GK to grow First Global into a regional bank
FOOD AND financial service conglomerate GraceKennedy Limited is weighing expansion of its banking operation and mobile payment arms into Trinidad & Tobago and Guyana, within the medium term.
It would include First Global Bank and GK MPay, Group CEO Don Wehby said at an investor briefing on Tuesday.
The food arm of the group already has a base in United States, United Kingdom, the Caribbean and Ghana, while its financial services unit has a presence in some 11 countries in the Caribbean, led mainly by its remittance and money services operations. GraceKennedy holds the franchise for Western Union.
MOST LIKELY TO EXPAND
Wehby said the group has engaged the services of a consultant to plot its expansion of First Global.
“Trinidad would be the most likely market to expand into, and/or Guyana. We’ve been in discussion with a consultant there who can help us to navigate our way with the regulators and the business plan in Trinidad and in Guyana,” he said.
Last month, managers at GK Money Services, the subsidiary the operates the new GK MPay mobile banking product, acknowledged that the group would seek to enter other markets with MPay, but had declined to list potential target markets.
“One of the possibilities with GK MPay is expanding outside of Jamaica to include Trinidad and Guyana over the next 18 months,” Wehby said in response to queries at the investor briefing.
In relation to food, he again indicated interest in expanding US-based La Fe Foods operation into Spanish speaking territories such as Cuba and Dominican Republic. GraceKennedy acquired La
Fe Foods and distribution assets in the US for some US$26 million in 2014.
The expansion plans follows a record year for GraceKennedy which reported revenues of $88 billion and profit of $4.5 billion for the annual period ending December. 2016.