Jamaica’s company taxes jump 23%

April 3, 2018 by

Corporate taxes continue to be a star performer for Jamaica government revenues, having increased their input by a strong 23 percent over forecast, to February.
According to the government fiscal report, businesses paid $34 billion in corporate taxes to February or just over $6 billion more than projected. In spite of that level of performance, PAYE contributed more in taxes, at $48 billion even as government raised the threshold to $1.5 billion for individuals and cutting around $25 billion in the individual tax bill.
Corporations will be making big payments in March that should hike the amount they will pay for the fiscal year to be well ahead of the February figure. The forecast at the start of the fiscal year, was for a total take of $50.6 billion compared to $46 billion for 2016. The forecast for 2018/19 is for an intake of $63.9 billion or an increase of 26 percent over the 2018 forecast. If the trend for the just concluded fiscal year holds to March, the projected increase for the new fiscal would be just around $3 billion.

Scotia Group to contribute most to 2017/18 corporate taxes

Other areas performing well above budget projections include, Travel taxes up by 12.5% to $17.5 billion, GCT on local goods and services 4.8 percent to $83 billion, Education taxes up 6 percent to $24 billion and special consumption taxes on local goods up 10 percent to $26 billion.
Listed companies will contribute around $21 billion to the corporate tax take for the just concluded fiscal year according to data taken from financial statements. The bulk of the listed companies’ contribution will come from Scotia Group with $5.7 billion, NCB Financial $5 billion, Sagicor Group $2.9 billion, Carreras just over $1 billion, Grace Kennedy around $1 billion, JPSCo and JMMB Group just under $1 billion. Other billion dollar contributors should include Desnoes and Geddes and Wray and Nephew.

Filed Under: Company News, Economy, General Business News Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Lease buy out to save Carib Cement $2B

March 20, 2018 by

Caribbean Cement could save J$2B from lease buyout.

Caribbean Cement (CCC) seems set cut leasing cost by around $2 billion per annum when the company reacquires the leased equipment from Trinidad Cement (TCL) later this year.
The company paid $3.3 billion in 2017 for the lease of the new kiln that was installed to facilitate expansion of the plant.
Caribbean Cement announced that it signed a memorandum of understanding with agreeing to the termination of the operating lease and the purchase by CCC of the assets covered under the Lease.
Agreement is for approximately USD$118 million to be paid to TCL and redemption of an aggregate number of 52 million preference shares held by TCL for approximately USD$40.5 million to be paid over a nine-year period starting in 2018 and sourced from at least one third of CCC’s profits available for distribution from the previous year. CCC will also seek financing to fund the Asset Acquisition and the Redemption.

Carib Cement kilns


The agreement flows from concerns of minority shareholders who at the company’s last AGM, at which Shareholders were given the commitment by management that the best structure would be identified to acquire ownership of the assets. A special advisory group including representation from CCC’s minority Shareholders was subsequently set in place for that purpose.”
The closing of the above transactions is subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, including
approval from TCL and CCC’s corporate bodies, securing financing options by CCC, the absence of occurrence or potential occurrence of any material tax and/or accounting effects if the above transactions are executed, among others. The definitive agreements in relation to the foregoing
transactions are expected to be executed by TCL and CCC within 90 days from the date of signing of the MOU.
IC Insider.com gathers that CCC has already lined up potential financing at attractive rates for the execution of the asset acquisition.

Filed Under: Company News, General Business News

CWC CALA gets 1.6B C&W Jamaica shares

March 16, 2018 by

parent company of C&W Jamaica now owns over 91% of the shares.

CWC CALA Holdings now controls 91.73 percent of the ordinary stock units of Cable & Wireless Jamaica following an offer made on December 28, last year, to purchase 3,027,138,546 ordinary stock units owned by minority shareholders of J$1.45 per stock unit.
Acceptance was received from 3,184 shareholders who tendered 1,639,751,868 ordinary stock units but 3,180,025 units were deemed invalid reducing the amounted accepted to 1,636,571,843 units representing approximately 54.17 percent of the ordinary stock units held by the minority shareholders and approximately 9.7 percent of all the ordinary stock units issued.
With the parent company now holding over 90 percent no mention was made about compulsory acquisition of the rest but IC Insider.com has been informed in January that it is the intension of the parent company to have the company delisted.
Cable and Wireless reported operating profit of $5.134 billion dollars before exceptional item of $112 million and finance charge of $5.2 billion and a small of loss of $138 million. Profit for the December quarter before taxation charge was $600 million and $700 million excluding the exceptional item.
Most importantly, based on the method on which the bulk of interest rates are computed, the cost for 2018 assuming no major increase in the amount of borrowing, then the rate which averaged over just over 8 percent in 2017 should fall to around 6 percent in 2018 and cut around $1.3 billion from the interest bill thus ensuring that this year will be profitable. The actual formula is based on 2.79 percent above the weighted average six months Treasury bill auctioned immediately prior to May 11 and November 11. According to the 2017 audited accounts, the rate applied was 7.68 percent at the end of last year versus 8.62 percent that was applicable up to May last year. With the six months Treasury bill rate just above 3 percent currently, assuming no shift in the policy then savings will be in excess of 2 percentage points for 2018.
Investors in the company were never provided with the information on the full 2017 year’s results or given any indication about what could be expected for 2018 and beyond. The rules of the capital market does not really protect the investing public and this is not a satisfactory manner in operating a stock market.

Filed Under: Company News, Feature Stories, General Business News Tagged With: , , ,

A KEY Partnership for life!

March 9, 2018 by

Treveen Little- Company Secretary and Compliance Officer at Key Insurance plays her part by donating blood in the company’s drive.

Junior Market listing, Key Insurance Company recently staged its inaugural Blood Drive at the Company’s Head Office in Kingston, in partnership with the National Blood Transfusion Service, more commonly known as the Blood Bank.
The event, coordinated by Carlene Isaacs, Reinsurance Manager and Corporate Social Responsibility team leader at Key, collected 33 units of blood. Key Insurance Company views the Blood Drive as a crucial engagement tool for sensitizing employees and increasing awareness about the vital importance of giving blood. Also participating in this life-saving initiative were some of Key’s corporate partners inclusive of bankers, brokers, valuators and neighbouring businesses.
With the estimated annual blood transfusion requirement in Jamaica at 50,000 units, Key Insurance Company plans to make the Blood Drive an annual event in this important partnership for life.

Key Insurance trades on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange with the last traded price of $4.

 

Filed Under: Company News, General Business News Tagged With: ,

Mahfood family sold over 111.8m Wisynco shares

March 5, 2018 by

Wisynco had the largest trades on Friday.

On Friday almost 112 million shares in Wisynco Group traded with a value of $1.16 billion. “Yes the family sold 111,820,000 units on Friday with four pension funds taking up the block,” William Mahfood Chairman of Wisynco advised IC Insider.com.
Mahfood advised that when the family took the decision to go public the intension was to have sold 4 percent of the share the company to the public by way of new shares and 19 percent of the existing shares. Ahead of the initial offering a decision was made to sell only 20 percent of the company to the public with the balance to be sold after.
The sale of the shares on Friday was full filling the original decision taken which reduces Wisynco Group Caribbean Ltd holdings to just over 74 percent of the total shares issued or 2.776 billion units. Mahfood says there are no plans to sell any more shares.

Filed Under: Company News, General Business News Tagged With: , , , , ,

Minority owners disrupt NCB’s Guardian offer

February 23, 2018 by

NCB Financial Group has advised that the offer to acquire up to 62 percent of Guardian Holdings shares lapsed due to failure for condition 2.4.5 of the Offer.
The conditions in summary stipulates that the conclusion of the offer is subject to there being no action instituted or threatened or investigation by government or its bodies or legal action that may delay the completion of the offer or make it illegal.
At the end of Friday 23rd February, there are terms and conditions of the Offer which remain outstanding a release from NCB stated, as such and in accordance with the provisions of the Securities Industry (Take-Over) By-Laws, 2005 the Offer lapsed.
The latest tally of offers received showed 535 Guardian shareholders tendered approximately 91,743,975 shares which, together with the NCB existing shareholding, represents approximately 70.24% of the outstanding GHL Shares. No shares deposited have been taken up by the Offeror.
NCB future states that the Trinidad and Tobago Securities and Exchange Commission has decided to convene a hearing in accordance with the provisions of the Securities Act, 2012 in respect of the facts and circumstances surrounding the Offeror’s equity interest in GHL and the issuance of the Offer Circular.

Filed Under: Breaking News, Company News, General Business News Tagged With: , ,

$11M missing from elite figures

January 17, 2018 by

$11 million are missing from the first quarter figures included in Elite Diagnostic prospectus to raise $141 million in an IPO.
While the 2017 audited accounts show depreciation and amortization of $28 million and administrative expenses of $81 million,the interim figures show no amount for depreciation, with administrative cost of $24 million which is just over 25 percent of the full years cost to June. Direct cost is $87 million for the fiscal year or just under $22 million per quarter, in line with $21.7 million in the September quarter. The conclusion is that the cost of depreciation is not included and would result in profits falling from $23 million reported to $14 million and would reduce the expected full year earnings below the annualized figure of $92 million down to a much lower amount, assuming that the new location at Old Hope Road just break even.

Elite Diagnostics is the first 2018 IPO out of 9, that is expected this year.

The intrigue does not end there. The movements in fixed assets show a missing $11 million, with fixed assets at June being $187 million and the cash flow statement showing additions of $71 million, that should result in a total of $257 million which would be reduced by approximately $9 million for depreciation for the quarter, bringing the net figure to $249 million but the interim figures have fixed assets at $238 million. For short, a material amount of $11 million is missing and it is unclear what items are under or over stated.
On the face of it, the reported profit for both years appear overstated, on that basis, IC Insider.com reduced earnings per share for the full year to 20 cents, with the stock being priced at 10 times earnings, but that still leaves the stock a buy.

Filed Under: Company News, General Business News, Initial Public Offers Tagged With:

NCB offer for Guardian extended

January 15, 2018 by

NCB Financial Group extended the closing date for its offer to buy up to 62 percent of the Trinidadian based, Guardian Holdings’ shares to February 2 instead of the original date of January 12.
According to a release by NCB “while the majority of the terms and conditions of the Offer have been satisfied or otherwise waived and the Offeror has received the sign-off from most of the relevant regulatory authorities in respect of the proposed acquisition, the Offeror has applied for and is awaiting certain other regulatory approvals required to be obtained by it before it may take-up and pay for any tendered Offer Shares. Such regulatory approvals are required as a result of the Offeror and GHL, along with several of GHL’s subsidiaries, being regulated in Trinidad and Tobago and elsewhere in the region. Given the foregoing, the Offeror has elected to extend the Closing Date to the 2nd day of February.”
In May 2016 an interest in 69,547,241 GHL Shares were acquired by NCBFG at US$3.24 per share. At the time of the acquisition, NCBFG entered into a shareholders agreement with Arthur Lok Jack and Imtiaz Ahamad and several of their affiliate entities. The shareholders’ agreement included a lock-up provision in relation to both NCBFG’s and the Key Shareholders’ GHL Shares by which the parties agreed to limit their rights to dispose of any GHL Shares until the expiry of three years from May 12, 2016. The agreement required NCBFG to make a take-over bid within three years to gain a minimum of 62% of the outstanding GHL shares and that the Key Shareholders agreed to tender all their GHL Shares (approximately 21.84 percent of the GHL shares) pursuant to such take-over bid. The price of the take-over bid would be, an offer up to May 12, 2017, a minimum price of TT$17, or an offer after May 2017 but up to May 2018, at TT$18 and TTS19 if made after May 2018 to May, 2019.
In November 2017, the shareholders agreement was amended to provide that should the offer be made by February 12, 2018, the price of the offer would be US$2.35 per share instead of TT$18 for an offer made up to May 12, 2018.

Filed Under: Company News, General Business News Tagged With: ,

Mayberry restructuring

January 3, 2018 by

Mayberry to spin off 10 % of its subsidiary to shareholders.

Dogged by a share price that is bogged down mostly below $5, with a net asset value of $6.54, Mayberry’s directors are recommending distributing a portion of Mayberry West Indies Limited (MWIL), a wholly-owned subsidiary in the form of dividend to Mayberry Investments‘ shareholders.
MWIL is to list on the Jamaica Stock Exchange before the end of the first quarter of 2018 as a result of the move.
Arising from a Board meeting of the Company, on December 29, 2017, a dividend in specie equal to 10% of the Net Book value of its MWIL was declared. This dividend will be effected by the Company transferring, pro rata among its stockholders, shares in MWIL held by the Company and constituting 10% of MWIL’s issued share capital. The record date will be February 16, and shall be effected by transfer of the relevant MWIL shares on February 28 to stockholders. The Ex-dividend date will be February 15.
Based on MWIL’s book value as at November 30, 2017, the dividend in specie is equivalent to approximately $688 million, the Mayberry release said. Mayberry West Indies Limited name is to be changed to “Mayberry Jamaican Equities Limited”.
The Jamaica Stock Exchange requires a minimum of 20 percent of a listed company’s shares to be issued to the public, accordingly, it appears that the plans will be to raise around $700-800 million from the general market prior to listing.

Filed Under: Company News, Dividends, General Business News Tagged With: , , , ,

Wisynco Group cut some prices

January 3, 2018 by

Wisynco operates at two main locations situated in St. Catherine: White Marl and Lakes Pen.

Recent Jamaica Stock Exchange listed Wisynco Group, announced a reduction in the prices for the majority of its imported portfolio of products, effective January 2. The reduction that the company said is 3 percent, is due to a revaluation of the Jamaican dollar to the US dollar in recent months.
The adjustment is in line with the appreciation in the value of the local currency versus the US dollar since it peaked at $131 in September.
The company who shares were issued to the public for sale in December further advised that it has commenced distribution of the Unilever Portfolio of Food products throughout the island. The portfolio includes: Red Rose Tea, Lipton Tea, Knorr, Ben & Jerry’s, Breyers Ice Cream, Hellman’s, Blue Band, Flora, Country Crock, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter and several other popular items.
The company’s shares traded on the main market of the stock exchange at $12 at the close on Wednesday and is up from the IPO price of $7.87.

Filed Under: Company News, General Business News