Republic Bank nears full ownership of Barbados subsidiary

Republic Bank gets 92% of share ownership in former Barbados National Bank.

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, Thursday December 6, 2012 – By the close of its public offer for all of the outstanding shares in the Republic Bank (Barbados) Ltd. on Tuesday, the Trinidad-based bank had increased its ownership stake in the former Barbados National Bank to 92%. 

Republic Bank’s Managing Director, David Dulal-Whiteway announced this yesterday (December 5), disclosing that Republic had received a commitment of 29,602,283 of the Barbados bank’s shares, leaving only eight percent of the share ownership that was not sold to them during the BDS$5 (TT$16.28) per share purchase offer that closed on Tuesday. 

Despite the hold out by some minority shareholders, Republic Bank is guaranteed to gain 100% ownership in the bank as under Barbados regulations those minority shareholders will now be compelled to sell their shares to the majority owner. 

Republic Bank had originally acquired 57 per cent of the shareholding in the prior Barbados National Bank in 2003 and, at the time of the takeover bid being launched, it had managed to increase its holdings to 65.14 per cent.

“The full ownership of Republic Bank (Barbados) will allow us to deliver even greater benefits to our many loyal customers and to the wider Barbados community, through the increased streamlining of our internal reporting processes, harmonisation of our systems and procedures and will make available to the banking public a broader and more robust range of financial products and services,” Dulal-Whiteway said.

“We also intend to continue our quest to enhance the quality of life for the people of Barbados through maintenance of our Power to Make a Difference social investment programme, in our key areas of focus, namely youth development, poverty alleviation and support of the differently-abled. This award-winning programme is a main feature of our bank in every market which we serve,” he added.

The Republic statement added: “further communication on the next steps will be shared in the coming days, including for those shareholders who had not responded to the offer”.  Click here to receive free news bulletins via email from Caribbean360. (View sample)