By: Anthony Morgan

NCB Capital Markets Limited is planning to start offering venture capital funding and other types of alternative investments through a newly formed company Stratus Alternative Funds SCC. 

Generally, alternative investments offer higher returns than traditional investments, but also contain much higher risk. Alternative investments can be as familiar as real estate or private credit, or as exotic as venture capital funding and investing in infrastructure. 

Assistant Vice President of Alternatives and Funds Management at NCB Capital Markets, Simone Hudson, told Taking Stock with Kalilah Reynolds that the new company has already been established but won’t be operational until about the first quarter of 2021. It aims to provide a range of options for investors outside of the normal areas of cash, bonds and stocks.

Assistant Vice President, Alternatives and Funds Management, at NCB Capital Markets, Simone Hudson

Hudson said they will be exploring the full gamut of themes with the aim of  “enhancing returns”. The company will also look to partner with another unnamed company to co-manage some projects.

Additionally, Hudson said Stratus will seek out investment opportunities in the region. It will use NCB’s subsidiaries in Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, the Cayman Islands as well as some twenty other jurisdictions served by NCB’s subsidiary ,Guardian Holdings.

“We’re looking to build the Caribbean through alternative investments,” she said.

She cited Jamaica’s poor drainage system as an opportunity worth exploring for the company. A fix to this problem would result in savings to the country due to less flooding and road destruction. 

Hudson declined to reveal the capital that will seed the company, but added that it could be significant. She added that “it could be listed” on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) as an avenue for raising capital; however, she said they have not yet decided on what form the fund will take.  

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