In this May 1 photo, financial officer Stacie-Ann Wright adds the Bank of Nova Scotia preference stock to the board of the Jamaica Stock Exchange. - File

The Bank of Nova Scotia Jamaica Limited will pay interim dividends of 1.97 cents per stock unit on its redeemable preference shares, covering a two-month period to June 30, the bank said Wednesday.

The shares, 100 million of which were listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange at $1 on May 1, are now trading at $1.51.

The bank pays dividends on the preference shares semi-annually at the benchmark six-month weighted Treasury Bill rate, fixed at the start of each six-month period.

The May 1-June 30 payment is calculated at 11.81 per cent per annum, BNS said, equivalent to the yield on the bill auctioned April 25.

The dividend is payable at the end of June to stockholders on record as at the close of business on June 13.

The preference shares were a bonus issue by the bank - one for every 30 ordinary shares held by stockholders - under a scheme of reconstruction that created a holding company for BNS and its newly acquired subsidiary Dehring, Bunting and Golding.

The scheme, approved in February, required shareholders to swap their BNS ordinary shares for an equal number of new Scotia Group Jamaica Limited stock units, plus a bonus of one preference share per 30 units held in the bank.

On May 24, Scotia Group also declared an interim second quarter dividend of 30 cents per share payable on July 5, 2007, to stockholders on record at June 13.

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