Cable & Wireless (C&W) is the clear winner in the number portability so far a 91 percent switching to Cable & Wireless according to data provided by C&W CEO Gary Sinclair on Thursday afternoon.
With only a few days since the sector started to allow the swapping of numbers in response to an IC Insider query Sinclair said “the numbers are overwhelmingly in our favour. Latest count 543 ported to us from Digicel and 52 ported out to Digicel from us”. Up to press time, Digicel representative who was contacted has not yet submitted their numbers.
The changes although more than the 200 the Minister responsible for telecommunication disclosed earlier this week, represent only a small fraction of the total number of more than 2 million phone customers in the island. Number portability has been long in coming and was promised to be in effect from last year but was put back based on request from Cable & Wireless.
While the change will provide telecom users with more flexibility it could be problems for some users in determining which numbers belong to which carrier with different pricing structure in place by the two dominant carriers.
595 phone numbers switched
JSE trading system was down now up
After more than two than hours of normal trading time, trading on the Jamaica Stock Exchange is yet to commence. The exchange advised that technicians are working on the system and no time was given as to the time frame to have the system back up.
In Wednesday’s trading all the main indices fell as 12 stocks rose and 12 declined out of a total of 31 securities that traded. At the close the indicators were not very promising that todays activity would reflect a much different picture of sideward movement in the markets.
The system returned at minutes before mid day with 5 stocks trading. The JSE informed IC Insider that trading will end at 3 PM today.
$18.50 per share max price for H&L
Grace Kennedy is advising that the terms to dispose of their holdings in Hardware and Lumber (H&L) include a maximum price of J$18.50 per ordinary share subject to conditions and with completion anticipated by the end of July.
The above price is just around book value at the end of March this year and would give Grace Kennedy who owns 58.1 percent of the 80.842 million shares in issue, $845 million.
Don Wehby CEO of Grace indicated that the agreement is conditional and stated that “GraceKennedy is looking forward to the conclusion of the transaction in a timely manner and will communicate further as soon as it is finalized.” He reiterated that Grace Kennedy’s decision to sell its shares in H&L was a strategic one, having regard to its core strategy of expansion in the foods and financial services sectors. He added, “We feel very positive about the continued growth of H&L under the prospective new owners who have signalled that they are excited about the possibilities for the future”.
H&L currently comprises two separate divisions – Rapid True Value local supplier of hardware and home improvement products, and the Agro Grace business, local wholesaler and retailer of agricultural products.
There are currently 10 Rapid True Value outlets across Jamaica, along with six Agro Grace Retail Centres. The company is headquartered at 697 Spanish Town Road in Kingston.
Greystone Equity Partners Inc. the proposed purchaser is a Caribbean based and Caribbean focused private equity firm with a stated strong commitment to the Caribbean.
H&L reported profit in 2014 of $217 million or $2.69 per share. Profit after tax for the three-month ended March, 2015 was $34.5 million, 14.5 percent less than the $40.4 million for the same period last year and earnings of 43 cents per stock unit, compared to 50 cents for the comparative period in 2014 after revenues fell 4.5 percent to $1.73 billion.
Treasury bill rates fall
At the latest auction for the issue of Treasury bills held today, rates on the 28 days, the 91 days and 182 days bills declined from ay auction, continuing the decent starting March last year.
The latest rate on the 91 days instrument is now at 6.48 down from 6.57 percent at the May auction and the 182 days is now at 6.63 percent, a fall from 6.7 percent. The 28 days instrument ended with a rate of 6.23 percent down from 6.27 percent in May. The rates are far off from the BOJ CD rate of 5.25 percent.
A total of $1.2 billion was available for the public to bid on, split equally between the three issues. The 28 days offering attracted $475 million the 91 days attracted $602 million and the 182 days instrument attracted $828 million. With the interest rates on some of the Jamaican government’s bonds tied to Treasury bill rates, the latest development of lower rates will mean lower cost for the variable rate bonds.
With inflation looking as if it could end 2015 around 3.5 percent Bank of Jamaica may have to intervene by lowering the CD rate to speed up the fall in Treasury bill rates.
Jamaica’s Inflation flat May up 0.5%
Price increases in Jamaica since the start of this year is zero, measured by the All Jamaica Consumer Price Index but it increased by 0.5 percent for May over April this year, the Statistical Institute of Jamaica report shows.
Inflation since May last year is put at 4 percent and was helped by declines in the price of petroleum late in 2014, resulting in just 0.1 percent inflation in October and negative inflation from November to February.
The divisions contributing significantly to the upward movement in the index were Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages influenced by mainly by higher prices for vegetables and starchy foods increased with a 0.5 percent increase.
Increased fuel prices added to inflation in May[/caption]Other divisions recording increases were: Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco 0.7 percent Clothing and Footwear 0.2 percent, Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance 0.2 percent, Health 0.2 percent, Recreation and Culture 0.1 percent, Restaurants and Accommodation Services 0.1 percent, Miscellaneous Goods and Services 0.3 percent.
Tempering the categories with increases was a fall of 1.7 percent in the index for the group Water Supply and Miscellaneous Services Related to the Dwelling.
Carreras pays $2 Mayberry 20 cents
Carreras declared an interim dividend of two dollars ($2) per share unit, payable on June 25, 2015 to shareholders on record as at June 11, 2015. The X-date is June 9. The company paid an interim dividend of $1.60 per share payable on March 12, 2015
Dividends paid prior to the one in March are, $1 per stock on December 18, and an interim dividend of $1.20 per stock unit on December 11, 2014. In September, last year Carreras paid an interim dividend of $1.20 per stock unit, $1.75 per stock unit was paid on June 26. A special capital cash distribution of $1.34 per stock unit was paid on July 31.
Mayberry Investments declared a dividend of twenty cents per share (20 cents), payable on June 17, 2015 to shareholders on record as at June 10, 2015. The X-date is June 8. The company last paid a dividend of 12 cents per share on June 18, 2014.
Board of Directors of JMMB Group will convene a meeting on Monday June 1, 2015 to consider an interim dividend payment to ordinary shareholders.
Jamaica Money Market Brokers the forerunner to JMMB Group last paid a dividend of 16 cents per ordinary on December 16, 2014, prior to that the company paid a dividend of 17 cents per ordinary share on June 26, last year.
BOJ may ease monetary policy
Bank of Jamaica may ease monetary policy in the context of a slower rate of depreciation of the Jamaican dollar, the precipitous fall in oil prices and with inflation expectations fallen sharply.
The bank stated that notwithstanding the sharp fall in inflation, expectations by the business community were above the inflation outturn at end-March 2015, as well as the Bank’s projections for the near-term. The bank went on to state that with the downward adjustment in inflation expectation, in conjunction with favourable developments in the macro financial environment, will allow the Bank to pursue an even more accommodative stance than they have done so far. Notably, developments in the international economy including a faster than projected reversal of oil prices and the timing of tightening of monetary policy in advanced economies will increasingly influence the direction of domestic monetary policy.
“For the March quarter, the Bank’s monetary policy stance remained generally accommodative while being consistent with achieving the monetary targets under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) supported programme”, the governor reported. In particular, the Bank purchased net amounts of foreign exchange from the market and introduced a 3-month lending facility (Occasional Term Repo Operation), which enhanced liquidity assurance. In the context of the outturns for these
Macro-economic variables and the outlook for inflation over the near-term, the Bank lowered its policy rate by 25 bps to 5.50 per cent on 17 April 2015. This policy action was also consistent with declines in inflation expectations and the country’s risk premium.
Growth of possible 1% in Q1
Real growth in the Jamaican economy (GDP) is estimated to have increased in the March 2015 quarter between 0.0 to 1.0 percent, following two consecutive quarters of contraction, Bank of Jamaica’s governor, Brian Wynter disclosed at the bank’s quarterly press briefing today.
The estimated outturn for the quarter mainly reflected increases in tourism activity, domestic agriculture and Transport, Storage & Communication.
For Fiscal year 2015/16, real GDP is forecasted to expand between 1.0 to 2.0 percent. Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing, Hotels & Restaurants and Transport,