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BY
ANTHONY WILSON
Confirming a story that was reported exclusively in the Guardian
more than two weeks ago, Canadian bank CIBC announced yesterday
that it had sold 15,968,356 Republic Bank shares to Clico
Investment Bank.
The confirmation of the Guardian lead story of October 30
means that Republic Bank is now a subsidiary of Lawrence Duprey’s
CL Financial group.
The 15,968,356 shares bought by Clico Investment Bank take
the equity in Republic Bank held by the CL Financial group
to an estimated 54 per cent—well clear of the threshold
for majority ownership.
CL Financial’s ownership of Republic Bank gives Lawrence
Duprey control of T&T’s second largest bank (by assets)
and a dominant position in the banking sectors of Barbados,
Grenada, Guyana and the Dominican Republic.
It also sets the stage for a possible merger between Republic
Bank and CL Financial’s banking and insurance assets
which include Clico Investment Bank and Clico.
Such a merger would force a new round of consolidation in
the regional financial services sector—leading almost
certainly to new alignments between RBTT and Guardian Holdings.
Yesterday’s report, which was carried on the Canadian
Newswire, ended 16 days of speculation in the banking sector
about the decision by First Caribbean International Bank to
transfer nearly 16 million Republic Bank shares to wholly-owned
subsidiaries in St Lucia.
In the week following the original Guardian report, the Express
published a story quoting a CL Financial official as denying
any involvement by the group in the purchase.
Republic’s executive chairman Ronald Harford is also
reported to have sent out an internal memorandum attempting
to quell employee disquiet.
In the statement yesterday, CIBC said that its Cayman-registered
company had “entered into an agreement to sell its holding
of 1,942,626 shares in Republic Bank Limited.
“The
shares are being purchased by Clico Investment Bank Limited,
a company based in Trinidad and Tobago.
“Concurrent
with the sale by CIBC Holdings (Cayman) Limited, FirstCaribbean
International Bank, an equity-accounted investment of CIBC,
also concluded an agreement to sell its holding of 14,025,730
shares in Republic Bank Limited to Clico Investment Bank Limited.”
As a result of the sale of the shares, CIBC will take an after-tax
gain of Can$85 million or about $455 million.
CIBC holds a 44 per cent ownership interest in FirstCaribbean
International Bank, a Barbados-based bank chaired by Trinidadian
Michael Mansoor.
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