The Caribbean’s Regional Credit Rating Agency, CariCRIS, has reaffirmed its high creditworthiness rating for ANSA Merchant Bank Limited (the AMBL Group) for the second consecutive year.

These credit ratings have been assigned by CariAA (Foreign Currency (FC) and Local Currency (LC)) on the regional rating scale, and by ttAA (FC and LC) on the Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) national scale.  

The regional-scale ratings indicate that the AMBL Group’s level of creditworthiness, compared with other obligors within both the Caribbean and T&T, is high.

The national-scale ratings also indicate high creditworthiness for the Group when compared to other obligors in T&T. Additionally, these ratings include a single notch up for the Group, credited to the high likelihood of support from its parent company, ANSA McAL Limited, if needed.

CariCRIS has also assigned a STABLE OUTLOOK on these ratings, with the expectation that the AMBL Group will see an improvement in profitability over the next 12 to 15 months. This is predicated on strong performance of the Group and its subsidiaries. For the first quarter of 2023, the company reported a robust revenue, with a material increase from the previous year. This is due to growth in the Group’s core operations, supported by increased diversity in revenue generation given recent acquisitions.

AMBL Group Chairman, Mr. A. Norman Sabga, described these results as “stellar” and shared that strategic investments into acquisitions and information technology are anticipated to bring significant improvement in the Group’s service to its valued customers, and to create value for all of its stakeholders.

Gregory N. Hill, Managing Director of the AMBL Group, reported that the company experienced growth in all of its core business lines, including ramped-up activity in loans, reflected by the increased collective market share of all three banks under the AMBL Group of companies.

The Group also recorded strong performance in the insurance sector, with all of its insurance companies, TATIL, TATIL Life, Trident (in Barbados) and TATIL’s newest acquisition, COLFIRE, reporting a collective profit. The strong earnings in this sector were attributed to growth in premiums and positive mark-to-market valuations on its investment portfolios, as well as its move to more digital-based services.

The anticipated continued recovery of economic activity also lends to the positive outlook for the AMBL Group. In addition, CariCRIS expects the AMBL Group to remain well-capitalised, with strong liquidity and asset quality metrics. Given the company’s healthy cash and cash equivalents, it is also expected to comfortably meet its debt service obligations on time.

CariCRIS affirms that the ratings are driven by the AMBL Group’s favourable market position, supported by its well-established brand and long history in the financial services industry. Furthermore, the Group’s strong financial performance and capitalisation levels, as well as its good liquidity metric, are underpinned by its well-diversified earning asset portfolio and robust governance structure.