NCBCM brokers multimillion NCBJ share trade
Published:Wednesday | January 4, 2012 | 12:00 AM
Connected parties to National Commercial Bank of Jamaica (NCBJ) sold some J$660 million worth of the bank's shares in two transactions over a fortnight.
It's the largest sale of NCBJ shares by connected parties in nine months.
Analysts declined to disclose the shareholder or the rationale for the sale but only confirmed that NCB Capital Markets brokered the deal.
"We can confirm that we brokered the transaction," Steven Gooden, vice-president of investments & trading at NCB Capital Markets said. "However, we cannot disclose any additional information."
NCBJ advised shareholders in a release that, on December 9 and separately on November 30, "a connected party" sold 18.26 million shares and 5.35 million respectively. The sales together represented less than one per cent of the 2.467 million listed NCBJ shares.
The transactions could have totalled some J$504 million and J$155 million based on the stock's closing price.
NCB is majority-owned by Canadian-Jamaican investor Michael Lee Chin, who has spread his 62-63 per cent interest across several of his businesses, with AIC Barbados Limited as parent. When Lee Chin acquired NCB in 2002, he held 75 per cent of the shares.
In March "a related party to directors" sold 45.5 million NCBJ shares. Also in December 2010, some J$544 million worth of shares were sold in two transactions.
In recent times, such manoeuvrings with the stock, coincided with Lee Chin forming a Caribbean equity fund for new asset acquisitions, which included shares in a Dominican Republic condominium complex.