Board approves convening of EGM for vote

Stockbrokerage and investment company, Barita Investments Limited is one step closer today to its planned capital raise.

Last Tuesday the company’s board of directors approved a resolution for the convening of an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) of the company, scheduled for Tuesday, August 3, 2021. At this meeting stockholders will be asked to vote on and approve resolutions in respect of the raising of additional capital by the company.

Barita’s last capital raise was back in September last year when the company saw its additional public offering (APO) for an initial amount of $9 billion being oversubscription. Barita Investment said it raised a record $13.5 billion in capital, after an upsizing of the offer.

In the meantime, the announcement that Barita is going back into the market looking for additional capital, eight months after having secured the $13.5 billion, has raised some eyebrows. If this capital raise is to go ahead, it would constitute Barita’s fourth major capital raise in less than two and a half years.

The proposed sale of a stake in CIBC First Caribbean to the Colombian outfit GNB Financial Group, for more than US$97 million, is now off and there was speculation that Barita would step in using the Barbados-based banking house as its regional footprint.

Then there is the possibility that it would use its unit trust division to go after acquisitions but that is unlikely, given the regulatory constraints.