Mar 2006 Financial News

FCIB releases First Quarter Results

Mar 13, 2006

All figures quoted in US Dollars

First Caribbean International Bank Limited reported Earnings Per Share of 2.80 cents for the first quarter ended January 31, 2006. Interest income increased 20.92 per cent while Interest Expense almost doubled, increasing 47.54 per cent to $53,145 million. Net Interest Income ultimately increased 8.58 per cent to $84,340 million.

Barring the one-off gain of approximately $117 million dollars from the sale of Republic Bank Shares in 2004, FCIB's Net Income increased approximately 35 per cent to $43.017 million.

At the current price of TT$13.51 and running EPS of TT$0.69, the share is currently trading at a price/earnings ratio of 19.58. At this point, we currently recommend a HOLD on this share.

Barclays Bank PLC and CIBC have signed a non-binding Letter of Intent under which CIBC would acquire Barclays 43.7 per cent ownership stake in FCIB. CIBC would own approximately 87.4 per cent of FCIB on completion of the transaction.

The transaction is anticipated to take place at a price of US$1.62 per FCIB share.

Look out for a detailed analysis of these results in the WISE Weekly Report.

Sreshtha Tewari
WISE Research Team