took this unusual decision of placing Premium Investments Ltd, a financially solvent company, into liquidation because it is the surest way to protect the interest of the creditors and allow for the future development of The Enchanted Garden as a prime resort,” Seaga said in an August 12 statement.

The Jamaica Labour Party leader was at the time confident that Premium had enough assets to cover its, and Town & Country’s, liabilities.

“Its estimated surplus after payment of its debts in full, is in excess of $200 million,” Seaga said at the time.

No statement of affairs for Premium has as yet been filed with the authorities and the company’s assets and liabilities have not been publicised. There is as yet no indication of when Premium’s liquidation will be completed.

However, it is widely assumed that over US$6 million is owed on Enchanted Garden to Joslin Jamaica Ltd, the company that acquired the debts previously held by Finsac, the government vehicle that absorbed dud loans from banks during the financial sector meltdown of the mid-1990s.

The statement on Town & Country, filed on December 29 by liquidator Sophia Beckford, indicated no form of assets, except for issued and called up capital of $1,017,533 in $1 shares.

The company’s gross liabilities are $443,347,016.85, but after the deduction of the share capital, the net liabilities are $442,329,483.85.

Town & Country owes employees just over $15 million in outstanding wages and redundancy payments, and over $25.5 million are for employee-related benefits – $22.35 million to the National Housing Trust and $3.29 million to the National Insurance Scheme. The lawyers Dunn Cox are owed nearly $3.8 million for fighting the GCT case to the Privy Council.

There is also one related party debt of $94.3 million – the largest chunk after the obligation to the government – owed to Premium investments. There was no indication in the document of the basis for the debt.

The rest of the debt is owed mainly to a plethora of suppliers, although there is a contingent liability of $34.72 million on a pending claim from someone named Alexandra Rickman, whose address was given as Rattray Patterson Rattray, the law firm in which Prime Minister P J Patterson was a founding member and is a partner on leave.

It could not be ascertained whether the Rickman contingency related to a legal claim against Town & Country Resorts.