CIBC Caribbean sidesteps reports of pending sale
Published:Wednesday | November 6, 2019 | 12:11 AM
CIBC FirstCaribbean is not saying either way whether the reports of a pending takeover of the bank by the Gilinski group of Colombia are true, but has also not denied them outright.
“As a publicly traded company in the Caribbean, there has always been investor interest in our bank,” said Debra King, director of corporate communications at CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank, in response to Financial Gleaner queries.
She added that “if and when” decisions are made about the future of the business, they would be communicated.
The price of the stock which trades on the Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange and Barbados Stock Exchange has been largely stable amid reports of the takeover last Friday.
In Trinidad, the stock closed lower at TT$8.55 on Monday, after trading flat on Friday, valuing the regional bank at TT$13.5 billion, or about US$2 billion. The stock showed little activity on the Barbados Stock Exchange.
On Friday, three separate media entities based in Latin America quoted unnamed sources, saying Gilinski would seek to acquire a 70 per cent stake in CIBC FirstCaribbean for US$2.2 billion.
The Colombia company group is led by Jaime Gilinski, a billionaire banker and real estate developer, who, along with his father and family, owns one of the largest banks in Latin America.
He is described as the second-richest person in Colombia, despite living mostly in the United Kingdom.
CIBC FirstCaribbean, which King described as “a strong, well-performing business that continues to grow across the region”, has over 2,700 staff, 57 branches, 22 banking centres, and seven offices in 16 regional markets.
It is the largest regional banking chain with operations in the English and Dutch-speaking Caribbean, with more than US$1.2 billion in equity and US$11.5 billion in total assets up to July 2019.