Having received robust business in Guyana in the past few months, NCB Capital Markets is moving to establish a physical office in that country.

NCB Capital Markets Chief Executive Officer Steven Gooden, who made the announcement at last week’s Observer Business Forum, admitted that the company has been doing good business in Guyana with prospects for the future looking very bright. At present NCB Cap Markets services the Guyanese market remotely through its southern hub located in Trinidad and Tobago.

The southern hub subsidiary, which goes under the name of NCB Global Finance, has secured several businesses in Guyana. Hence, the growing desire for NCB Cap Markets to establish an office in the country given the growing need for financing to develop the Caribbean territory, which has become the latest oil-producing state.

Arising from the oil find Guyana is projected to have significant economic growth in the coming years with many Caribbean businesses like NCB Cap Markets aiming to set up operations in the country, which lies on the South American peninsula.

“What we are looking at now is to have our own presence there [in Guyana]. We are in the process of getting that done,” Gooden told the Jamaica Observer. When asked about some of the most recent businesses done by NCB Cap Markets in Guyana, Gooden was hesitant to say but offered to indicate that some weeks ago the capital and wealth management arm of the NCB Financial Group managed to broker a deal of a construction-type nature. That deal was said to be in the region of US$10-million.

“That is as much as I can say,” Gooden stated, as he conceded that NCB has managed to reap a number of good business prospects out of Guyana through NCB Global Finance in Trinidad. Whe asked about how the Guyanese market is looking for NCB the Cap Markets CEO responded, “The reality is that the economy is going to grow and there is a need for significant infrastructure improvement to facilitate that growth, so when you look at it from multiple angles, there are opportunities; there are significant financing opportunities now and in the future.”

He added that as Guyana creates wealth, there is going to be the need to manage that wealth and this is where NCB Cap Markets will fit in from a wealth management perspective. Gooden made the point that NCB Cap Markets will be the foray for the other NCB banking and insurance subsidiaries to follow thereafter.