FirstCaribbean Corporate Banking Curacao has successfully closed a landmark US$45 million refinancing transaction with Pristine Estates N.V., which owns the 612-room 3.5 star Holiday Inn Resort and Casino in Aruba, the bank has announced. FirstCaribbean has been associated with Pristine since 1999 as part of a syndicate which included partner banks Maduro & Curiel’s Bank [...]

Jamaica seems to have some dark economic clouds on the horizon and that has been so for a long time wherein our economy has been in recession for a number of years. The country’s productivity and even attitude to work has been in free fall while crime and other antisocial ills spiral out of control. [...]

The Bible story says Jesus turned water into wine when the spirits ran low at the wedding in Cana. Malcolm Wood, in Bridgetown, Barbados, is working on the miracle of creating a Caribbean fruit wine business in an industry that snubs the notion of terming as wine anything but fermentation derived from grapes. Since the [...]

FirstCaribbean International Bank has announced the appointment of Clovis Metcalfe, a 35 year veteran of the bank, to the role of Managing Director in Jamaica. Clovis, replaces current MD, Milton Brady, who has been appointed to FirstCaribbean’s Executive Management Committee as Managing Director, Corporate Investment Banking. Metcalfe’s appointment took effect from January 1st 2009. As [...]

As 2009 opens, experienced business professionals will meet future business leaders in The Bahamas for four days of dialogue and professional development.  From January 4 to 7, the Caribbean Business Clubs of Harvard Business School and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania will host the 7th Annual Caribbean MBA Conference in Nassau. The [...]

Crime and theft were cited as the most problematic factors for doing business in Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago in the 2008-2009 Global Competitiveness Report published by the independent World Economic Forum. By contrast Caribbean Community (CARICOM) partner Barbados ranked inefficient government bureaucracy and Latin neighbour Colombia faced with protracted drug and leftist anti-government [...]

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn has welcomed the $700 billion US bail-out package to address the crisis which has seen the collapse of major private financial institutions.  “It is rather urgent to find a solution for this systemic crisis,” Strauss-Kahn said in an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung to be published Wednesday. “In that regard, we [...]

Barbados International Trade Centre. Barbados’ generally open trade and investment regime, and its close integration into the world economy has helped it maintain some of the highest per capita incomes and human development indicators among developing countries, according to a WTO Secretariat report on the trade policies and practices of the island. The report shows [...]

Grenreal Property Corporation Limited Monday became the 14th equity to be listed on the Eastern Caribbean Securities Exchange (ECSE). The listing ceremony took take place at the Esplanade Mall in St Georges, Grenada. The shares of the company, which will be known in the market by its trading symbol, GPCL, will become available for trading [...]

The Government of St Vincent and the Grenadines’ 91-day, EC$16.0 million Eastern Caribbean dollars Treasury bill issue, auctioned on the Regional Government Securities Market using the primary market platform of the Eastern Caribbean Securities Exchange (ECSE), was oversubscribed by EC$8.225 million. Licensed intermediaries placed a total of 16 bids, ranging from $75,000 to $8.22 million [...]