NCB Capital Markets has set its sights on extending its reach into South and Central American countries following its recent entry into Guyana.

Angus Young, CEO of NCB Capital Markets, hinted that shifting the company’s gaze into the broader region is a natural follow on from the growth trajectory it has been on in the last few years.

“I think in time as we build out all our regional hubs, South America and Central America will be the next focus,” Young told the Jamaica Observer in a recent interview. Young was appointed as head of NCB Capital Markets in October last year following a shake-up of the entity. He was previously head of regional investment banking and new markets – NCB Capital Markets and CEO of NCB Merchant Bank (Trinidad and Tobago) Limited.

“NCB Capital Markets, a couple years ago, would have taken the decision to become a pan-Caribbean institution, so we have physical and licensed offices in Trinidad, Barbados, the Cayman Islands and of Jamaica, and we entered the Guyana market in the last couple years, and that office is awaiting licensing, but it has not stopped us from doing transactions in Guyana and the intention is that Guyana will be our South American hub,” Young said in a recent interview with the Jamaica Observer.

“So after Guyana we are looking towards Suriname. For now we are sticking to Caricom, but the next lift off is going to be Central America,” he added.

He pointed out that NCB Capital Markets has been using a “hub and spoke model” to expanding rather than establishing physical locations in all the countries it intends to operate.

“How we have set it up is that Trinidad looks after Trinidad and the Dutch Caribbean, Guyana looks after Guyana and eventually Suriname, Barbados will look after the Eastern Caribbean and then Jamaica and Cayman Islands will look after the Northern Caribbean.”

He said that despite not having a physical presence in Guyana at the moment, the company is still executing business in that country as its economy continues to expand rapidly. Guyana’s economy has tripled in size since the start of oil extraction at the end of 2019, moving the country from being one of the lowest GDP per capita in Latin America and the Caribbean in the early nineties to now amongst the highest. Its economy is expected to expand by 26.6 per cent this year, as per projections from the International Monetary Fund after growing by 38.4 per cent and 62.3 per cent in the last two years. That expansion is projected to continue with forecasts that growth in Guyana will average 20 per cent per year during from 2024 to 28, which would effectively double its current size in five years. NCB Capital Markets does not want to be left out.

“We are arranging funding in the Guyanese market. Hard currency funding for construction, for invoice factoring, for product development, for capital expenditure. That kind of funding,” Young said of the business the company is now doing in Guyana.

Expanding on the size of some of the business being done in that country, Young added: “We are doing easily in excess of TT$120 million in invoice factoring, which is essentially accelerating the receipts of accounts receivables. We introduced the programme here in Jamaica and completed our first factoring deal a couple months ago, so we are very encouraged by how that has gone.”

He said he is encouraged by NCB Capital Markets reach into the capital markets space, especially with the diversity of offerings for the investing public.

“What we have done, we have developed the ability to operate at every layer of the capital markets structure. So whether it is private equity, public equity, quasi-equity, senior debt, unsecured debt, mezzanine debt, quasi-debt. At every layer of the capital markets structure, we have abilities, strategies and institutional willingness and that empowers our aspirations in the alternative investment space and the structured product space. So when you can operate at every level of the capital markets structure, you become differentiated.”

But now with a soft capital market caused by higher interest rates, Young is hoping that investors will grab the opportunities available now before things start to heat up again. His outlook is that it would be “deep down into 2024” before interest rates could go on “some sort of downward trajectory.”

“Now I am of the view that it won’t happen as quickly as the upward trajectory took place, but I do believe that deep into 2024, hopefully we see the direction change.”

“We are entering into an environment that is laden with buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, because as interest rates plateau and as the trajectory senses that it wants to change direction, you are going to see valuations change and you have to get ahead of that. Because you want to buy in an environment when everyone is fearful, you have to be greedy, and when everyone is greedy, you have to be fearful.”