The West India Sugar Finance Corp. was incorporated in Connecticut on August 1, 1913 to engage in financing sugar companies in the West Indies with advances secured by mortgages, liens on sugarcane crops and selling the sugar produced.  It was also engaged in organizing, financing and developing sugar properties in Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Officers of the corporation were Thomas A. Howell, President; Henry W. Wilmot and Howard J. Pullum, Vice Presidents; Lorenzo D. Armstrong, Secretary and James Bliss Coombs, Treasurer. Armstrong and Bliss Coombs were also involved in the establishment of Central Fajardo in Puerto Rico.  In addition to the officers, members of the Board of Directors were James Howell Post, E. N. Potter, F. B. Adams, L. N. Farnum, Hubert Edson and James S. Wilson, Jr.

The West India Finance Co. had three affiliated companies in Cuba. Each company built and operated a sugar mill by the same name; Central Alto Cedro Sugar Co. S. A., Central Cupey Sugar Co. S. A. and Palma Soriano Sugar Co. In 1919 the West India Finance Co. was indebted to the national City Bank of New York to the tune of $24.8 million and was having cash flow problems. In order to solve its problems, in 1922 the West India Sugar Finance Corp. went through a reorganization to streamline its operations and facilitate financing needs of the three sugar estates it owned.  As part of this reorganization, Sugar Estates of Oriente, Inc. was incorporated in Maryland on August 19, 1922.  Sugar Estates of Oriente, Inc. acquired the assets and assumed the liabilities of Central Cupey Sugar Co. S. A., Central Alto Cedro S. A. and Palma Soriano Sugar Co., and continued operating each one as subsidiary corporation. In 1922 Sugar Estates of Oriente, Inc. also acquired Central Altagracia and Central America, the latter established in 1914 by Federico Fernández Rosillo, father of Federico, Carmen and Marina Fernández Casas.  In 1925 after a lengthy court case decided by the Cuban Supreme Court, it was reverted back to the Fernandez Casas family who were still its owners in 1959 when it was nationalized by the Fidel Castro regime and renamed Central America Libre.

​At the same time of the reorganization that created the Sugar Estates of Oriente was taking place, the Cuban-Santo Domingo Sugar Development Syndicate was formed May 1920 as an affiliate West India Sugar Finance Corp.  The Louisiana Planter and Sugar Manufacturer edition of September 4, 1920 states "The organization of this concern has been reported from New York, and seems to be the largest thing of its kind since the organization of the Cuba Cane Sugar Corp. since it is underwritten at $32,000,000.  The Cuban holdings of the Syndicate include Central Hatillo, Santa Ana, and Palma, and in Santo Domingo it has bought the interests of Bartram Bros. in the Consuelo and San Isidro estates and controls the Barahona factory, which is now under process of development by the West India Sugar Finance Corp."   

The Cuban Dominican Sugar Co. was incorporated in Maryland on March 22, 1922 as a holding company to take over the sugar estates owned by the Cuban-Santo Domingo Sugar Development Syndicate.  The subsidiary companies of the Cuban Dominican Sugar Co. were;

• Compañia Azucarera Dominicana C x A - owner of Ingenio Consuelo and Ingenio San Isidro in the Dominican republic, acquired from the firm Bartram Bros. who in turn had acquired them in foreclouse from Jose Eleuterio Hatton.

• The Barahona Sugar Co. - owner through its subsidiaries some 45,000 acres of land and Ingenio Barahona in the town of the same name.

• The Santa Ana Sugar Co. was incorporated under the laws of Cuba to engage in the production of raw sugar.  In the early 1920s it was sole owner of Central Santa Ana acquired from Azua & Escoriza, Central Hatillo from  F. Fernandez and Central America from F. Almeida, all located in the province of Oriente in Cuba.​

The stockholders of the West India Sugar Finance Co. approved the liquidation of the company in November 1924.  As a result, the Howell group then consisted only of the Cuban Dominican Sugar Co. and Sugar Estates of Oriente, Inc. Plans for the reorganization of the Cuban Dominican Sugar Co. and Sugar Estates of Oriente, Inc. were already under way in mid 1931 but did not go into effect until January 1933.  As a result of the reorganization plan, a new corporation, the West Indies Sugar Corp. was established.  The plan called for the West Indies Sugar Corp. to acquire substantially all assets of The Cuban Dominican Sugar Co. and through a wholly owned subsidiary, all assets of Sugar Estates of Oriente, Inc.  As part of the reorgannization, the West Indies Sugar Corp. would also own all common stock of the Barahona Sugar Co.

In January 1949, the West Indies Sugar Corp. entered into an agreement to acquire the sugar mill properties of the Compañia Azucarera Boca Chica, owner of Ingenio Boca Chica near the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo.  In July 1942, shares of the West Indies Sugar Corp. began to be traded in the NY Stock Exchange. The West Indies Sugar Corp. continued to operate its Dominican Republic properties until 1957 when they were acquired by dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo through Rio Haina C x A.  The January 29, 1957 edition of the New York Times reported that "...The lands acquired by the Haina Company total more than 270,000 acres.  Also covered by the transaction were the West Indies Sugar Co. railway lines and other lands and maritime communication facilities and in general all of the properties owned by the West Indies Sugar Co. five affiliate companies in the Dominican Republic: Compañia Azucarera Dominicana, Ingenio Barahona, Boca Chica Sugar Central, Compañia de Melazas Dominicanas and Compañia Agricola Dominicana..."

The final disposition of the West Indies Sugar Corp. Cuban properties has not been verified but it is reasonable to believe they were nationalized by the Fidel Castro regime in 1960.