By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
COLETTE Delaney, CEO of CIBC FirstCaribbean, assured employees Friday that the bank remains committed to them as a new partner assumes majority ownership of the bank.
In an internal email to employees, she confirmed CIBC’s intention to sell part of its shareholding to GNB Financial Group, which is owned by financier Jaime Gillinski.
“This transaction remains subject to regulatory approval," she said. "Post-closing of the transaction, GNB will become our majority shareholder owning 66.72 percent of our shares. CIBC will continue to retain 24.9 percent interest.
“This is an excellent development for FirstCaribbean, as it demonstrates that there is continuing investment interest in our bank. It will also provide a strong platform for the future while retaining part of our heritage."
Some things will change during the transition to new ownership. The bank is moving away from CIBC provided service, so this will affect the technology area as services will be moved to independent service providers, she said, adding that the bank will also rebrand.
“It is important to note that CIBC is not leaving the region, but is maintaining a 24.9 percent ownership stake in our bank,” she said. “For CIBC, the agreement is about reallocating capital to advance their long-term strategy, focused on growth in their core business. A partnership with Mr Gilinski will allow CIBC to reallocate capital and senior management focus to areas of growth for them, while at the same time retaining an investment in the region.”
She said the current executive team will remain in place throughout the period of transition.
For the financial year ending October 2018, the Bahamian operation of the bank generated $85 million in net income, its greatest profit in five years.
Comments
Sickened 5 years, 2 months ago
CIBC ain't leaving... they're getting the hell out a here!
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 2 months ago
The Gilinski group is based in Colombia and we all know that much of that country's economy is driven by Latin American drug cartels. CIBC selling out to a Colombian based financial group is a huge slap in the face of the Minnis-led FNM government, and a monumental betrayal of the Bahamian people. It's all too obvious that CIBC and the Gilinski group sensed great weakness in the Minnis-led FNM government and decided to strike while the iron was hot. Conducting financial business in the Bahamas will now be synonomous with conducting financial business in Colombia....and we all know what that means for the Bahamas in the eyes of the FATF, the OECD, etc. etc. The other financial institutions in the Bahamas are now going to have even greater difficulty establishing and maintaining correspondent banking relationships with other financial instutions abroad, especially in the U.S. and Canada.
And are the non-CIBC related minority shareholders of FCIB going to be forced to live with a Colombian based partner who was unwilling to extend to them the very same control buy-out offer terms that were made to CIBC? Surely this cannot be fair treatment of FCIB non-CIBC related minority shareholders!
Sign in to comment
OpenID