A US$82 million-plus bid for full control of Cayman National Bank by Caribbean financial giant Republic underlines its commitment to the country, say senior executives of the Trinidad and Tobago-based group.
Republic president and managing director Nigel Baptiste, in an interview with Compass Media on 11 July, also said the decision to deregister Cayman National Corporation, the holding company of the bank, from the Cayman Stock Exchange was a regulatory requirement.
Baptiste explained that companies listed on the stock exchange had to have at least 25% of their shares available for trading in Cayman.
“It couldn’t be listed on the Cayman Stock Exchange with 25% not being available and in public hands,” he said.
Baptiste, who is also a director of CNB, added, “I don’t think it means anything necessarily negative.”
He was speaking after Republic offered US$7.75 apiece for the remaining 10.59 million ordinary shares in CNB in May.
Republic already has a controlling 75% majority in the Cayman bank.
Baptiste said Republic’s relationship with Cayman stretched back about 50 years and that the company was committed to the jurisdiction.
“It has its roots going back to when we were Barclay’s Bank and many of our senior managers had stints in Cayman, as they had in other Caribbean countries,” he said.
“In the mid-90s, Republic Bank was here and it grew from that – the acquisition of Cayman National in 2019 was just another step.
“We’ve always been attracted to the Cayman Islands.”
He added that Republic Bank had been folded into CNB after majority control was obtained in 2019.
Richard Sammy, Republic Bank’s vice-president, said Cayman was an “ideal jurisdiction” because of its good regulatory framework and its political and economic stability.
He added, “There is no surprise there. Many multi-national companies choose to invest in Cayman.”
He said Republic was “very optimistic about the Cayman economy – we have seen the growth over the years and the diversification of the economy”, adding that this had been reflected in CNB’s performance and, before that, in Republic’s Cayman operation.
“We have seen its profits grow year on year and we’re optimistic that it will continue to do well,” he said
Baptiste explained that Republic had wanted full control of Cayman National when it made its first offer six years ago.
But he said conditions were set that it would have to hold up to 75% of the shares for five years before a bid for full control could be launched.
“When five years elapsed in 2024, we went back to make an offer,” he said, adding that there were more offers to sell in 2019 than could be accepted so “we wanted to mop it up”.
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