Ceiba Investments Ltd acts as a major foreign investor in Cuban property and manages high-profile commercial sites and hotel projects, as well as acquiring and developing them.
Among its businesses it owned and operated the large Miramar Trade Centre in Havana through a subsidiary, Monte Barreto, and several hotels in the Cuban capital.
The Royal Court issued a notice confirming that the application from the GFSC had been granted and it appointed Matthew Wright and Sophie Smith of Leonard Curtis CI Limited as the joint administration managers.
The court also moved to correct a comment made by the company that it was being placed into administration: ‘The administration process is entirely distinct from and different to the administration management process to which the company is subject,’ it said.
‘Administration management is a process arising out of Guernsey’s regulatory regime and is a remedy only available to the Guernsey Financial Services Commission.’
A report by global financial services firm Morningstar published last week said that Ceiba had announced the closure of its Havana office as well as ‘further resignations from its board’.
These were its CEO, chief operating officer and chief financial officer as well as its chairman, named as John Herring.
The article went on to to say that in July the US had designated Ceiba as a ‘blocked person’, making it unable to carry out its functions.
That order allows the US Treasury and State departments impose sanctions on foreign companies and individuals and led to banks and businesses ending suspending their relationship with Ceiba.
Morningstar also reported that trading in Ceiba’s shares on the London Stock Exchange had been suspended.