According to a corporate officer, Chase Manhattan Bank has no plans to pull out of the Virgin Islands if its proposed acquisition by the St. Croix-based V.I. Community Bank falls through.
The Virgin Islands Independent quoted Chase public relations officer Tynnetta McIntosh Friday as saying that if the deal is not approved by regulators, Chase will probably seek out another buyer.
Her statement was in response to recent claims by Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen that Chase is ready to close and put several hundred people out of work if the sale is not approved quickly. Hansen has urged Gov. Charles W. Turnbull to intervene to speed up matters.
V.I. Community Bank, owned by St. Croix businessman Jeffrey Prosser, has made a bid to purchase all Chase assets in the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. The acquisition has been approved by the U.S. Justice Department but is awaiting rulings from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the V.I. Banking Board and the B.V.I. government.
The proposed deal has aroused considerable concern over whether the combined assets of the two banks would be subject to taxes, since the locally chartered Community Bank has been exempted from taxes by the government's Industrial Development Commission.
IDC executive director Frandelle Gerard has said her reading of the situation is that Chase, if merged into Community Bank, would "have the same tax breaks." But at least one lawmaker, Sen. Roosevelt David, has publicly disagreed. David noted that a recent law for which he was the prime sponsor "prohibits the automatic extension of tax breaks to acquisitions subsequent to the benefits award."
