Less than a week after he resigned under intense public pressure, the founder and CEO of one the country's brokerage houses, Subhas Ramkhelawan, has received more bad news: the regional credit rating agency, CariCris, has placed Bourse Securities on rating watch.In a statement yesterday, CariCris said that it was maintaining its public corporate credit rating on Bourse Securities Limited (Bourse) at CariA-.
In the statement, CariCris said: "We note reports in the public domain which suggest that Bourse was the broker for the purchase and sale of the IPO shares for the former chief risk officer of First Citizens Limited, and are aware of the several investigations currently being conducted by the regulatory and other bodies on the matter.
"We have today decided to place our rating of Bourse on Rating Watch, pending the outcome of the official investigations. A CariCRIS rating is typically placed on rating watch when events occur that may affect the credit quality of the issuer/issue, the impact of which cannot be accurately assessed at that point in time.
"A rating placed under rating watch does not imply that the rating will necessarily change. We will continue to monitor developments surrounding this issue and assess the likely impact they can have on the creditworthiness of Bourse, and update our rating as required.
In its initial rating of Bourse last June, CariCris noted the financial services company's "good track record of profitability and highly efficient operations," noting that it had been profitable since its inception in 1996 and that its profit after tax had averaged $20.9 million between 2008 and 2012.