Coming on the heels of CariCRIS assigning a jmA+ rating to NCB Capital Markets (NCBCM), the regional brokerage house achieved a historic feat on Wednesday, May 31 when the company closed its bond offering at over J$10 billion. This is the largest Jamaican dollar issue under the Financial Securities Commission’s (“FSC”) Exempt Distribution Guidelines, which came into effect in 2008. “We put out an offer to the public aiming to close at $6.5 billion and we have exceeded that by 54 per cent. We’re as thrilled as we are humbled by the confidence that our existing and hundreds of new clients have placed in us, through their participation in this offering said Kerry Spencer, NCBCM’s Assistant Vice President – Wealth Management. NCBCM offered this bond between May 10 and 31 to the investing public. The required minimum investment was J$100,000 and investors will earn 8.5 per cent per annum for a period of three years with quarterly interest payments. Funds raised from the offer will be used to pursue various investment opportunities. Spencer noted, too, that closing at the stated amount required an intense reliance on its vast distribution network of Advisors with NCBCM being a subsidiary of the island’s largest bank. “This is one of many attractive investment opportunities that we will offer as we continue to differentiate ourselves as the premier wealth management firm.” This transaction was structured as a Highly-rated Debt Security under the FSC’s Exempt Distribution Guidelines to facilitate the widest participation by individual, corporate and institutional investors. Herbert Hall, NCBCM Assistant Vice President – Investment Banking noted that the transaction demonstrates the company’s ability to complete very large capital markets deals and provide clients with execution certainty. “We at NCB Capital Markets not only provide funding solutions for large corporates and governments but also have the flexibility to provide similar facilities for our SME clients. With our sizeable financial resources our clients are comforted knowing that we can underwrite transactions of various types such as IPOs, debt raises, sales and lease back; and invoice factoring.” Over the last 12 months, NCBCM and its subsidiaries closed 30 corporate finance and structured product deals across the region with a value in excess of US$600 million. NCBCM along with its sister company in Cayman represents the wealth, asset management and investment banking arm of the NCB Financial Group and contributed 23 per cent of the Group's overall operating income for the period ended March 31, 2017. This made it the second highest contributor to the Group's earnings. In addition to Jamaica, NCB Capital Markets has a market presence in the Cayman Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados.