The Trinidadian based Republic Financial Holdings put in a spirited performance in the third quarter to June this year, with profit rising an impressive 54 percent after tax to $378 million from $245 million to June 2020, with profit due to shareholders of the company climbing to $349 million, up 51 percent from $231 million in 2020.
Profit rose an impressive 32 percent after tax to $1.13 billion from $854 million for the nine months to June 2020, with profit due to company shareholders of $1.04 billion up 34 percent from $774 million in 2020.
While operating revenues, net of interest cost jumped 15 percent to $1.43 billion, operating expenses rose a mere 2 percent from $820 million to $837 million, resulting in operating profit popped 39 percent to $595 million, after $1.4 million in contribution from associated companies. Amounts set aside for credit losses rose from $74 million to $107 million in the quarter, pushing pretax profit up 37 percent to $487 million from $355 million. Taxation for the quarter was relatively flat with that of 2020, at $110 million.
For the nine months to June, operating revenues net of interest expense inched to $4.3 billion from $4.23 billion. Operating expenses slipped marginally from $2.574 million to $2.559 billion and operating profit rose 6 percent to $1.76 billion from $1.656 billion, with $4 million in contribution from associated companies in both years. Provision for credit losses moved from $346 million to $382 million in the nine months, putting pretax profit up 26 percent to $1.5 billion from $1.2 billion. Taxation for the period ended at $382 million, up from $346 million in 2020.
While profit shows good improvement over 2020, it lags 2019 earnings by a small margin, but things generally seem to be improving, with 2022 likely to see a move forward for profit. The group earned $6.37 per share for the nine months period. Management did not think it important to provide investors with the earnings per share for the quarter and did not report it. Based on the issued shares of 162.53 million units, earnings per share for the June quarter amounts to $2.15. The group should end up earning around $9 per share for the year and now trades around 15 times the current year’s earnings at the last traded price of $138 on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange.
While the overall numbers appear to be a good turnaround from a Covid-19 impact in 2020, the group that operates within Trinidad and the wider Caribbean and Ghana in Africa showed mixed fortunes in the various locations. Segment profit rose a strong 43 percent from $516 million in the home country to $739 million in 2021, with flat operating income of $2.04 billion. Barbados contributed profit of $178 million on revenues of $421 million, up from a profit of $139 in 2020 from revenues of $403 million. Revenues and profits were down in Suriname, with revenues falling from $155 million to $122 million and profit collapsing from $46 million down to $17 million. The Eastern Caribbean was slightly better, with revenues rising from $488 million to $501 million but profit suffered from a reduction from $177 million to $145 million. Guyana suffered a reduction in both revenues and profit as operating income declined from $296 million to $282 million and profit fell to $124 million from $143 million. The Cayman Islands division enjoyed a slight bounce in operating revenues of $485 million from $482 in 2020, with profit surging from $100 million to $166 million. The British Virgin Islands operations that were acquired from Scotiabank in 2020 delivered $110 million in operating revenues with none in 2020 and achieved a profit of $29 million. Ghana delivered a profit of $118 million from $77 million in 2020, with revenues that rose from $318 million in 2020 to $356 million.
 Republic controls assets of $108 billion with shareholders’ equity of $10.7 billion. Customer deposits amount to $92 billion and loans advanced of $55 billion, Investment securities amount to $19 billion.

All amounts are in Trinidad and Tobago dollars.