Fantastic Year for Jetcon

Jetcon Corporation at listing in March 2016.

“Fantastic” was how John Jackson, Chairman of Jetcon Corporation described the company’s 2016 financial year. He assured shareholders that 2017 is expected to be even better based on results to date.
The chairman was addressing Jetcon‘s first Annual General Meeting (AGM), since being listed on the Junior Market of Jamaica Stock Exchange. The Company’s 2016 Audited Financial Statement, which was discussed and approved at the AGM, highlighted Jetcon’s the progress achieved in 2016, with the company’s performance helping to push the stock price from its initial listing of $2.25 in 2016, to $14.88 on the day of the meeting, for a gain of 570 percent. The AGM which was held at the Knutsford Court Hotel on June 14, was attended by approximately 75 of the more than 500 members of Jetcon’s shareholders and representatives from the Jamaica Stock Exchange and the media.
“When we met in at the start of January of 2016 to discuss pros & cons of listing, I was not sure we would be here today”, Chairman John Jackson confessed in his opening remarks.
The company’s 2016 revenue growth which has far surpassed the initial internal forecast of 30 percent, ended with an overall increase of 64 percent. 2016 ended with earnings per share of 54 cents and a solid 49.4 per cent average rate of return on capital which moved up 2.8 percent ahead of 2015’s 46.6 percent.
With profits more than doubling in 2016, the 2017 revenues up 75 percent in May and the preliminary profit up approximately 150 percent, the company is actively seeking additional space to expand the business.
The chairman acknowledged the enjoyed shared benefits of Jetcon being listed on the Junior Market. He noted that the listing has contributed to the growth of the company’s public relation and publicity. “The advent of the Junior Market is God sent & will revolutionize corporate Jamaica and enrich many ordinary Jamaicans”, Jackson further urged the relevant authorities to educate Jamaicans about the opportunities and benefits investing in the stock market provides for the betterment of the Jamaican quality of life and thus making Jamaica, the place of choice to live, work, raise families, and do business.
Jetcon Corporation was founded in 1994 by Managing Director, Andrew B. Jackson and opened and closed its IPO on March 14, 2016 and hold the distinction of being the first pre-owned car dealership to be listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE).

Express Catering heading for Junior Market

2017 is set to be the year with the most listing on the Jamaica Stock Exchange even as just four listings have made it to the market so far in 2017. At the end of 2016, eighteen new listings were expected based on feedback the stock exchange obtained from brokers and companies expressing an interest in listing.
Express Catering a company operating in the Montego Airport is being brokered by Mayberry Investments in a bid to raise funds for existing shareholders. The company shares are expected to be listed on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange. Existing shareholders plan to sell between 20 to 40 percent of the company to raise around $400 to $500 million at a price range between $1 and $2.50 per share, our source informs IC Insider.com.
The company would be valued around $1 billion and using a PE of 10 times earnings would put the profit at around $100 million. The bulk of passengers passing through the Montego Bay airport are tourist, with the continued increase in hotel rooms passenger traffic will keep growing for some time and provide the company with increased opportunity for growth.
Not much more has so far been disclosed, but an indication of the company’s size can be gleaned from the fact that Montego Bay Airport Ltd generated revenue from Express Catering for rental and commission on food and beverages sales of U$$2.7 million in for 2016, an increase from US$2.5 million in 2015.
In April this year The Gleaner reported that the company has annual revenues at US$14 million from being an exclusive provider of food and beverage products in the post-security lounge of the Sangster International Airport. The company has a diverse group of proprietary brands and international franchises to include such brands as Quiznos Subs and Salads, Aunt Annie’s Pretzels, Nathans Famous Hot Dogs, Cinnabon, Moe’s South Western Grill, Wendy’s, Dominos and Dairy Queen.
Elsewhere, the Musson’s subsidiary, Productive Business Solutions prospectus is said to be at the FSC for vetting, from about three weeks ago and should be close to being released to the public. Productive Business Solutions operates in the Caribbean, Central America and the USA and will come to the market with a US$41 million offer of ordinary shares. Stationery and Supplies Limited is also expected to be coming to the market anytime now.

Access growing by acquisition

Access growing aggressively

Micro lender Access Financial (AFS) on 27 May 2016, entered into an agreement to purchase the business of Damark Limited as a going concern comprising mainly the loan portfolio, fixed assets, trademark and customer relationship for a consideration $180 million, notes to the 2017 audited financial statements show.
The principal activities of Damark Limited at the time of the acquisition of the assets was retail lending. Net assets acquired include, Customer relationships $21.8 million, Trademark and Trade name, $2.7 million, Loan portfolio of $148.7 million, Fixed assets of $2.17 million and Goodwill of $4.6 million.
Damark Limited previously operated out of Suite 13 at 11 1/2 Swallowfield Road in Kingston, Jamaica.
In 2015, Access acquired the loan portfolios of Asset Management Company Ltd formerly operated by Scotia Investments which was sold and ultimately purchased by Proven Investments before being sold to Access and Appliance Traders for just over $500 million. The acquisition helped in growing the net loan book at AFS above $1.5 billion or 35 per cent year-on-year.
Access which enjoyed strong growth in the 2017 fiscal year from ongoing business is not relying on geometric growth alone as information reaching IC Insider.com indicates that the micro lender is currently working on another acquisition. Our sources inform us that it is about the same size as the Damark acquisition and should be completed by the end of June.
The company made profit of $678 million from revenues of $1.5 billion dollars and had loans outstanding of $2.6 billion at the end of March. The stocks traded on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange at $50.

Cable Bahamas list on JSE Friday

This Friday June 2, will see the latest listing of a new company on the Jamaica Stock Exchange. The Bahamian based Cable Bahamas will see its shares available for trading on the local exchange for the first time.
Earlier this month the exchange approved the listing of the company’s shares. Information available to IC Insider.com is that the list will be on the US dollar exchange and will comprise ordinary and preference shares.
According to the company’s financials there are 43,884,754 ordinary shares and 8 different category of preference shares issued. The net asset value of the ordinary shares are around BH$2 each but the stock trades in the Bahamas at BH$4.05, with 1,000 units trading. Selling by investors is at $4.40 and above with buying interest at $4.05 and below. The 52 weeks high is $6.76 on June 9, 2016 and a low of $3.80, on the 9th of February, this year.
Revenue earned for the 2016 December quarter, was BH$47.887 million compared to BH$41.730 million and for the year to December BH$180.588 versus BH$165.678. The company reported losses of BH$9.2 million in the December quarter inclusive of a fixed asset write off of BH$5.8 million and $7.8 million for the year. Total shareholders’ equity stood at BH$91 million at the end of December 2016 and losses incurred in the March 2017 quarter of BH$7 million pushed shareholders’ equity down to BH$84 million at the end of March this year. Revenues in the March 2017 quarter rose 17 percent to $51 million up from $43.7 million in 2016 but operating cost jumped even faster by 60 percent to $46.6 million from $29 million with depreciation and amortization rising from $9 million to $16.8 million.
Two other listing should be heading to the market within weeks as Stationery and Supplies and the Musson subsidiary Productive Business Solutions with operations in the Caribbean, Central America and the USA come to the market with a US$41 million offer of ordinary shares.

The Exuberant 10

The JSE stock traded at an outlandish $13.50 & dropped 47% since.

It is not nice to watch one’s investment lose value while others grow delivering big gains at the same time. Many investors plunge into investments that will result in just that happening, as they err and refuse to let go and reinvest, to recover their loss, from gains elsewhere.
A look back at prices in 2005, reveals shocking results of costly ill-timed investments. In June 2005, investors in a bout of excess exuberance, pushed Mayberry Investments to $8.40 from a listed price of $5.05, weeks after it listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, 12 years later it is still to reach back to that level. That is a huge blow to investors who held on to the shares from then.
The sad thing is that many investors who wanted to sell could not, as attempts were made to control the price from a big drop as selling started to overwhelm buying a few days after nearly 40 million shares were traded around the $7-8 level. Mayberry is an outstanding example of investors making huge errors based on inadequate information and paying dearly for it.
But Mayberry’s stock is not the only one that investors underwent a long period of suffering from, they have a number of top notch companies as their friends that that performed poorly until fairly recently. Scotia Group was pushed to $33.50 in March 2005 based on results that were not sustainable as the bank benefited by a poor decision of the Central Bank to push interest rates on CDS paying interest at elevated levels for about two to three years. The banks of course made a killing when rates fell back. Added to that, Scotia effected a stock split that sent the stock flying. Well it was not until late 2016 that the price exceeded the 2005 high. JMMB Group’s shareholders saw the price of the stock peaking at $22 in April 2004 only to see it fall away and not getting back to that level until recently this year. That is not great for a stock that is not a great dividend payer.
Grace Kennedy hit a high of $123 (Now $41 after stock split in 2016), in January 2005, it has taken nearly 12 years to recover the loss and it has still not delivered much more in gains since its full recovery.
Markets tend to repeat past behaviors, over and over but sometimes they take a break from the norm. PE ratios are the end product of investors’ perception of values for stocks. There are other measures but the PE is the most widely used. When PEs are pushed well beyond where the majority of investors thing the value ought to be, they induce added buying or selling. Investors who buy when the market has pushed valuation well above what is considered the norm, usually pay a steep price for so doing. The 2005 examples are cases in point. An accepted concept is that the PE ratio should be line with profit growth. One year’s growth cannot be used by itself but investors have to try and determine that themselves.
Most of the stocks in the IC Insider’s Exuberant 10, were pushed in 2017 by excessive enthusiasm and in some cases wrong information. Stock splits helped to fuel some of the excess as well. The attached table shows the stocks that were pushed well above their appropriate values and the levels of correction since. Some may fall even more than their latest price as they can be considered overvalued based on known earnings for the current period. A few that are not on the list could see a decent fall as well, included in this latter list are Knutsford Express and Kingston Properties.

Knutsford approves split

Shareholders of Knutsford Express Services, approved a 5 for 1 stock split at an Extraordinary General Meeting held on May 22, increasing the issued capital from 100,000,003 units to 500,000,015 shares of no par value.
The meeting also agreed that each ordinary share of the company be subdivided into five shares resulting in the Authorized Share capital of the Company increasing from 100,005,000 shares to 500,025,000 shares of no par value. The record date is June 2 and the ex-split date will be May 30.
The stock traded today at $66 on the Jamaica Stock Exchange. The split should result in the price trading at $13.20 and could easily go to $15. With only 500 million shares issued, the company may well need to consider another split at the annual general meeting later this year.

Pulse revs up stock split to 6 to 1

The Board of Pulse Investments at a board of directors meeting held today agreed to recommend to shareholders at an Extraordinary General Meeting splitting of the existing shares into six units for each one now held.
According to the release from the company, the recommendation is that the stock be split on the basis that 5 (five) additional shares to be issued to shareholders for every share currently held and that the authorized share capital be increased from 450,000,000 (four hundred and fifty million) shares of no par value, to 1,950,000,000 (one billion, nine hundred and fifty million) shares, by the creation of an additional 1,500,000,000 (one billion, five hundred million) shares. The increased split comes against the back ground of an IC Insider.com article which suggested that the split should be at least 4 to 1to allow for liquidity in the stock.
The board had previously indicated that they were going to consider a 2 for 1 stock split.
The company currently has 271,789,674 issued shares, the proposed split would put the total up to 1,630,738,044 units with greater liquidity. The company’s stock last traded on the Jamaica Stock Exchange at $14.50 and carries a PE of 11 compared to 13.5 for the main market.
According to the Chairman, Kingsley Cooper, the likely date for the meeting to consider the split is tentatively set for June 21.
Pulse reported profits of $66 million for the March quarter and $221 million for the nine months period, up from $189 million for the similar period in 2016. The profit includes gains of investment property of $28 million in the March 2017 quarter and $81 million for the nine months.

Buy out interest for Berger Paints?

.

Reports reaching IC Insider.com is that Jamaican based Berger Paints is in play with more than one interested party eyeing the profitable target one source within the financial community stated.
I know as a fact that an offer was made on Thursday but was rejected by Berger as inadequate and would not involve taking over the staff. Another source indicates that the parties are in discussion on terms with the price of $20 that the stock traded at today being within the ball park of where an offer could be at. By next week a clearer picture should emerge our source advises.
One name said to be associated with the one of the offers is Josef Bogdanovich one of the investors involved in the takeover of Hardware and Lumber.
It’s unclear if the planned acquisition by Bogdanovich if successful would be placed under the Hardware and Lumber umbrella which would make economic sense as it would lead to economies of scale in a number of different areas.
The interest comes against the back ground of Berger having recorded the highest level of profit ever at $316 million up from $122 million in 2016, with IC Insider forecasting earnings of $2 per share or $430 million for the year ending March 2018.
Berger closed trading at $6 at the end of 2016 and is up 233 percent for the year to date and is the second best performing main market stock for the year second only to Pulse Investment that is up 360 percent. Berger has been in IC Insider.com TOP 10 since this year and in the TOP 5 Main market from inception on September 9 last year.

Split coming for Pulse shares

Kingsley Cooper Chairman of Pulse

Pulse Investments’ directors propose to consider the splitting of the issued shares of the company into two units for each one currently issued. The Board Meeting is set to be held on Monday, May 22.
The resolution, if passed by the Board, would go to a General Meeting to be voted on by the shareholders of Pulse Investments. The company currently has 271,789,674 issued shares, the split would put the total up to 543,579,348 units.
The company’s stock last traded on the Jamaica Stock Exchange at $8.05 and carries a PE of 6 compared to 13 for the main market.
During 2016 the company passed a resolution agreeing to issue additional shares by way of a rights issue. From all indications, with the PE well below the general market the company must be awaiting a greater uptick in stock price before going back to shareholders for more funds.

Cement sales up in Jamaica

Caribbean Cement increased sales in Q1 2017.


Sale of cement rose in Jamaica but fell in the twin island state of Trinidad and Tobago in the first quarter of this year, a report from Trinidad Cement (TCL) reported.
According to the company, “Domestic gray cement volume sales declined by 6 percent for the group during the first quarter of 2017.” “The decline mainly reflects a general slowdown in due construction sector in Trinidad and Tobago market, Trinidad Cement advised investors in a release to the Trinidad Stock Exchange.”
“Volumes in Jamaica grew, the company stated, reflecting an increase in tourism and infrastructure activity. At Arawak Cement in Barbados, cement volumes were driven by the residential and commercial sector.”