Gibbons Reacquires Clarien Bank Ownership
Clarien Group announced today [April 7] that Edmund Gibbons Ltd has returned as the sole shareholder effective 2 April 2015, with James Gibbons saying “on behalf of Edmund Gibbons Limited and the Gibbons family, we are pleased to report that we have become sole shareholders of Clarien Group Limited.”
Ownership Change
The bank said that on 2 April 2015, Edmund Gibbons Limited reacquired the shares it had previously sold in Clarien Group Limited [CGL]. The Boards of Directors of CGL and Clarien Bank remain unchanged.
James Gibbons, Director of Edmund Gibbons Limited stated, “On behalf of Edmund Gibbons Limited and the Gibbons family, we are pleased to report that we have become sole shareholders of Clarien Group Limited.
“We remain committed to expanding Clarien Bank Limited’s financial services business by working with strategic partners that will support our overall investment strategy to deliver world-class products and services for residents of Bermuda and international clients from around the world.
“We will continue to work towards BASEL III compliance as it is phased in given the extra responsibility that brings to us as a designated domestically, systemically important institution.”
Ian Truran, Chief Executive Officer, said, “Looking forward to 2015, Clarien Bank is strengthened by the increased support of Edmund Gibbons Limited [EGL] and the Gibbons family, who have re-assumed full ownership of Clarien Bank’s parent company.
“EGL remains fully committed to supporting Clarien Bank’s service standard excellence and continuing to expand its suite of products to serve the needs of its local and international clients, and to explore opportunities for growth with partners in other jurisdictions.”
In January 2014, CWH Ltd assumed the majority ownership of Capital G Limited, while Edmund Gibbons Ltd was set to remain involved as a minority shareholder. Capital G was then re-branded as Clarien Bank in April 2014.
Financial Results
The bank also reported their financial results, saying: “Clarien Bank’s core business continues to perform well, with core earnings steadily increasing year on year to $5.2m in 2014 from $3.6m in 2013, after adjustments for non-recurring costs, an increase of $1.6m.
“Underlying reported earnings for the year ending 31 December 2014 were $0.5m, down from $3.6m in 2013. The decrease in earnings is the consequence of adjustments made for non-recurring expenses from non-core revenue diversification initiatives that the Bank has chosen not to invest in further at this time.
“Non-performing loans, being loans past due by 90 days or more, plus impaired loans, represented 13% of the total loan portfolio at 31 December 2014, of which 7% or $62.4 million were impaired, up from 5% a year ago. Specific provisions on balance sheet against impaired loans increased from $11.6 million to $18.0 million in 2014.
“During the year, Clarien Bank undertook a strategic review of its property portfolio and determined that certain premises would no longer be required in the ongoing operations of the company. Therefore the Bank distributed a property to its parent company, CGL, at its carrying value as a common control transaction.”
Ian Truran, Chief Executive Officer, said, “In 2014, Clarien Bank achieved its goal of becoming a more operationally efficient bank focused on service excellence, with a greater proportion of non-interest income, resulting in fewer risk weighted assets on the balance sheet.
“Clarien Bank saw an increase in total revenues, and the decline in our profit was predominantly due to large, one-off, expenses that will not have any continuing effect on earnings going forward.”
“We made strategic organisational changes in the latter half of 2014 in order to align key roles to areas of priority, such as operational excellence, client service, risk management and product development and delivery.
“Based on a close examination of our core businesses, decisions were made to disinvest in certain non-core initiatives and refocus and further invest in key lines of business. Clarien Bank is very well placed to achieve further success in 2015.”
“Bermuda continues to be challenged by its current economic position as evidenced by some of our clients’ inability to service their debt payments. As a result, net provisions on loan losses rose by 27.3 % from $7.7m in 2013 to $9.8m in 2014.
“We continue to work empathetically with our clients to facilitate their long term financial successes and early indicators for the year show some improvement in the relevant sectors of the economy.”
“Clarien Bank remains thoroughly committed to the principles of prudence, safety and soundness and operating in excess of regulatory capital requirements. The Bank’s consolidated capital ratio increased to 15.52% from 14.84% reflecting a fall in risk weighted assets despite the distribution out of premises no longer required.”
?? unbelievable
Was it a secret hostile takeover?. If so, take note. We can oust the oba.
I hope this means more jobs and not the contrary.
The parallel is uncanny ; Clarion acted like Capital G’s private SAGE COMMISSION , only they got a little more then bargained for, i.e. Unionization ! However , gone are some of the perks, incentives and benefits that the staff once enjoyed . SAGE CLARION , had a staff clearing house ,many roles were downsized or eliminated entirely . Up till now the staff are traumatized at the controlled chaos orchestrated by the string pullers . I took my money out , I bank elsewhere .
Yup I know people who work there that were loving their jobs until Clarien showed up and made the environment a living hell..smh. Capitalism at its finest.
They are called Clarien Bank.
Yep. To fool the public with grant in the know as economic minister. Pure under current rampant friends n family. Wake up Bermuda, it maybe too late.
Clarien clearly wanted to turn Capital G into an investment bank. There’s no other explanation for how unpleasant they’ve made it to bank with them. It also explains they lay-offs, and why the workers unionised. The whole thing stinks of Americans.
Amazing. If someone said something like ” the whole thing sticks of Bermudians”, how would you feel?
You’d think it’s “just a coin of phrase” would you?
Americans have a very specific type of capitalism that is not found in Bermuda or Europe. Besides, I’m right.
Even if you had a point, which you don’t, you said it “stinks of Americans”.
If you don’t think that’s offensive, give us an example of something that “stinks of Bermudians”.
Are you on a work permit or married to a Bermudian Creamy?
How about you? Are you actually here, or are you one of those overseas paid PLP bloggers? You seem to know very little about anything.
None of your e&&ing business is it.
I notice no one gives a s#eet that the People’s Campaign is led by an expat.
How long have you had Bermuda Status bie because your talking like Barracuda took a swipe at you…..
Why? Because I won’t make racist statements about other nationalities? Interesting.
Please define how a comment about a nationality is racist, especially Americans which are multiracial and multicultural?
I take your point that it wasn’t nice, but you are wrong calling it racist.
Would you have preferred it if he had called it bigoted, fascist, neo-nazi, prejudiced, ignorant, hatred, know-nothing, and discriminatory?
Actually, according to Dictionary.com, the definition of race includes:
“Any people united by common history, language, cultural traits, etc.: e.g. the Dutch race.”
Yes America is multicultural, but it still stinks with RACISM, not to mention the amount of unarmed African Americans being killed by white police officers.
WHAT!?!?!?
The nightmare is over! I feel better now.
Does this mean we have a brighter future now at Clarien Bank? Cause I’m on the verge of changing banks. HSBC is definitely at the very bottom of my list…
Yeah stick with the modern day piranhas oops pirates
I feel reassured that the Gibbons are back in control again. I was not happy with how the former takeover was panning out and I imagine the Gibbons were even less happy. This bold move seems to be designed to send a very clear message, that the bank is on a better footing. I would suggest giving them a second chance before jumping ship.
Don’t hold your breath. The bank will be sold again.
Clarien just did the DIRTY work for them so they wouldn’t look bad, like SAGE.
HSBC are utterly awful, that’s for sure. Butterfield have been better but have a long way to go. Maybe Clarien will prove to be the best option. It’s certainly not too difficult.
We don’t have much of a choice. Although Butterfield is “fixed” now, so I have heard. Your ranking of HSBC is about right, I compare them to dealing with a govt dept. too much bureaucracy. I use them and wish for something better often.
Does this mean that Marc Pettingill will get his job back ??????
I very much doubt it! He’s back in the courts, where is does his best work.
If you mean traffic court , Mark is very effective .
Coffee, where do you practice law?
with all the homes they reprocessed, maybe now the new Real Estate part of Clarien Bank now has much inventory…
Blame it on Obama! After all, he is American! smh The American comment was so uncalled for. I guess you could be speaking German. Fools!
“. I guess you could be speaking German. Fools!”
What a stupid comment, Canada , UK and the other allies beat Germany down during the second world war, while the US watched from the sidelines.
If it wasn’t for Canadian and British intelligence, the US would have lost big time when they finally decided to help out.
You’re obviously a product of the american education system. lol
I think you forgot that it was The former Soviet Union who beat the Germans in WWII..
drink much?
The soviets broke the enigma code?
crackerjack history?
You clearly have no idea how the eastern front effected WWII.
Normandy was in the summer of 1944 by which time the Germans had already been on the retreat from the Russians for a year and a half. It was due to the Russians defeating Japan at the battle of Khalkhin Gol which changed the minds of japan of invading Siberia & in turn deciding to bomb Pearl Harbor. As we all know it was the Americans who defeated Japan by bombing Nagasaki and Hiroshima making them the only nation in history to use such a weapon on another country. However it was the Soviet Union that broke the Nazis by shear overwhelming numbers of both troops as well as industrialized weaponry (plus harsh winters that they themselves where more accustomed to). By the time the Soviet Union had Germany on the continuous run out of eastern Europe Germany was already broken. As for the Enigma code, that was mainly saving England from the U-boat blockade not defeating Germany as a whole.
how does this have to do with bank???
Take education where ever you find it.
“Take education where ever you find it.”
You may wish to heed your own advice.
Without access to US production lines, England would have fell first. Then the Soviet Union would have fell as well if the US didn’t provide all the war equipment and build the shipping lines as they did for them.
The soviet union took a lot more casualties than the US and fought longer, but without the US the Soviet Union would have been overwhelmed by the Germans.
I’d say England was the most instrumental during the war because they gave the US their technological breakthroughs which clearly helped change the tide of the war.
The US didn’t beat Japan by dropping the atomic bombs. Japan simply wouldn’t surrender and it would have cost the US government too much money and casualties to invade Japan. Japan were already losing anyway. They lost their whole naval fleet, and they didn’t have the same production strength as the US.
US had access to their own production lines & it took them years longer to accomplish what the Soviet Union had done in defeating the Germans & putting them on the run. Germany started their invasion of on the Soviet Union by mid 1941 but by the end of 1942 the Soviet Union Had the Germans on the run (a little over a year it took them compared to the eastern front). It was the supply of the trains (Soviet Union had less then 100 pre-war but where supplied 2,000 by the U.S.) & trucks by the U.S. that where the most beneficial to the Soviet Union, more so then the actual weapons. Remember the Soviet Union had the most practical & effective tank in the whole war (the German tank was superior but was costlier/harder to build & even harder to field repair which cost the Germans in the long run). The soviet Union was heavily industrialized by the 2nd world war & had produced 99,488 tanks & 136,314 aircraft (the U.S. only supplied around 18,000 aircraft to the Soviet Union) by the end of the war so they where very capable of self sufficiency. By the time Britain & the U.S. where making headway in the war the Russians already defeated the Germans & was pushing them eastward thus why Britain feared a German invasion. The conclusion of the Japan to the war would of been the same without the dropping of the two bombs but it would of taken months longer & there would of still been heavy losses on both sides. By the end of the war ALL sides had greatly reduced production ability due to the serious lack of availability to natural resources by that point.
forgot to break it up into paragraphs, sorry..
(EDIT) The Soviet Union had the Germans retreating westward not eastward as I had typed..
Without England’s scientific advances, the US production lines wouldn’t have mattered because the U-Boats were blocking the US shipping lanes to England. The US gained the naval advantage by equipping their naval fleet with the Magnetron Number 12. This is why I said England was the most influential in the war. They even provided the US with the Frisch-Peierls memorandum which contained the feasibility of the atomic bomb. If the US wasn’t able to get shipping lanes to England, Germany would have conquered England and brought the war to the United States and would have used Bermuda as a base to launch an attack on American soil.
Winston Churchill lobbied the American President to join the war. The American’s were neutral until they figured out if England fell the war would eventually come to the US.
Germany fell because they faced a war on two fronts which split their military into two. The Soviets were upset with America because they felt they fought harder and gave more blood sweat and tears than the US. If England would have fell the Germans would have only had a war on the Eastern Front and would have had more troops to defend against the Russians.
Japan didn’t really have a much a of chance their bast attack was on Pearl Harbour but they forgot to destroy the oil storage tanks which would have crippled the US in the Pacific. Luckily for the US their air craft carriers were out on the water during the attack on Pearl Harbour.
The US only got involved in the war due to Pearl Harbor. They had no interest in getting involved in the war because at that stage they weren’t prepared for that scale of a war.
Yes the attack on Pearl Harbour got the US population to support the war effort.
The US also knew the war would eventually come to them if England fell.
At least someone knows their history here.
typical american history….commonly referred to as rah rah jingoism.
american history:
americans invented the telephone:
The telephone was invented by Antonio Meucci, who sold his design to Alexander Graham Bell, a Scott residing in Canada. Bell continued development in his lab in Nova Scotia, and later in Brampton, Ontario.
…yet, somehow it’s an american invention. lol
Um, don’t forget Lewis Howard Latimer who was an African American who helped Alexander Bell patent the design of the telephone, he also designed an improved the railroad car bathroom and an early air conditioned unit.
He also improved the light bulb system and invented the light bulb filament, which of course Edison took credit for. As a matter of FACT many African American inventors had their patents and ideas STOLEN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“He also improved the light bulb system and invented the light bulb filament”
He didn’t invent the filament, he received a patent for an improved version of the carbon filament. Since he received the patent, Edison couldn’t have taken credit for it.
But I guess your version helps feed the chip on your shoulder.
Uncalled for? Very called for, especially since it’s Americans that actually ARE responsible. You dont see this type of behavior in Europe anywhere near as much. It is more American than apple pie.
So you and all your friends can come on here and call Bermudians all kinda names, but when somebody says a truth about USA you get offended. And to top it off you calling Bermudians fools in the same breath.
Very few homes were repoed!
lol, so you know how many homes have been repoed…. i am aware of several…and i am sure there are far more that i don’t know about…
How bout the gibbons family put up half a billion to help pay off bermuda’s debt. that would really show shared sacrifice
How bout ewart brown put up half a billion to help pay off bermuda’s debt. that would really show shared sacrifice
I’d be safe to say Ewart could come up with an easier half a billion than the Gibbons’. Not like the other “priviledged” families on the island, if you know them you kno what um talking about. Not all their businesses are making huge profits, hardly any at all! Bermuda is a hard country to make a profit these days.
This report is what is known as putting lipstick on a pig. The fiasco in ownership and management coupled with the arrival of the union will make this place a permanent zombie bank. I would imagine Sir David is turning in his grave.
What is this? The more things change the more they stay the same!!!
The only thing I don’t like that is mentioned in this article is the fact that the Bank is committed to “BASEL III”…………..
They don’t really have a choice.
The Gibbons’ sold Clarien a Lemon – Clarien made them take it back. No one knows Bermuda better than the Gibbons’ – the Gibbons’ don’t sell good stuff. Clarien got was had.
Quo Fata Ferunt
You don’t know what you are talking about.
This comment shows both total ignorance of why Cap G was sold to Clarien investors in the first place and total ignorance of the current situation. Yet another fatuous contribution, like many of the above.
You have NO CLUE WHATSOEVER what you’re talking about
If the former American consul Slayton is still involved I want nothing to do with Clarien or Capital G
Don’t you love it when a plan comes together.
Whoa…some expensive mistakes made here. Poor staff and customers – you’ll end up paying for the poor executive decision making over the past 12-18 months. The change in ownership steals the headline but if you look at their financials online you can see Clarien has lost $142 million in customer deposits in 2014! ouch..
Exactly… Seems to me this is as much a bailout as anything.
The new ownership was driving Clarien into the ground and I would imagine ?Gibbons has bought it back to save it (and the jobs there). Well done Gibbons family.
great….good news…now if only butter feel’d can do this this one this way today….i wouldn’t want to bet my shadish but wouldn’t that be nice?
The Gibbons family basically had to buy it back or else there could have been a run on the bank and a tarnished image for Bda with headlines of a failing Bank which would not sit well in drawing biz to the island.
Then everyone will lose.
Fishy Wishy, very fishy
Should I re-open my accounts with this best in class wealth manager and institution, or does this mean more capital had to be injected to meet prudential requirements as the strategic investor was not prepared to wait for AC2017, Grand Atlantic, Morgan’s Point or Club Med to see their Return on Investment?
No one takes such a strategic play, pays legal fees to get through regulatory approval only then to walk away less than a business cycle later.
No tiki, no washy, something’s FISHY
I heard the employees lost their discounted mortgages when Clarien came in and that some have lost their homes because of this. I hope this is not true and if it is, one would hope Capital G will do the right thing and reinstate the original discounted mortgage.