Scotiabank Jamaica has indicated that it will not, at this time, identify the successful bidder for its prime Georgian architecture building that formerly housed its King Street branch in downtown Kingston.

Scotiabank confirmed to Our Today, at its quarterly news briefing last week, that it has finalised the sale of its closed King Street branch, netting gains of J$287 million to the banking group.

The Scotiabank principals, which included Audrey Tugwell Henry, its president and CEO, and Chief Financial Officer Michelle Wright, also would not indicate the industry to which the successful bidder is from.

However, Tugwell Henry hinted that the successful bidder may be disclosed when the company releases its fourth quarter financials in another three months. 

The financial institution has been trying to offload the building since closing the branch more than two years ago and relocating operations to its newly renovated, close to $2-billion head office at nearby Port Royal Street.

The King Street location, which served as the bank’s oldest branch in Jamaica, was closed in May 2019 as part of a restructuring exercise undertaken by the institution between 2018 and 2020. 

Our Today also quizzed the Scotiabank executives about other real estate assets that they would have sold, having closed a number of branches over the past two years and the earnings from those sales.

In response, Wright stated: “The cumulative proceeds to date amount to approximately J$334 million from November 2021 to July 2022 as it relates to the disposals we have had so far. Of that $334 million, approximately J$287 million relates to the gain on sale of our King Street location.”