KINGSTON, Jamaica — Billionaire Michael Lee-Chin is rejecting calls to step aside as chairman of NCB Financial Group (NCBFG), insisting that market manipulation — not the fundamentals — is behind a steep fall in the bank’s share price, even as questions mount over his personal debt obligations.
NCBFG shares have tumbled 57% over the past two years, hitting $28.63 last week — their lowest since the company’s 2017 listing — before rebounding 37.5% to $39.36 by Tuesday. Lee-Chin blames “games” in the thinly traded Jamaican market, while pointing to strong results: a 68% year-on-year profit surge to $30.5 billion for the nine months ending June 2025, boosted by a $15.1 billion one-off gain from a subsidiary sale, and record equity of $240 billion.
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“If your book value is up 21%, how is it possible for the stock to go from $90 to $28? You can buy a dollar for 38 cents. Does that make sense?” he said.
But investors remain uneasy about his private holding companies — AIC (Barbados), AIC (Global), Portland Holdings and Specialty Coffee — which have pledged 97% of his NCBFG shares (about 41% of total equity) as collateral for bonds now in default. Bondholders will vote Monday on whether to defer US$364 million in repayments until 2027; failure could see Lee-Chin lose control of the bank to creditors.
The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) denied using moral suasion to push for leadership changes at NCBFG, saying it has “not nor is requesting any leadership change” at any licensee.
Lee-Chin insists stepping aside would “play right into” manipulators’ hands. He dismisses talk of being broke, citing his track record of building Canada’s largest mutual fund manager before acquiring NCB. “Every company needs an owner… someone who will make sure they do everything possible to make the company safe, sound, and profitable,” he said.
To reassure shareholders, Lee-Chin urged them to see the slump as a buying opportunity, quoting Warren Buffett: “Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”
