PHILIPSBURG — Finance Minister, the Honourable Perry Geerlings, received a briefing from Chief Executive Officer for NCB Global Finance Limited on that company’s interest in offering financing options to St. Maarten where possible on Monday, January 14th.
The CEO and his team were on Island this week discussing financing options with various institutions and is hoping to play an integral role in St. Maarten’s redevelopment post-Irma. NCB Global is a Non-Bank Financial Institution that deals in arranging and underwriting stock and bond issuances, arranging commercial paper programs, bond trading, syndicated loans, project financing, structured finance (sale & leaseback, BOLTS) amongst other financial services.
The meeting took place at the Cabinet of the Minister of Finance during which CEO for NCB Global Finance along with his Head of Corporate and Investment Banking Marli Creese outlined the structure of the Trinidad & Tobago based lending institutions. Young was scheduled to meet with Government Company representatives from the Princess Juliana International Airport, Port SXM, NV GEBE and TelEM to find out if, and how NCB Global Finance can assist with their financing needs.
The intention behind the meeting with the government-owned companies is a fact-finding mission to determine if there are projects in which NCB Global can offer financing assistance.
During the meeting, Minister Geerlings outlined the present structure of the Trust Fund issued by The Netherlands to St. Maarten, which the World Bank manages. Geerlings indicated that any loan agreement will have to consider the Trust Fund, and the projects identified as part of the St. Maarten Government’s recovery plan. He said the possibility of seeking loans in the open market must be explored but also pointed out that several steps must be taken if and before St. Maarten accepts any external financing. He also explained St. Maarten’s debt to GDP ratio
Young is no stranger to St. Maarten and was part of the Financing team that worked on the first bond agreement for the construction of the new Terminal building at PJIA, which was completed in October 2006.
