Nov 2016 Financial News

NCB raising debt of US$150m

Nov 23, 2016

National Commercial Bank Jamaica Limited (NCBJ) is raising US$150 million ($19.5 billion) of debt financing, backed by future credit card receipts from Visa and MasterCard.

The transaction was done through Jamaica Merchant Voucher Receivables Limited.

Fitch Ratings assigned a 'BB+' rating to the notes.

"NCBJ's market-leading credit card franchise continues to support a growing level of international Visa and MasterCard merchant vouchers. Fitch expects debt service coverage ratios (DSCRs) to be approximately 5.9x. This calculation considers average rolling quarterly collections during the last four recorded quarters and the maximum quarterly debt service for the life of the programme," the rating agency said.

The deal arranger for the debt issue was Westwood Capital LLC.

The bank did a similar securitisation a year ago when it raised US$250 million.

HIGHEST PROFIT

NCBJ, Jamaica's largest banking group, produces the highest nominal profit of all listed companies on the Jamaica Stock Exchange.

At year end September 2016, the bank reported another record year of profit at $14.4 billion. Its assets amount to $608 billion, less than a third, $189 billion, of which are loans.

At its last investor briefing, NCBJ announced a new four-year strategic plan to make NCBJ faster, simpler and stronger by 2020. It will focus on digitalisation, regional expansion, core business and improving customer experience.

Source:
business@gleanerjm.com
Jamaica Gleaner
Wednesday November 23, 2016

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/business/20161123/ncb-raising-debt-us150m