Key points:

PBS has secured a 10-year, eight-figure US-dollar contract with an international bank in Central America.

The deal will cover data architecture, enterprise data warehouse modernisation, zero data-loss disaster recovery and AI integration.

The contract comes after PBS missed its 2025 revenue target, reported a slower first quarter, and saw its stock fall 29 per cent year-to-date.

PRODUCTIVE Business Solutions Limited (PBS) has secured a 10-year, eight-figure US-dollar contract with an international bank to modernise and strengthen data, analytics and resilience infrastructure across Central America.

The technology company disclosed the deal on Friday, saying the agreement is worth at least US$10 million, though it did not name the bank or provide the exact contract value.

“The agreement, formally approved by the bank’s board of directors, positions PBS as a long-term strategic partner responsible for supporting the transformation and operation of critical enterprise platforms,” PBS said in its market disclosure.

The project, to be led by PBS’s Advanced Services Division, will include deployment of a next-generation data architecture powered by Oracle technology. It will also include modernisation of the bank’s enterprise data warehouse, zero data-loss disaster recovery, and the integration of artificial intelligence technologies into selected operational processes.

“This agreement highlights our consulting role in delivering the highly resilient, data-centric, and intelligence-driven platforms that modern financial institutions require,” said PBS CEO Pedro Paris Coronado.

Coronado added, “From an investor perspective, it also validates our strategy of building long-term relationships around mission-critical environments that combine high-value engineering capabilities with managed services.”

The company noted in its first-quarter report that it completed a proof of concept to migrate one of the largest banks in Central America and the Caribbean from Microsoft SQL Server to an Oracle database.

This agreement is the latest technology contract announced by PBS in recent years. The company previously announced a 2022 agreement with Google linked to education digitisation across Latin America.

The bank deal comes as Chairman Paul B Scott pushes to scale the regional business and improve both revenue and profitability.

Scott revealed in the company’s 2025 annual report that the business fell short as it reported US$374.92 million against its budgeted US$425 million revenue target in 2025. The move to disclose budgeted targets is meant to contextualise the financials against the company’s own expectations.

“Several large government technology projects across our region experienced procurement delays beyond our control, and currency volatility in certain markets impacted reported figures,” Scott noted in his chairman’s statement.

Even with that revenue gap, Scott pointed to EBITDA, or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, which grew eight per cent to US$55.2 million, close to the budgeted target of US$59 million.

While profit before tax grew 14 per cent to US$14.35 million, consolidated net profit fell 41 per cent from US$7.58 million to US$4.44 million, well below the US$13.6-million target set for 2025. The decline was linked to a 97 per cent rise in tax expense to US$9.91 million, including a US$3.53-million deferred tax charge, which pushed the group’s effective tax rate from 40 per cent to 69 per cent in 2025.

“This is an area management is actively addressing through improved tax planning across our 24-country footprint, and we hope to implement structural improvements in 2026,” Scott noted for the business with more than 3,000 employees.

The company started 2026 at a slower pace, with first-quarter revenue falling 10 per cent to US$84.58 million and operating profit declining 20 per cent to US$6.79 million. Lower finance costs and tax expenses helped cushion the impact, though consolidated net profit still declined 17 per cent to US$2.24 million.

“PBS Q2 is the beginning of our own AI (artificial intelligence) journey, defining the immediate roadmap, the people, processes and solutions available for our clients and our internal use,” the first quarter report stated.

PBS’ asset base decreased two per cent during the quarter to US$407.75 million as it ended the quarter with US$20.69 million in cash. Total liabilities stood at US$331.77 million, while equity attributable to shareholders was US$74.61 million.

PBS also reported several leadership changes. Ezequiel Bardas was appointed chief operating officer for Latin America, while Trinidadian Stuart Franco was appointed chief operating officer for the Eastern Caribbean. Eduardo Rodríguez was appointed chief financial officer and director on June 8, while director Blondell Walker resigned from the board on June 5.

PBS closed Tuesday at US$0.69, leaving the stock down 29 per cent year to date, with a market capitalisation of US$128.49 million.

The stock had declined in the month before a large June 10 trade, when 74.79 million shares changed hands at an average price of US$0.3440. A subsequent market disclosure revealed that between June 10 and 18, connected parties sold 71,854,351 common shares and bought 66,437,745 common shares.

A review of the shareholder list showed that Ricardo Hutchinson and PB Scott were the only two major parties connected to the 10 largest shareholders. The Jamaica Observer understands that Musson Investments was among the major buyers in the June 10 transactions.

Hutchinson is a partner at Portland Private Equity, which manages three Portland funds whose total interest is 42,209,712 shares, or 22.67 per cent of PBS’s issued common shares. Those Portland funds bought most of their shares at US$0.55 in the August 2017 initial public offering and received additional shares in September 2021 at US$0.77 as part of the PBS Technology Group Limited acquisition.