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Financial News

Jul 2004 Financial News

JMMB wants 20% of B'dos money market

Jul 26, 2004

Jamaica Money Market Brokers says it expects its associate company in Barbados to grab between 10 and 20 per cent of the island's US$1-billion fixed-income market within a short period.

Caribbean Money Market Brokers (Barbados), in which JMMB owns 50 per cent, began operation in June - the acquisition being in line with the objective of the Jamaican company to expand into the region.

The full service brokerage house - which offers stocks, fixed-income investment, and money market funds - is the only one of it kind in Barbados, according to Keith Duncan, deputy managing director of JMMB.

JMMB owns a total of 50 per cent of the Barbados brokerage house through its 45 per cent ownership of Caribbean Money Market Brokers in Trinidad & Tobago. That T&T firm in turn owns 90 per cent of the Barbados outfit, with JMMB owning directly, the other 10 per cent.

Duncan told the Business Observer that the Barbados brokerage was capitalised to the tune of US$5 million. It operates with six employees out of rented space in the capital, Bridgetown.

The investment in Barbados is part of the expansion drive by JMMB which also plans to open two branches in Jamaica this year - one in May Pen, Clarendon and the other in Brown's Town, St Ann.

JMMB now has three branches in Kingston, one in Ocho Rios which was opened three years ago, and one each in Portmore, Mandeville and Montego Bay. It has 200 employees.

"We are stepping up on the value chain," says Duncan. "What we are offering is a full financial planning service."

Duncan says that JMMB's moves to acquire a small commercial/merchant bank in Trinidad and Tobago - Intercommercial Bank Ltd - was part of the organisation's drive to create a total financial services operation. JMMB, having completed its due diligence of the bank, expects to secure regulatory approval shortly.

For the year to March 31, 2004 JMMb reported net group profit of $1.54 billion - over $500 million of which was contributed by its associate in T&T. At March 31, it had total assets of $61.2 billion.

Source: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines/Business/html/20040713T210000-0500_62744_OBS_JMMB_WANTS_____OF_B_DOS_MONEY_MARKET.asp