The 51 per cent shareholding of the National Commercial Bank (NCB) acquired by the East Caribbean Financial Holding Company Ltd. (ECFH) of St. Lucia was purchased at a cost of EC$42 million.{{more}}

This was announced by Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, as he delivered the feature address at the Inaugural launch of the Next Generation Network (NGN) at the LIME technical ground, Arnos Vale, on Tuesday, September 5, 2010.

Apologising for being a few minutes late, Gonsalves stated that he had just completed a meeting with the shareholders of NCB in which the purchase price for the 5.1 million shares was accepted. He added that the price was a reasonable one. “…It is more or less the 51 per cent of what the book value of the government’s equity was. We consider it a fair and reasonable price,” he said.

He further stated that he “put to rest the lie” that the Government was getting nothing for the bank. He said he chose to save his response to the issue until the meeting of shareholders had concluded.

Gonsalves also stated that a decision was made for a resolution in relation to the deletion of the relevant articles of amalgamation of the company which had prohibited the subscription of shares or debentures of the company to the public. “…as a consequence of this passage of this resolution, today, the public will be able to subscribe to shares or debentures of the company,” Gonsalves stated.(OS)