Mandeville, Manchester – The 37-year-old, Mandeville-based Jamaica Transformer Company (JATCO), said to be the only remaining producer of (electrical) transformers in the English-speaking Caribbean, has been taken over by debt collectors.

The company, located on Caledonia Road, went into receivership in July when the Kingston-based Business Recovery Services Ltd, acting on behalf of the debenture owner, Jamaica Redevelopment Foundation, moved in.

The Jamaica Redevelopment Foundation is the local front for the Beal Bank of Texas, USA, which in 2002 bought billions of dollars of FINSAC debts from the Jamaican Government for a fraction of the face value.

FINSAC was the agency set up by the Government in the late 1990s to take control and restructure much of the indigenous financial sector following a huge meltdown that collapsed several banks and near-banks.

Leslie Lewis, the 75-year-old founder and managing director of JATCO, said his current troubles originated in 1994 when his company took a $20-million loan from Workers Bank – one of the several finance houses that went under in the financial sector crash and was later taken over by FINSAC.

Lewis said he has now been told that with interest accumulated down the years, the debt now stands at $92 million.

He remained hopeful yesterday that negotiations with the debt collectors would bear fruit and he would be able to retain control of his company.

“I am optimistic and we are talking,” he told the Observer.

When contacted on Wednesday and yesterday, representatives of Business Recovery Services Ltd and the Jamaica Redevelopment Foundation declined to comment.

Lewis said his company was doing business worth $10 – $12 million annually while employing 20 people at the time the receiver moved in.

At the height of production, JATCO was said to have employed up to 135 people on two shifts, while business – including a strong export market – was said to have been worth over $400 million.

Lewis claimed his company has been largely undermined by the refusal of the light and power supplier, Jamaica Public Service (JPS), to pay over US$172,000 which he said has been owed to him since the mid-1990s for a large order of transformers.

JPS has denied the charge. In response to queries on the issue from the Observer late last year, the JPS pointed out that issues raised by JATCO went before an arbitrator with the latter ruling (in 2004) in favour of the light and power company.

“In fact, the arbitrator ruled that there were no issues outstanding and directed that JATCO pay 75 per cent of the cost of the proceedings,” the JPS said at the time.

-myersg@jamaicaobserver.com