Lavern Clarke, Business Editor

( L - R ) Williams, Bunting

Chris Williams, after 16 years on other people's payroll, is going into partnership with former employer Peter Bunting, one of Jamaica's pioneering investment bankers, impeccable sources say, with the two just about set to launch a new investment outfit.

National Commercial Bank Jamaica Limited (NCB) is already on the hunt for a replacement for Williams inside and outside the bank, but group deputy managing director, Dennis Cohen, will hold the job in the interim if an immediate candidate does not emerge, insiders say.

Williams, who ran the bank's wealth arm, NCB Capital Markets Limited, for five years, says he will be taking up a new post in the investment field - but "not at a bank nor a securities dealership" - and that it would be up to others to make the announcement about his new role.

But Wednesday Business sources say it was "no coincidence" that Bunting's non-compete agreement with Scotiabank - to whom he and partners sold Dehring Bunting and Golding in 2006 - ends on December 7, and that he and Williams were advanced in planning the roll-out of the new firm.

Bunting was said to be off the island and unavailable for comment. But Williams, our source said, was not about to leave NCB for another paid position.

"Clearly, it's an equity position," he said. "Clearly, it's something creative."

What was not immediately clear was whether they would be equal partners or even if others would join the venture.

Williams leaves NCB Capital Market officially on January 31, but will effectively give up the position as managing director when he proceeds on leave in four weeks, on December 31.

Regional and global focus

"I got an opportunity in Jamaica," he told Wednesday Business on Monday, saying his new position would have both a regional and global focus - a comment that appeared to give fillip to speculation that he was headed for government service at Jamaica Trade and Invest. But to that Williams' answer was a clear no.

Asked his reasons for taking on what he described as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to expand his competence - duly endorsed by his family - Williams said it was equally about the money.

"It's always about money. This is about personal development and the money."

Top-level bank sources said Williams and NCB group boss Patrick Hylton are parting on good terms, and that Hylton was "definitely sad" to lose the head of his wealth division.

There was no matching offer, however, according to our sources.

"I don't think we could match what he is going to do," the executive said.

Other sources said that it was on Bunting's recommendation that Williams landed the job at NCB back in 2004. The move happened at a time when it seemed clear that Williams had hit his plateau at DB&G and would not make it beyond vice-president, unless shareholder and then president Gary Sinclair was willing to throw in the towel.

The relationship between the three men is said to have remained strong over the years, and that Hylton was kept abreast of the plans being cobbled by Williams and Bunting, whose payday from selling DB&G gave him sufficient cushion for a comfortable run in politics in the period in which he was barred from business in his career field.

Williams, whose salary at NCB is in the region of $25 million to $30 million, according to financial records and other sources, was not signed to a non-compete agreement with the banking group.

He is departing after delivering a year of record performance for NCBCM, the largest brokerage in Jamaica, with operating profit of $2.5 billion and net profit of $1.7 billion that helped pushed parent NCB to a new milestone net profit of $10.2 billion at September 2009.

But his sojourn with the NCB group has had its bad patches.

Heavily criticised

It was under Williams' leadership in 2006 that the Supreme Ventures Limited public offering was arranged, but whose $4.81 price was heavily criticised by brokers as overvalued, and which has not traded at that level since its market debut.

The young investment banker also went through a phase when it appeared he was unable to hold his team together, first losing Debra Lopez to FirstCaribbean, followed by an exodus of other senior staff - an issue even cited by a ratings agency as a minus in its assessment of the firm.

The vacancies were eventually filled by talent cherry-picked from rival securities firms, the latest among them Steven Gooden of Pan Caribbean.

But, what made Hylton most upset - brokers still speak of his Freudian slip at a briefing that relayed his displeasure - was last year's fallout from the Lehman Brothers collapse which cost NCB Capital Markets $1.22 billion at the very tail end of the fiscal period, and potentially robbed the banking group of that sought-after $10 billion profit mark in 2008.

The brokerage's error, Williams later said, was not only its debt exposure to Lehman, but backing the borrowings solely with GOJ global bonds, whose prices tanked as the American financial system went into meltdown.

Chris Williams (left), head of NCB Capital Markets, and Patrick Hylton, NCB group managing director, share a joke at an NCB reception in May 2008. - File

NCBCM's contribution to group operating profit slumped to seven per cent as a result, as did the insurance segment, comprised mainly of NCB Insurance Limited, which Williams also runs.

It was yet another black mark on the brokerage which the year before had lost $5 billion of business, dropping its funds under management to $45 billion.

There was one silver lining in 2008, however. Williams and his team, having launched into a targeted and aggressive sales blitz, rebuilt funds under management by $10 billion to $55 billion.

The wealth arms group contribution in the current period was 19 per cent of operating profit, with insurance adding another 13.7 per cent.

Net profit grew 121 per cent to eclipse even the $1.57 billion made in 2007.

And the brokerage has rebuilt its capital base to $8.9 billion, after a drop from $8 billion in 2007 to $7.4 billion in 2008.

Williams, whose colleagues on Monday described him as someone always seeking the next challenge, said his run at NCB has been fantastic, and that it was best to leave on a high.

"NCB has been the greatest experience of my life, absolutely fantastic," he told Wednesday Business. "We had a lot of fun; made a hell of a lot of money together ... this job ya sweet."

He first joined NCB Capital Markets as deputy head in early 2004 with a promotion to managing director eight months later. Before that, he worked at DB&G (now Scotia DBG Investment), Knutsford Capital, and Manufacturers Merchant Bank.

A replacement will first be sought internally to replace Williams, while Cohen, under whose portfolio the wealth unit falls, takes over operations in the interim.

The bank said it would seek a new managing director outside the group if no suitable replacement emerges.

lavern.clarke@gleanerjm.com