MICHAEL Lee-Chin has sold another $1.53 billion worth of shares in NCB Financial Group Limited (NCBFG), his first sale in eight months since his return to the financial conglomerate from garden leave.

The trade took place on February 26 wherein 22,088,688 ordinary shares were sold at $69.45 by AIC (Barbados) Limited, a company connected to Lee-Chin who is NCBFG’s chairman. The shares were purchased by the National Insurance Fund which bought 25,000,000 shares that day for $1.74 billion.

This sale comes at a time when NCBFG is planning an additional public offering (APO) during which it expects to issue between 300-450 million new NCBFG shares as it seeks to raise more than $20 billion to reduce its debt balance and expand its operations. NCBFG’s share price is up four per cent in 2024 to $69.03 on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE), and is down six per cent on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange (TTSE) to TT$3.20.

The latest sale by AIC (Barbados) represents only 0.87 per cent of Lee-Chin’s interest in NCBFG and pushes his stake down 1,235,642,254 shares or 48.5455 per cent. Lee-Chin’s interest dropped below the 50 per cent mark for the first time in several years as several executives were issued 78,562,684 new NCBFG shares in the last three months, which diluted his stake.

Lee-Chin last sold 38.71 million shares in June 2023, for $2.60 billion, to 294 Inc and Barita Investments Limited, companies connected to Cornerstone Group founder Paul Simpson. His ownership prior to the sale was 1.30 billion shares with a 52.72 per cent stake. That sale came less than a month after Lee-Chin went on a planned three-month leave of absence and following the sale of his superyacht
Ahpo for US$362 million (J55.8 billion). Lee-Chin also sold different real estate properties as well while seeking to recoup funds from a prior Dominican Republic investment.

Even with this sale Lee-Chin is still set to collect a $617.82-million (US$3.95 million) dividend from NCBFG on March 18. This should assist with upcoming maturities for bonds for AIC (Barbados) and Portland (Barbados) Limited.