JMMB Group Limited’s consumer finance subsidiary, JMMB Express Finance, has acquired a 19.9% stake in Bayshore Finance Limited, a company specializing in providing credit solutions for the insurance industry.
The disclosure was made Thursday at the financial conglomerate’s annual general meeting.
The price paid by JMMB Express to acquire the shares of Bayshore Finance was not disclosed, but JMMB Group CEO Keith Duncan said Bayshore Finance will soon be part of the integrated solutions provided to Trinidad and Tobago by the intermediary of JMMB Express Finance.
The deal is awaiting regulatory approval.
The acquisition of a nearly 20% stake in Bayshore Finance comes shortly after JMMB Group announced the acquisition of a 100% stake in Dominican Republic-based Banco Múltiple Bell Bank SA, marking its entry into the commercial banking sector of the Spanish-speaking market.
Since acquiring Bell Bank, JMMB has been able to expand its footprint in the Dominican Republic with two additional branches, one in Bella Vista in the southern part of Santo Domingo and the other in Megacentro in the eastern part of Santo Domingo. Domingo.
“The Dominican Republic is shooting, and now Trinidad is shooting,” Duncan told shareholders.
The acquisition of Bayshore Finance would be a strategic fit for JMMB Express Finance, paving the way for opportunities for increased market penetration and accretive synergies. An accretive transaction is expected to increase the earnings per share of the acquiring company.
“Trinidad’s economy has recovered very well and JMMB Bank T&T continues to grow at a faster rate than the market. We really believe we have a good team in place to drive this growth,” Duncan said.
“We continue to seek opportunities in Central America and the Caribbean; this is a pipeline that we continue to actively work on, and we hope for good things,” he added.
Elson James is CEO of JMMB Express Finance. Shawn Moses has been appointed as the new Managing Director of JMMB Bank T&T, while Jerome Smalling is the JMMB Group Head of Banking for the three territories in which it operates, namely Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and the Dominican Republic.
For the fiscal year ending March 2022, Trinidad and Tobago was the smallest contributor to net profit at 7%, but its contribution to operating profit was 17%. The group made a profit of $12 billion on revenue of $27 billion.
The JMMB T&T Group currently comprises parent company JMMB (Trinidad & Tobago) Limited, JMMB Bank (T&T) Limited, JMMB Investments (Trinidad & Tobago), JMMB Express Finance (T&T) and JMMB Securities (T&T).
