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NCB Fi­nan­cial Group Ltd (NCBFG), which is chaired Ja­maica-born in­vestor, Michael Lee-Chin, is ex­pect­ed to come un­der in­creased pres­sure in 2026 due to high­er in­ter­est costs as­so­ci­at­ed with its Ju­ly 2025 US$225 mil­lion in­ter­na­tion­al bond and up­com­ing debt re­fi­nanc­ing rounds.

The Kingston Ja­maica-head­quar­tered fi­nan­cial group's in­ter­na­tion­al bond is se­cured by its 61.77 per cent stake in West­moor­ings-based Guardian Hold­ings Ltd (GHL).

Lee-Chin al­so faces a dead­line of the end of 2025 to make good on some of the prin­ci­pal of US$297 mil­lion he owes note­hold­ers of three com­pa­nies he has an in­ter­est in: Port­land (Bar­ba­dos) Ltd (PBL), AIC (Bar­ba­dos), and Spe­cial­ty Cof­fee In­vest­ment Com­pa­ny (SCI). At a meet­ing last week Wednes­day in Kingston, a ne­go­ti­at­ing com­mit­tee pro­posed a new re­struc­tur­ing plan to the note­hold­ers that would grant Lee-Chin’s three af­fil­i­at­ed com­pa­nies a fi­nal op­por­tu­ni­ty to reg­u­larise more than US$297 mil­lion in out­stand­ing debt.