NCB Financial Group Limited defended its takeover bid for Guardian Holdings Limited, which has met with resistance from some minority GHL owners in Trinidad & Tobago.
Jamaica’s top banking group also reported to shareholders at its annual general meeting on Friday that the company was now ranked No. 4 in the region, based on pretax profit.
Deputy CEO and Chief Financial Officer Dennis Cohen quoted an independent study which indicated that the NCB Financial Group earned the equivalent of US$148 million in its 2017 financial year. Republic Bank at US$198 million topped the region followed by RBC Bank and then CIBC FirstCaribbean International.
“It was our aspiration to be in the top five financial institutions in the region and this metric offers independent validation of our progress,” said Cohen. Some of the gains came from NCB’s investment in Guardian, in which it first acquired a 29.99 per cent stake in 2016.
NCB is now trying to increase its holdings in Guardian to 62 per cent at US$2.35 per share – an offer that remains on the table until February 2. Provided the company gets 50 per cent of GHL shares following the offer, it would subsume Guardian into NCB Financial’s consolidated results.
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