National Commercial Bank Jamaica (NCB) shareholders will decide on August 12 whether to give approval for an increase in authorised share capital that will allow the commercial bank to list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Last Friday, NCB notified the Jamaica Stock Exchange that its board has advised “that an Extraordinary General Meeting to seek approval from the Company’s Shareholders to remove the cap value of the Authorised Share Capital of the Company, will be held at the Wyndham Kingston Hotel on August 12, 2011 at 4:00 pm”.

NCB’s board has chosen to list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) following an announcement, made a month earlier, that it would cross-list on a North American exchange.

The price of NCB stock since the initial announcement rose six to 12 per cent on the two exchanges that it is currently listed on — the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) and the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange (TTSE).

The commercial banking group aims to raise US$175 million through an initial public offering but said at the end of May that it would decide between the New York-based exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX).

Existing shareholders will be able to participate in the IPO but only after they vote on increasing the authorised share capital of the company at a general meeting, for which a date is yet to be announced.

The change would lead to an increase in share capital greater than 25 per cent according to the bank, but the actual number of shares that will be offered will be dependent on the IPO price of the shares.

Since notifying the JSE on May 27, when NCB’s share price closed on the JSE at $23.15, the price of the stock increased by 14.5 per cent to $26.50 a share on June 7, before falling to $25.08 on June 28– 8.3 per cent higher than the price when the JSE was notified. The share price rose by another 3.7 per cent and closed on the JSE at $26 a share yesterday.

At $26 a share, NCB’s market capitalisation totalled $64.17 billion, or approximately US$746.2 million.

Furthermore, in Trinidad, the share price rose six per cent from TT$1.80 a share to TT$1.92 on July 19, placing its market capitalisation in the two-island republic at TT$4.72 billion (US$739.3 million), or almost US$7 million lower than in Jamaica.

NCB group’s net profit was $11.9 billion (US$138 million) for the last twelve months to March 31, 2011, which places the commercial bank’s price-to-earnings ratio at 5.3 to 5.4 times (depending on the stock exchange), while its stockholders’ equity stood at $48.8 billion (US$567.5 million) at the end of March 2011.