Little gain from NCB’s KWH sale

National Commercial Bank will collect $3 billion for the sale of its 32.59 percent investment in Kingston Wharves, which it executed today, on the Jamaica Stock exchange at $6.50 per share. But the banking group will not see a boost in its profit from the transaction although the shares were purchased at much lower price than what they have been sold at.
At the end of September last year, the investment was booked at $2,705,495 as the group accounted for their share of profit from the time the investment was made some years ago shortly after the banking was taken over by Lee Chin the majority owner of the bank. Since then Kingston Wharves reported profit of $734 million of which $240 million would be attributable to the bank’s holding. That would bring the amount booked up to June this year to $2.945 billion leaving a small difference which is less than the amounts of profit they would have booked had the sale not taken place.
The group will benefit going forward, from funds that it can either lend or invest in other areas. Jamaica will benefit from some foreign exchange inflows, as a result of the sale.