At the close of business on December 31st, the Bank of Butterfield became a *”billion-dollar bank”* when its stock price gained $1.50 on the Bermuda Stock Exchange to close at $44. This pushed its market capitalisation to $1.03 billion.
According to the bank’s mission statement, it will “provide consistent and superior returns to our shareholders, offer security and opportunities to our employees, and be recognised as making a valuable contribution to the communities in which we operate by a customer focused, efficient and ethical delivery of banking and other selected financial services.”
Anne Kast, President of Kast Investment Management, *”People are being very complimentary about the Bank of Butterfield in terms of how good the management has been in recent history and how it has stayed with its strategy.”* The advisory and discretionary asset management and financial consulting firm is based in Bermuda, headquarters of Bank of Butterfield.
At the beginning of the month, Bank of Butterfield had announced its cash acquisition of the entire share capital of The Mutual Bank of The Caribbean Inc., a Barbados retail bank, from its majority shareholder, Sagicor Financial Corporation, and its minority shareholders.
*”This transaction is a significant milestone in the strategic development of Bank of Butterfield,”*said Graham Brooks, Executive Vice President, International & Trust, Bank of Butterfield, in announcing the acquisition. *”It is consistent with our strategy to expand into markets where we can successfully deliver our core products and services.”*
**Bahamas Connections**
Earlier, the bank acquired Leopold Joseph (Bahamas) Limited and Thorand Bank & Trust. At that time, Bank of Butterfield President & CEO, Alan Thompson said, *”The combination of the two Bahamas acquisitions will enable us to establish a strong presence in this well regarded international business jurisdiction. We will focus on the delivery of a range of our core services including private banking, wealth management and investment and pension fund administration.”* The new operation has been named Bank of Butterfield (Bahamas) Limited.