Republic records U.S. $171.5m in third quarter profits

Port of Spain – Easing of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic health and safety protocols, and rising interest rates on U.S. dollar denominated securities has significantly benefitted Republic Financial Holdings Limited (RFHL), the parent company of Republic Bank.

Chairman Vincent Pereira announced on Wednesday a profit attributable to its equity holders of U.S. $171.5 million for the nine months ended June 30 this year.

It is an increase of U.S. $16.4 million or 10.6% over the U.S. $155.1 million reported in the corresponding period of the previous financial year.

“Our performance for this period of 2022 reflects a modest improvement over our core pre-COVID 2019 third quarter performance, by U.S. $0.94 million or 0.6%,” Pereira said.

“During the third quarter of the group’s fiscal year, all the countries where we operate continued the relaxation of COVID-related protocols, which positively impacted the tourism dependent areas, where economic activity continues to improve steadily.

“The Group also benefitted from rising interest rates on U.S. dollar denominated securities in some of our operations. These positive impacts were somewhat dampened by continued supply chain disruptions and inflationary pressures resulting from the Russia-Ukraine war.”

Pereira added RFHL’s total assets stood at U.S. $16.9 billion at June 30 this year, an increase of U.S. $0.7 billion or 4.3% over the total assets at June last year.

“This increase was funded by growth in customer deposits across our subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands, Eastern Caribbean, Guyana, and Barbados,” he said.

“Amid continued economic uncertainty, the group remains focussed on cost management, improving the experiences of our clients and staff through increased investment in our digital offerings and continuing to provide a safe working environment for our teams.”

(PR/AR)