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NCB Financial Group executives mounted a robust defence as the banking and insurance conglomerate’s stock traded at one-third its value.
“There’s a dissonance between what the business is doing and the stock price,” said Chairman Michael Lee-Chin at the NCB Financial’s quarterly investor briefing on Friday.
Based on its June 2025 capital base of $240 billion and 2.45 billion units in circulation, the group values itself at $100 per share. Yet its stock trades around $30 with a market cap of roughly $75 billion – compared to over $500 billion in 2019. In 2022, when Lee-Chin assumed a more active executive role in the group, the share price stood near $90.
Lee-Chin attributes the gap to an “inefficient, illiquid” market.
“If you can buy a dollar for $0.30, what more can you want?” he said about the implicit value of the group.
The group reportedly faces pressure from a few major shareholders, concerns over a US$225 million bond issue, and negative sentiment linked to the chairman’s personal companies. Former CEO Patrick Hylton cut his stake in NCBFG by about 10 per cent between March and June, the company’s financials show.
On the US$225 million bond raised at a coupon rate of 11 per cent at the end of July, CEO Robert Almeida rejected claims of high-cost funding, noting that while the new debt was priced at about 100 basis points above the group’s average borrowing costs, it provided access to international capital and supported debt repayment and operations.
Bruce Bowen, head of National Commercial Bank Jamaica, stressed the separation between Lee-Chin’s private ventures and NCB’s health, saying the regulated entities are “well capitalised and liquid”.
“NCB Financial Group and subsidiaries do not have exposure to those entities,” said Bowen. “NCB Financial Group is not involved in negotiations and discussions going on [with Lee-Chin’s private ventures]. I personally do not know more than what I see in the media.”
For the June quarter, NCB Financial posted net profit of $8.3 billion, up from $7.3 billion a year earlier, and comprehensive income of $12 billion versus $7 billion. Almeida described the results as “recurring profits, not one-off gains”, and pointed to core earnings in the $5 billion to $6 billion range per quarter.
“Wax on, wax off,” Almeida quipped, likening the group’s disciplined execution to muscle memory. Since his leadership team took over, consolidated capital has grown by $100 billion to $240 billion.
“Price is what you pay, value is what you own,” Almeida added, dismissing share price fixation in favour of long-term fundamentals.
The June 2025 results showed total customer deposits rising to $806 billion, up from $770 billion a year earlier, reflecting continued growth in retail and corporate banking relationships. Loans and advances expanded to $626 billion from $616 billion, with management pointing to disciplined credit risk practices.
The group’s non-performing loans ratio stood at 4.5 per cent from 4.3 per cent in June 2024.
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