TTSE stocks start 2020 with some gains

January 2, 2020 by

Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange Head Quarters

The Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange started trading in 2020 with modest gains in all three major indices but with just two stocks rising while three slipped and eight closed with prices unchanged.  
At the close of trading on Tuesday, the Composite Index rose 2.28 points on Thursday to 1,470.69. The All T&T Index added 0.14 points to 1,869.11, while the Cross Listed Index gained 0.61 points to close at 145.26.
Trading ended with just 13 securities changing hands, similar to the number trading on Tuesday as 187,409 shares traded at $2,716,885 compared to 229,238 shares changing hands at $3,637,335. The market had two stocks hitting 52 weeks’ high at the close of trading.
IC bid-offer Indicator| The Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator ended with the bids of four stocks higher than their last selling prices and three with lower offers.
Gains| First Caribbean International Bank gained 10 cents completed trading at $8, with ten stock units changing hands and Guardian Holdings advanced 35 cents and ended at $22, with investors exchanging 72,946 shares.
Losses| Point Lisas declined 5 cents and completed trading of 500 stock units at $3.55, Republic Financial fell 9 cents to close at $131.01, with investors exchanging 640 shares and West Indian Tobacco lost just 1 cent to finish at $41.24, with ten units changing hands.
Firm Trades| First Citizens Bank settled at $44.50, with 5,136 stock units trading, Grace Kennedy closed at $3.95, with 6,484 stock units trading, JMMB Group concluded trading with 27,149 stock units at $2.60, National Enterprises exchanged 35,000 shares and ended at $5.76. NCB Financial closed at $10.86, with 4,686 units crossing the exchange, One Caribbean Media exchanged 28,904 units at $8.50, Scotiabank traded 1,640 stock units at $61 and Trinidad & Tobago NGL close trading of 4,304 shares at $24.

Prices of securities trading are those at which the last trade took place.

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Limners & Bards revise EPS

December 18, 2019 by

Kimala Bennett, Chief Executive Officer of The Lab.

Following IC Insider.com’s report that the earnings per share (EPS) for Limners & Bards were incorrect, the audited accounts of the company are now revised to reflect the EPS the article suggested they should be.
The revised audited reports now state that the calculation of earnings per stock unit is based on the profit after taxation and the weighted average number of stock units in issue during the year. Net profit attributable to shareholders of $94,746,238 in 2019, $62,313,858 in 2018. The weighted average number of ordinary stock units is 803,836,715 in 2019 and 756,552,202 in 2018, resulting in Basic and diluted earnings per stock unit of12 cents in 2019 and 8 cents in 2018.
The original audited financial statements showed the basic and diluted earnings per stock unit at 10 cents for the 2019 fiscal year and 7 cents for 2018 based on the weighted average of ordinary stock units 945,690,252 in each year.
IC Insider’s report on Tuesday stated that “Limners and Bards released full-year results with profit after taxation of $95 million, up by an impressive 52 percent from the $62 million earned in 2018 from healthy gains in revenues, with earnings per share (EPS) works out at 12 cents for 2019 and 8 cents for 2018.”
The company’s operating revenues grew 31 percent to $632 million from $483 million in 2018, with the last quarter growing a stunning 58 percent to $146 million, generating income just below the $152 million generated in the July quarter and profit before tax of $18 million versus $16.5 million in the July quarter. While revenues for the year rose 31 percent, direct cost rose at a slower pace, resulting in the gross profit climbing 39.4 percent over 2018 as gross profit margin rose to 36 percent compared to 33.7 percent in 2018. Administrative cost rose well ahead of revenue growth with a 41 percent increase over 2018, but the full-year increase is below a 70 percent surge in the July quarter while the fourth quarter saw a rise of 39 percent over 2018, is in line with the full-year increase.
In a statement accompanying the nine months results, Chairman, Steven Gooden and Kimala Bennett, Chief Executive Officer stated, “Administration expenses increased by $23.737 million, or 42 percent, which represent 16.63 percent of revenue for the nine months compared to 14.60 percent to the corresponding period ended July 31, 2018. These increases are primarily attributable to staff costs (due to increase work volume), subcontractors (on retainer contracts), depreciation charges and security costs”.
The company reports on three segments comprising Production, Media and Agency. For 2019 Production generated earnings of $226 million and profit of $100 million while Media raked in $292 million but ended with just $40 million in profit and agency the most profitable brought in $114 million and delivered $85 million in net income.
The company ended the year with cash and equivalent of $292 million with shareholders’ equity of $356 million, up from $123 million in 2018. Borrowings stood at $50 million with payables of $83 million and current assets of $387 million.
IC Insider.com forecast earnings per share of 20 cents for 2020 that puts the PE ratio at 15 with the stock closing trading at $3 on Tuesday on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange and is a stock to be watched into 2020.

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Auditors spoil good Lab results

December 17, 2019 by

Limners and Bards released full-year results with profit after taxation of $95 million, up by an impressive 52 percent from the $62 million earned in 2018 from healthy gains in revenues.
Earnings per share (EPS) works out at 12 cents for 2019 and 8 cents for 2018. Operating revenues rose 31 percent to $632 million from $483 million in 2018, the last quarter grew at a stunning 58 percent to $146 million, just below the $152 million generated in the July quarter and profit before tax of $18 million versus $16.5 million in the July quarter.
Auditors are required to check records of companies and ensure that they accord with various regulations and the financial statements which they audit and certify are free form errors and misstatements.

Kimala Bennett, Managing Director of The Lab.

The Limners and Bards financials is the latest report to indicate that there is a problem with the industry and that a number of the players are eroding the confidence investors have it the financial reports they certify. To be fair to the company auditors, they are not solely to blame. Management, including the directors, is also responsible for preventing financial with errors going out to the public, as they also have to sign off on the financials.
The computation of earnings per share is an area of problem for some of the smaller audit firms. In the past, there are instances where the calculation is wrong when there are stock splits and new share issues.
According to the Limners and Bards financial statements, the basic and diluted earnings per stock unit is 10 cents for the 2019 fiscal year and 7 cents for 2018 based on the weighted average of ordinary stock units 945,690,252 in each year. That is entirely wrong.  What are the facts? The company had 756.55 million shares in issue before the sale of 189,138,050 shares to the public in July this year with the company listing on the stock exchange on July 26. The EPS computation for 2018 is to be based on 756.6 million shares and for 2019, just over 800 million units. The company’s stock closed trading on Monday at $2.78 for a PE of 21 times 2019 earnings before tax and 14 times 2020 earnings of 20 cents per share.

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Big drop for Junior Market

December 11, 2019 by

The Junior Market index dropped a sharp 55.78 points to close at 3,341.30 on Wednesday after 66.99 points were slashed on Monday, with declining stocks exceeding rising ones for the third consecutive day.
Market activity resulted in 30 securities changing hands with gains in just 5, while the prices if 17 declined and prices of 8 remained unchanged. CAC 2000 Preference share, closing at a 52 weeks’ low.
Junior Market activity, left the markets average PE at 14.1. Trading ended with an exchange of 8,280,200 units for $16,484,044 compared to 11,556,651 shares for $25,163,399 from 33 securities trading on Tuesday.
Trading ended with an average of 276,007 units for an average of $549,468 for each stock traded, in contrast to 350,202 units for $762,527 on Tuesday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 263,515 shares at $596,709 compared to an average of 261,632 shares at $603,830 for each security traded. In contrast, November closed with an average of 120,579 shares at $506,880 for each traded security.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investors Choice bid-offer indicator with six stocks ending with bids higher than their last selling prices and two with lower offers.
At the close of the market, Access Financial dropped $3 to end at $32 with 186 stock units crossing the exchange, AMG Packaging rose 2 cents in trading of 5,000 units at $1.92, Blue Power exchanged 19,300 shares, after declining 4 cents to end at $5.93. Caribbean Cream fell 11 cents in trading 3,827 units at $4.29, and Consolidated Bakeries declined by 3 cents to settle at $1.60 after trading 54,000, Elite Diagnostic exchanged82,443 shares to close at $5.50 after falling 9 cents, Everything Fresh lost 5 cents with 220,157 shares changing hands at $1.05. Express Catering lost 5 cents in exchanging 6,281 shares to close at $6.25, GWest Corporation lost 4 cents to settle at 95 cents while exchanging 21,000 units, Honey Bun slashed 90 cents from the previous close to end at $7 in a swap of 51,831 shares. iCreate traded 589,259 units and gained 8 cents to end at 70 cents, Indies Pharma declined by a cent trading of 23,619 units at $3.01, Jamaican Teas fell 7 cents while 84,824 changed hands at $5.99, Jetcon Corporation exchanged 119,193 shares to close at $1.93 after rising 13 cents. Knutsford Express dived $1.50 with 43,436 shares crossing the exchange at $10, Lasco Financial exchanged 57,950 units, but fell 10 cents to end at $4.50, Lasco Manufacturing gained 10 cents trading of 45,000 units at $5.10, Limners and Bards slipped 2 cents in trading of 126, 814 units at $2.81. MailPac pulled back 17 cents to end at $1.78 with 5,881,440 shares changing hands, Main Event declined 8 cents to settle at $6.07 with an exchange of 31,212 units and Paramount Trading lost 45 cents with a transfer of 62,639 shares to close at $1.55.

Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.

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Scotia Group aiming to up profits

December 6, 2019 by

Scotia Group headquarters in Kingston.

The 2019 fiscal year is turning out to be one of the best in recent times for the number 2 banking group in Jamaica – Scotia Group. The current year was not the best performing, but it delivered on many counts for the majority Canadian owned banking group.
Critically, the primary engine driving profits – loans, grew 12.6 percent, or $23 billion to $206 billion. According to the Managing Director, David Noel, “total loan growth remained strong throughout the period with a year over year increase of 13 percent. Highlights from our Retail Banking portfolio include a 17 percent year over year growth in our Scotia Plan loan portfolio. Our mortgage portfolio continued to perform well and grew 13 percent year over year as we continue to boast one of the most competitive mortgage rates in the market. Our total commercial loan book increased by 14 percent over the prior year. Of note, commercial loans to the private sector increased by 27 percent when compared to the same period last year.”
The group reports a net profit of $13.19 billion for the year to October, an increase of $419 million or 3.28 percent over the prior year. In 2018, the group booked gains on the sale of a subsidiary of $753 million, when this gain is excluded, net profit from ongoing operations increased by stronger 9.75 percent amounting to $1.17 billion.
Performance for the year was affected by lower net interest income due to declining interest rates and higher loan loss provision, following the adoption of a new accounting standard. Net interest income after expected credit losses for the year totaled $22.5 billion, down $767 million or 3.3 percent, compared to the prior year. Importantly, the group’s final quarter numbers show marked improvement in net interest income compared to the 2018 quarter. Net interest income delivered $6.4 million to the quarterly results compared to just $6 billion in 2018, while Net interest income after expected credit losses rose from $5.35 billion in the October 2018 quarter to $5.75 billion in 2019.
Scotia reports that “our credit quality remains strong and actual delinquency is down year over year, with loans on which there is no interest being booked for representing 1.77 percent of gross loans compared to 2 percent in the prior year.”
The Group reports, “operating expenses were also higher than the prior-year due partially to increased fraud-related expenses, as well as increased investments in technology and business optimization which we believe are necessary investments for the future.”
“We will continue to make investments in our infrastructure, including a $500 million investment to create a state of the art branch. Renovations have also begun at our head office building, where we are investing $1 billion to upgrade and modernize our facilities to create a more efficient and collaborative environment.”

Scotia Group’s Falmouth branch

Operating expenses for the year amounted to $24 billion for the period, an increase of $2 billion, or 9.54 percent compared to the prior year. Salaries and staff benefit costs increased by $697 million or 6.76 percent primarily due to increased incentives to the sales team resulting in the growth of in the loan portfolio, while other operating expenses grew by $1.37 billion. The growth in other operating expenses was attributable to increased technology investments such as ATM software, online banking enhancements, security chips for credit cards and network upgrade to support our digital strategy. Tax on assets increased by $45 million to $1.13 billion.
Segment results saw Treasury generating revenues of $8.2 billion up from $7 billion in 2018 with a profit of compared to $4.1 billion in 2018. Retail revenues grew to $18.9 billion up from $18.3 billion in 2018, with a profit of $3.6 billion compared to $4.9 billion in 2018. Corporate and Commercial banking saw revenues rise from $7.8 billion to $8 billion and profit hitting $1.4 billion in 2019 versus $2.75 billion in 2018. Insurance services grew revenues from $5 billion to $5.1 billion and generated a slightly higher profit of $3.97 billion from $3.8 billion in 2018. Investment Management generated revenues of $3.5 million and a profit of $2.3 billion in 2019 compared to $3 billion in revenues and profit of $1.8 billion in 2018. Other operations raked in revenues of $1.54 in 2019 with a profit of $1.5 billion, in 2018, revenues were just $1 billion with a profit of $965 million.
Other income for the year, other than interest income, increased by $3 billion or 17.97 percent over 2018. Net fee and commission income amounted to $8 billion, marginal declining of $22 million. Insurance revenues increased by $371 million or 12.64 percent to $3.30 billion due mainly to higher premium income year over year, partially offset by lower actuarial reserve releases, the group reported.
Net gains on foreign currency activities and financial assets amounted to $8.43 billion, up by $3.3 billion or 63 percent above last year due to increased market and trading activities. Deposits by the public grew to $313 billion, up from $288 billion in the previous year.
The Group’s shareholders’ equity stands at $118 billion from which the Board of Directors approved a final dividend of 55 cents per stock unit, or $1.7 billion, up from 51 cents per share in 2018. The current dividend is payable on January 15, 2020, to stockholders of record on December 24. The January 2020 dividend brings the total payment for the year to $4.76 after the group made two special dividend payments during the year.
The group reported earnings per share of $1.09 for the final quarter and $4.24 for the full year, earnings per share for 2020 should hit the $5 mark.
Scotia Group is a good stock for income and long-term growth.

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Profit stays strong at Sagicor Group

December 4, 2019 by

Sagicor Group last traded at $66 on the JSE.

Profit at the Jamaican based Sagicor Group climbed 26 percent in the September quarter to $4.5 billion from $3.54 billion in the 2018 quarter with profit for the nine months to September, rising 28 percent to $11.3 billion from $8.8 billion in the 2018 period.
Profit before tax rose by just 8 percent in the quarter to $5.23 billion from $4.85 billion and 27 percent for the year to September to $14.5 billion from $11.47 billion in 2018.
“The main contributing factors were the depreciation of the Jamaican dollar, which positively impacted realized and unrealized gains attributable to US dollar positions and the 36 percent appreciation of the Jamaica Stock Exchange Main Market indices, benefitting the Group by way of trading gains and capital appreciation,” a statement from the chairman and CEO stated.
Net profit attributable to shareholders continues an upward trend from the start of the financial year, with Q1 posting profit of $2.7 billion and moving to $3.7 billion in Q2 and $4.4 billion in the current quarter. Earnings per stock rose to $1.15 for the September quarter compared to 91 cents in the 2018 quarter, and $2.79 for the nine months to September, versus $2.27 year to September 2018.
Total income rose 28 percent for the quarter to $25 billion from $19.5 billion and 31 percent for the year to date to $67.5 billion from $51.48 billion in 2018. “Contributing to the overall revenue outturn in the September quarter was a 23 percent increase in net premium income, investment revenue of 28 percent and an increase of 10 percent in fees and other income,” the management stated in their report accompanying the quarterly.
The results for the nine months to September reflected gains of 18 percent in net premium revenue, to $33.8 billion and 23 percent for the September quarter to reach $12.7 billion while investment income climbed 42 percent in the nine months to $19.3 billion and 28 percent for the quarter to $7.4 billion. Fees and other income rose 16 percent to $10.5 billion and 10 percent in the quarter to $3.7 billion.
Insurance benefits, administrative and other expenses climbed 37 percent to $19.46 billion from $14.24 billion, compared to a 35 percent increase to $53.66 billion from $39.87 billion in 2018 for the year to date. Net insurance benefits rose 28 percent in the quarter to $8 billion from $6.3 billion in 2018 and from $19 billion to $21.2 billion for the nine months.
Administrative expenses climbed 17 percent in the quarter to $5.2 billion from a similar period in 2018 and 16 percent in the nine months to $15.3 billion.
For the nine months to September, the group’s segment results show Individual Insurance revenues rising a healthy 24 percent to $25.8 billion from $20.9 billion in 2018 but resulting in segment profit falling from $4.1 billion to $3.8 billion. Investment Banking accounted for $4.5 billion of revenues in 2019, up 67 percent from $2.7 billion in 2018, with profit nearly doubling to $2 billion from $1.1 billion. Employee Benefits revenues climbed from $17.6 billion in 2018 to $20.4 billion, and profit rising from $2.9 billion to $3.2 billion and Commercial Banking revenues rose 19 percent from $8.3 billion in 2018 to $9.9 billion with profit hitting $1.95 billion from $1.4 billion in 2018. All other segments added revenues of $6.4 billion in 2019 from $2.9 billion, with profit rising from $270 million in 2018 to $415 million.
The stock last traded on the JSE Main Market at $66 for a PE ratio of 16.5 compared to a market average of 19, an indication that the price is undervalued.
At the end of September, shareholders’ equity stood at $88.4 billion up from $73 billion at the end of September 2018. Assets ended the period at $458 billion inclusive of financial investments of $196 billion, cash and bank balances of $25 billion and liabilities at $338 billion.
Earnings per share came out at $1.15 for the quarter and $2.79 for the nine months. IC Insider.com is forecasting $4 per share for PE of 16.5 times earnings at the last traded price of $66.
Sagicor Group results for the nine months to September include the consolidation of the new subsidiaries, Sagicor Real Estate Fund and Travel Cash Jamaica. The Group’s latest acquisition, Advantage General Insurance, in which the Group acquired a 60 percent interest on September 30, did not affect earnings for the nine months.

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Witco $5 surge creates big index gains

December 3, 2019 by

West Indian Tobacco jumped $5.02 to a 52 weeks’ high of $40, with investors exchanging 700 shares, to record the first trade since the price adjusted for the three for one split last week. The move helped along with increases in eight other stocks to push the All T&T Index up by 1.56 percent for the day.
At the close of the market, bids to buy the stock rose to 23,980 units at $40 up from 20,465 units on Monday. The market closed with no shares offered for sale.
At the close of the market, the All T&T Index surged 27.88 points to 1,811.56, while the Cross Listed Index rose 1.18 points to close at 146.12 as prices of 9 stocks rose, 3 declined while 5 remained unchanged, leading the Composite Index to climb 18.33 points to 1,444.91.
In the overall market on Monday, investors traded 153,598 shares, amounting to $1,718,205 from an exchange of 17 securities, against 12 on Monday, resulting in trading in 65,975 shares amounting to $950,201.
IC bid-offer Indicator| The Investor’s Choice bid-offer ended at six stocks with bids lower than their last selling prices and one with a lower offer.
Gains| Calypso Micro Index Fund rose 5 cents in trading 400 shares and closing at $15.80, Clico Investment Fund concluded trading 5 cents and concluded at $24.40, after exchanging 568 shares, Guardian Holdings added 50 cents to close at $19, with investors transferring 12,500 shares. National Enterprises closed with a gain of 5 cents at $5.55, with investors exchanging 205 shares, National Flour gained 4 cents and completed trading at $1.40, with 10,560 stock units changing hands, NCB Financial closed with an increase of 20 cents and concluded trading of 27,200 stock units at a record high of $11.20. Trinidad Cement rose 15 cents and completed trading with 51,619 units at $1.95 and LJ Williams rose 15 cents and ended at $1.35, with 5,000 stock units trading.
Losses| First Caribbean International Bank share fell 1 cent to $8.22, after exchanging 200 shares, First Citizens Bank lost 15 cents to end at $42.05, with 4,227 units crossing the exchange and Trinidad & Tobago NGL declined by 15 cents and ended trading of 35,659 shares at $21.10.
Firm Trades| Agostini’s traded just 40 shares at $24, Angostura Holdings ended at $16.20, in swapping 2,615 units, Guardian Media settled at $7.80, with investors exchanging 1,567 shares, Massy Holdings completed trading of 120 units at $59.75 and Unilever Caribbean settled at $23.50, with 418 stock units changing hands.

Prices of securities trading are those at which the last trade took place.

 

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Big jump in Honey Bun profit

December 1, 2019 by

Another major milestone in Honey Bun’s brief history of listing on the JSE Junior Market was reached at the end of the 2019 fiscal year, ending in September, with record revenues and profit.
The full-year results show pretax profit rising 73 percent to $183 million versus $106 million in 2018 and profit after tax rising 67 percent to hit $157 million from a 17 percent rise in revenues to $1.54 billion. Revenues grew even faster in the final quarter by 20.4 percent improvement over the 18.9 that revenues grew in the third quarter over 2018.
The results benefited from improved efficiency with cost sales rising well below the growth in revenues, with input cost increasing 12 percent for the year, driving gross profit margin to 48 percent, an improvement from the 46 percent in 2018. Selling and Distribution expenses rose 16 percent to $250 million from $214, Administrative Cost excluding depreciation rose 18 percent $284 million from $249 million.
Earnings per share rose to 33 cents in the just concluded year from just 18 cents in 2018. Importantly, the company is on the way to earn 70 cents per share for 2020 for a profit of $335 million and should go on to earn $1 per share or $490 million in 2021 and $1.30 or $600 million in the following year when the tax concession for half the regular rate ends.

One Honey Bun’s Products.

The company is benefitting from a capital expenditure of $330 million spent over the last two years to expand the factory and bring manufacturing under one location as well as an expansion of product range. The operations generated gross cash flow of $230 million up from $145 million in 2018.
Shareholders’ equity climbed to $741 million from $618 million. Current assets increased from $209 million to $353 million with net current assets ending at $185 million from $89 million in 2018. Cash and cash equivalents stood at $193 million, up from $100 million, but the company has Investments of $92 million comprising quoted shares and money market instruments treated as non-current assets.
The company manufacture and distributes baked products for the local and export markets.
The stock receives the IC BUY RATED seal of approval. The stock traded at $7 on the Jamaica Stock Exchange Junior Market for a PE of 10.

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Continued stability for IC TOP 10

December 1, 2019 by

With the closing of the two initial public offers of MailPac Group and Lumber Depot last week, things started to return to more normally in the market this past week with the two main markets recording net gains for the week.
At the close of a week when the JSE Main Market put on125 points and the Junior Market rose 46 points there was minimal change to the IC TOP 10 list this week with just one change as Fontana returns to the top flight after a brief absence, replacing Caribbean Flavours with the price jumping to $17.90 on Friday. One important development at the end of the week was the release of full-year results, for Honey Bun, with profit rising 67 percent to hit $157 million from a 17 percent rise in revenues to $1.54 billion. Importantly, the company is on the way to earn 70 cents per share for 2020.
The average gains for the IC TOP 10 stocks are 136 percent for Junior Market stocks and 96 percent for JSE Main market Top 10 stocks.
The top three Junior Market stocks, is now led by Main Event with projected gains of 183 percent, followed by MailPac Group with 180 percent and Medical Disposables with potential gains of 167 percent.
Radio Jamaica remains the lead stock with projected gains of 186 percent, followed by Pulse Investments in the number two spot with projected growth of 138 and Berger Paints with likely gains of 120 percent and percent is next.
The JSE Main Market closed the week with the overall PE of 19 up from 18.8 and the Junior Market at 14.2, an improvement over the previous week’s 13.8, based on current year’s earnings. The PE ratio for Junior Market Top 10 stocks averages 18.7 from 7.8 last week with the Main Market PE at 10.6 up from 10.4.
The TOP 10 stocks now trade at a discount of 39 percent to the average for Junior Market stocks and main market stocks trade at a discount of 44 percent to the overall market.
IC TOP 10 stocks are likely to deliver the best returns to March next year. Projected earnings, along with the PE ratio for each company’s current fiscal year, are used in determining potential gains with the likely gains ranked in descending order with highest-ranked being the most attractive. Potential values will change as stock prices fluctuate and will result in movements of the selection in and out of the lists for most weeks. Earnings per share are revised on an ongoing basis as new information is received that can result in changes in and out of the list.

This report is compiled by persons who may have an interest in the securities commented on.

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$350 billion revenues in sight at NCB

November 20, 2019 by

NCB Financial head office in Kingston, Jamaica.

Gross revenues at Jamaica’s largest financial entity, NCB Financial Group, could hit $350 billion in 2020 data from the 2019 full year results suggests and would represent a significant rise from total revenues of $167 billion generated in 2019.
Total revenues jumped 128 percent in the September quarter to $81.3 billion, helped by the acquisition of a majority stake in Guardian Holdings and climbed 30 percent to $166.7 billion.  Guardian also contributed $580 billion to the Group’s total assets of $1.6 trillion.
NCB produced record profit in the twelve months to September, this year with profit attributable to NCB shareholders, growing 6 percent to $29.6 billion from $27.96 billion in 2018 with growth of 21 percent from $8.8 billion in the September quarter from $7.3 billion in 2018 quarter.
More importantly, profit from ongoing operations rose marginally from $28.69 billion for the year to September 2018, to $28.73 billion in 2019 and for the quarter, it rose 12 percent from $7.98 billion in 2018 to $8.97 billion. As impressive as the numbers suggest, not all things went well for the group. It suffered a significant loss from the loan portfolio having to book $4 billion in loan loss provision up 104 percent over $1.96 billion booked in 2018.
While the focus by many investors is on profit before other comprehensive profit, a closer look indicates that profit from normal operations does not tell the full story. Total profit for the year ended at $37.5 billion, up from $21.4 billion in 2018 with earnings per share of $15 for 2019.

Advantage General branch offices in Montego Bay Jamaica


Commercial and consumer division reported a loss of $414 million, compared with a profit of $2.75 billion, as a result of credit impairment losses moving from $1.1 billion to $4.1 billion in 2019. Payment services contributed $3.6 billion to profits from $2.9 billion in 2018. Corporate banking delivered $5.2 billion to earnings in 2019 from $3.4 billion to in 2018. Treasury and correspondent banking made the most significant impact on profit for 2019 with a profit of $9.9 billion but rose just a mere 3.6 percent from $9.55 billion in 2018. The group’s investment arm profits grew 8 percent to $9.9 billion from $9.2 billion, life insurance contributed $18.7 billion, up from $9.5 billion and general insurance saw profit more than doubling to $2.33 billion from $1 billion.
Interest income in the September quarter rose 43 percent to $20.5 billion from $14 billion and 28.6 percent for the year ended September to $67 billion from $52 billion in 2018. Interest expense increased 34 percent to $6 billion in the quarter, compared to a 20 percent increase for the year to $20.5 billion. Net interest income in the year was 33 percent higher than 2018, climbing to $46.7 billion from $35 billion and 47 percent in the quarter to $14.3 billion from $9.7 billion in 2018, resulting from an increase in the local loan portfolio and the 5 months results of GHL.
Fees and commission income grew 28.6 percent in the quarter to $7 billion from $5 billion in 2018 and 20 percent for the year, to $24 billion from $20 billion. Net fees and commission income ended the year at $19 billion, after increasing 21 percent from $16 billion in the prior year, with the September 2019 quarter climbing 39 percent from $4.2 billion to $5.8 billion.
For the quarter, insurance premium income skyrocketed to $33.5 billion from $2 billion and 539 percent for the year to $61 billion from $9 billion, which was due mainly to the consolidation of GHL results. Net insurance income in the year jumped 280 percent to $14.4 billion from $3.8 billion and 334 percent in the September quarter from $1.7 billion to $7.3 billion, of which GHL contributed $7 billion. Operating expenses rose 84 percent to $22.6 billion in the quarter and increased 49 percent in the twelve months to $64.7 billion and includes was staff cost which increased 45 percent in the quarter to $10 billion from $7 million in 2018 and for the year, 35 percent from $24 billion to $32 billion.
At the end of the year, shareholders’ equity stood at $146.6 billion, customers’ deposits and other funds placed by customers with the group rose to $731 billion from 697 billion in 2018. Total assets ended the period at $ 1.6 trillion inclusive of loans and advances of $423 billion, compared to 4373 billion in 2018. Investment securities rose to $760 billion from $391 billion.

NCB Financial Montego Bay branch

The group while acquiring additional shares in GHL taking its holdings to a majority of 61.97 percent, Advantage General Insurance was sold at the end of the fourth quarter, resulting in a gain of $2.6 billion. Additionally, $3.3 billion was realised from the disposal of its associated interest in JMMB in the first quarter of the financial year.
An interim dividend of 90 cents per share will be paid on December 6 to shareholders on record on November 22.
Earnings per share came out at $3.69 for the quarter and $8.49 for the nine months and ended the financial year at $12.18, but excluding the one-time capital gains earnings per share would have been closer to $10. The stock last traded at $205 on the Jamaica Stock Exchange and at TT$10.85 on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange at 14 times 2020 estimated earnings.

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