Republic makes offer to buy Cayman National shares

REPUBLIC Financial Holdings Ltd (RFHL) has notified Cayman National Corporation Ltd (Cayman National) of plans to make an all-cash conditional offer to purchase its outstanding ordinary shares of the company.

In a media release sent on May 23, TT-based RFHL said the group owns 31,754,248 ordinary shares representing 74.98 per cent ownership of Cayman National. With this offer, the RFHL Group seeks to acquire up to 10,596,483 of the remaining ordinary shares, representing 25.02 per cent of the issued shares of Cayman National, at an offer price of US$7.75 a share.

A quick calculation of the shares indicates that the RFHL is willing to make a payment of US$82,122,743.25 for the remaining shares.

“For us this offer is in keeping with the group’s commitment to regional development and investing in the communities we serve,” said group president Nigel Baptiste.

“We have been in the Cayman islands since 2006, so with this offer we are further demonstrating our confidence, unequivocal support and long-term commitment to the economic growth of the Cayman islands.”

He said the acquisition of the shares would be a natural evolution in the group’s expansion strategy.

Cayman National was established in 1974 and is the largest indigenous financial services company which provides retail and commercial banking, trust and company management.

It also specialises in wealth management to domestic and international clients.

The RFHL Group has operations in Anguilla, Barbados, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Isle of Man, St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, St Maarten, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and TT.