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JN Financial Group Limited is offloading assets amid its third straight year of losses.
The group, known as the largest mortgage lender in Jamaica, sold the bulk of JN Bank UK last September for a loss. It also struck a deal last year to sell JN General Insurance Company Limited, JNGI, and now plans to shed JN Fund Managers Limited.
“Negotiations are in train for these divestments. An agreement was signed for the purchase of shares in JNGI from the company by British Caribbean Insurance Company. Negotiations are in train for the divestment of JN Fund Managers,” the group said in its audited financials released last week. The transaction with BCIC awaits regulatory approval.
JN Fund Managers operates a brokerage and wealth management firm, while JNGI insures vehicles and properties.
JN Financial recorded a loss of $2.5 billion for the year ending March 2024, according to audited financials signed on January 27, 2025 and released last week. It mirrored losses of $2.5 billion a year earlier, and was exponentially greater that the $165-million loss in 2022.
Prior to that, the group made a profit of $6.5 billion in 2021 and $619 million in 2020.
Notwithstanding the bleed in 2024, the company’s cash position was resilient – having grown from $16 billion to $60 billion.
JN Financial sold an 80 per cent stake in JN Bank UK “for consideration of £20 million”, or roughly $3.9 billion, but the fair value was “determined at £25 million”. It resulted in an accounting loss on the sale to Step One Money UK Limited, an unrelated company.
“This transfer resulted in a change in an immediate parent from JN Financial Group Limited to Step One Money UK Limited,” JN said. JN Financial Group, headed by Managing Director Curtis Martin, is a member of Jamaica National Group Limited, which is headed by CEO Earl Jarrett.
JN Financial indicated previously that its asset sales are geared at increasing its cash resources. Efforts at comment from the financial institution were unsuccessful up to press time.
JN Financial’s assets are closely matched against its liabilities, with the gap narrowing in the financial year. Specifically, capital as a percentage of total assets dipped from 11 per cent in March 2023 to 8.7 per cent to March 2024. That translated to $31.8 billion in capital on $364 billion in assets.
Revenue grew in the year, but so too expenses. Net interest revenue after impairment losses totalled $11.7 billion, which was nine per cent higher than the $10.7 billion reported a year earlier. But the gains were erased by bigger expenses, resulting in the net loss.
The losses come amid a booming real estate market, where housing prices increased significantly over the past five years. JN, for its part, increased the number of client accounts to over 91,100 from 78,000 a year earlier.
However, this growth has not translated into profitability for JN, as some clients have struggled to meet mortgage payments, further straining the group’s financial performance.
Despite an increase in its loan book to $173 billion from $145 billion the previous year, JN Financial faced challenges.
“Loans and advances on which interest is no longer accrued amounted to $12.4 billion,” flat compared to the prior year. From that figure, the group wrote off $3.3 billion in bad debts during the year, an increase from the $101 million written off in 2023, the financial notes indicated.
“In the current year, impairment losses for JN Bank UK were determined by imputing fair value of the subsidiary based on the consideration of £20 million paid, by an independent third party, for 80.1 per cent interest. The fair value, determined at £25 million, net of the carrying value of £32.9 million, resulted in an impairment provision of J$1.3 billion,” the group reported.
English (US) ·