By Dennise Williams, Staff ReporterCAPITAL AND Credit Merchant Bank (CCMB) shares dominated the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange (TTSE) in terms of volume traded for the first three weeks of this month.
Elbowing out the other 31 listed companies on the exchange, there were 4,895,201 CCMB shares traded in the period under review. Total volume traded for the period was 13,801,831.
"CCMB shares were the highest traded shares on the TTSE this month," Andrew Cocking, deputy group president said. "Last month we also traded pretty well."
For the month of May as well, CCMB was one of the top 10 shares traded in terms of volume.
Unlike other Jamaican-based companies trading on the TTSE such as JMMB and Grace, Kennedy, CCMB does not have a physical presence in the twin island republic.
"We don't have offices in Trinidad," Mr. Cocking said. "This augurs well for other companies which want to cross-list but don't have a presence in Trinidad."
To solve the potential issue of not having a location, CCMB made concerted efforts to keep investors informed about what is going on in the company. One such example Mr. Cocking revealed, "Curtis Martin, president and CEO of CCMB, was down in Trinidad a few days ago giving a presentation. We stay in touch with our investors and potential investors."
Leo Williams, managing director of JMMB Securities, believes CCMB shares are trading well because of several reasons.
"JMMB and CCMB joined together in a road show in October 2003 to help promote our stocks," Mr. Williams said. "This helped to generate a lot of awareness about the stock."
More recently, the 2003 performance of the company, "was better than expected," Mr. Williams said.
CCMB NET PROFITS
For the period ending December 31, 2003, CCMB earned net profits of $465.27 million. The company had at that date, $42 billion under management.
"It was felt in Trinidad that the poor performance of the Jamaican economy would drag down Jamaican based companies," Mr. Williams said. "However, the stock outperformed the Jamaican dollar and this excited TT investors. Additionally, there have been at times few shares of Grace and National Commercial Bank trading, Mr. Williams said. This limited the options for accessing the arbitrage opportunities of cross-listed shares and CCMB benefited from this.
"We listed in May of last year and people were skeptical at the time," Mr. Cocking said. "It was said that we would not do well because we did not have a location in Trinidad."
Mr. Cocking held out the possibility that CCMB might yet open offices in Trinidad and Tobago and in other Caribbean territories.
"We have a Caribvision 2010 plan which means we are not just staying in Jamaica," he said. "We have an open mind and are looking for opportunities in Trinidad."
CCMB already has a presence in the Cayman Islands through their remittance arm Money Express.
