Depressed oil prices hit Trinidad & Tobago’s economy hard, and like many of its oil-exporting peers, year-on-year GDP declined in 2016.
The Caribbean island’s financial sector also felt the wrath of lower oil prices, but Republic Bank’s efforts to expand beyond the region helped maintain profitability across its operations.
The lender recorded $959 million in profits attributable to shareholders in September 2017, a $51.5 million increase on the same nine-month period in 2016.
In a September report, S&P Global Ratings affirmed Republic Bank’s BBB global rating, saying it expects the lender’s loan portfolio to grow 2% to 3% in 2017 and 2018.
Roopnarine Oumade Singh, an executive director at the bank, attributes this growth to the lender’s risk management and cost-control measures.
“One area where we have put a lot of attention is keeping our delinquency under control,” he says.
Trinidad & Tobago makes up roughly 80% of Republic Bank’s $10 billion balance sheet, Singh says. But the bank also has operations in Guyana, Grenada, Barbados and Suriname in the Caribbean, along with a subsidiary in Ghana.
Growth through acquisitions is a key pillar in Republic’s forward-looking strategy, Singh says.
Through Home Finance Company, or HFC Bank, in Ghana, Republic Bank aims to increase its African sphere of influence. The Trinidadian lender holds a controlling 57.1% stake in HFC.
“As we consolidate and grow, we will be looking at the wider sub-Saharan Africa region,” Singh says.
Closer to home, the bank last year acquired an additional 24% in its Grenadian subsidiary, taking its total holding in Republic Bank Grenada to 75%.
Locally, the goal is to maintain Republic Bank’s market share, Singh says, adding that bleak economic prospects in Trinidad & Tobago and the wider English-speaking Caribbean pose the biggest challenges to growth in the region. LF