UPDATE | Scotia Jamaica gets minority shareholders’ greenlight for $64-billion buyout

Counting of votes has ended as Scotiabank Jamaica secured the greenlight from minority shareholders to push through an arrangement that will see parent company, Scotia Caribbean Holdings limited, SCHL, buying all the outstanding minority shares of Jamaica's second ranked bank.

Representatives from the Jamaica Stock Exchange are doing a detailed count but more than 77 per cent of those present at the Extraordinary General Meeting, representing 97 per cent in value of the shares voting, gave the nod. The final results are not expected until Thursday.

Indications are that about 500 persons packed the grand ballroom of the AC Hotel in St Andrew, as they sought to hear more about the scheme that will see the bank going private.

Registrars put in extra resources to handle the crush as most attendees turned up only 15 minutes before the scheduled 11:00 am start.

The successful vote is enabling a process that will see the eventual delisting of the shares from the Jamaica Stock Exchange after being listed for 57 years.

The court-ordered scheme of arrangement was put to shareholders at about 3:30 pm on Wednesday at a specially convened Extraordinary General Meeting. This came after spirited and sometimes vociferous contributions from some minority shareholders who charged that Scotia’s offer was too small.

SGJ had offered to buy out the remaining 878,189,600 minority shares at $61.50 per share. This would total approximately $54 billion. The offer was subsequently raised to $75 per share for a total of $64 billion.

Scotiabank shares closed Wednesday, trading at $72.87 per share.

In presenting the offer to shareholders, Scotiabank Jamaica CEO Audrey Tugwell-Henry emphasised that the offer represented a 28 per cent premium on the average 30-day market price of Scotiabank stock on the JSE.

To alleviate concerns that delisting or shifting operations toward the Dominican Republic hub will reduce the presence in Jamaica, Tugwell-Henry reassured customers that the commitment to the island remains unchanged.

Scotiabank will now move to a final court hearing set for October 30, 2026, at 10:00 am, where representatives will present the results of the vote so that they can proceed further.

- Neville Graham

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