Kingston Wharves approved the an interim dividend of 10 cents per stock unit payable on July 30, 2014, to shareholders on record at July 16 and the ex dividend date is July 14.
The company paid an interim dividend of 8 cents per share payable on December 20, last year. The company also paid a final dividend of 2 cents per share in respect of the financial year ended December 2012 and an interim dividend of 8 cents per share in respect of the 2013, on March 28 last year.
Dividend at Kingston Wharves
June 19, 2014 by
Croatia 4-0 as Cameroon players fight
June 18, 2014 by
Croatia the better playing team in the world cup match. demolished a Cameroon team that fell apart as one of its player effectively gave himself a red card and departed play, minutes before the end of the first half. At the end of an entertaining world cup match, the Cameroon team not only lost but will be heading home as they are without a point, with only one game to play. Things deteriorated for the Cameroon team when two players were virtually in a fight close to the end of play.
Croatia has a chance to move forward to the next round but would need to beat Mexico or if they draw they would have to rely on Cameroon pulling off an unlikely win against Brazil when they play next week.
T-bill rates drop sharply
June 18, 2014 by
The average rate for the 90 day Treasury bill instrument came out at 7.66 percent at today’s auction, down sharply from the May auction which came out at an average of 8.2 percent as Government sought to raise $400 million for this time frame but the auction saw $851 million chasing after the amount available. The 180 day instrument which averaged 8.932 percent in May plummeted to 8.365 percent as $877 million chased after the $400 million available.
Also on offer was a 30 day instrument to raise $400 million which provided an average rate of 6.797 percent as $534,303,700 chased after the $400 million that was available. The previous 30 day Treasury bill issued cleared at an average rate of 6.99 percent, in May this year.
Lasco Distributors staff share plan
June 18, 2014 by
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Lasco Distributors Board approved the rules of the 2014 Stock Option Plan for the Employees of Lasco Distributors. The amount of shares available in the option plan is 168,321,556 units or 5 percent of the total of 3,366,431,150 shares currently issued pursuant to a resolution passed at the 3013 annual general meeting which gave the directors powers to set the terms of the options.
The resolution passed states “THAT the directors be and are hereby authorized to enter into a stock option plan for up to but not more than 5% of the issued ordinary shares of the Company with such of the employees of the Company as the directors might determine upon such terms and conditions and subject to such rules and regulations as the directors shall in their absolute discretion determine and to execute such deeds agreements documentation or other assurances as might be required and to enter into such engagements and arrangements as might be necessary for the due operation and administration of such a plan.”
The company has been very successful with profit for the year to March this year increasing to $587.46 million versus $506.8 million in 2013. The company is expected to benefit from the distribution of Salada Foods products which it started to handle at the start of 2014 as well as from additional products from the expanded Lasco Manufacturing factory, a sister company.
Share buy back for Kingston Properties
June 18, 2014 by
Kingston Properties advises that the Board of Directors authorized a buy-back of up to one percent (1%) of the company’s shares in issue for up to one year following the expiry of 21 days from the date of notice to the Stock Exchange. The repurchase of the shares will be conducted on an open market through the Company’s Stockbrokers. The Company’s cash flows will be the source of funds for the purchase of shares. Kingston Properties will advise its shareholders of the details of the purchase within 30 days of the repurchase of the shares. The total number of shares issued amounts to 68,800,102 units. One percent of the issued shares amounts 688,000 units. The stock last traded at $4 after it had fallen to $3.50 a few trading days before but the net asset value of the shares is around $12.
Inside trades – Director buys into D&G
June 17, 2014 by
Trade by insiders can be a good indicator about the future prospects of a company’s performance but not every inside trade will be informative and can be relied on. The latest insider trades include a relative big purchase that of 1,971,000 Desnoes & Geddes shares by a Director of the company that was carried out on June 13, 2014.
An Executive of Scotia Group purchased 239,106 shares under the company’s Executive Long Term Incentive Scheme on June 9, 2014 for settlement on June 12, 2014. Over at Pan-Jam Investment Trust a Director purchased 10,000 Pan-Jamaican Trust shares on June 10, 2014.
Sagicor Group concludes RBC purchase this month
June 16, 2014 by
Regulatory approval has been granted for the Sagicor Group Jamaica to acquire full control of RBC Royal Bank (Jamaica) and its subsidiary – Securities Jamaica Ltd. Sagicor In a release stated that “ we expect to complete the process of acquisition and transfer of business by the end of June. We will be taking steps to combine the operations of both banks to operate under the Sagicor Bank branch, which will involve rebranding all RBC Jamaica branches to Sagicor Bank branches. Our Teams at Sagicor Bank and RBC Jamaica will be working to ensure a smooth transition for all our new and existing customers. Over the next 12 months, we will be working to integrate our technology platforms so that customers will be able to bank at any of our branch locations”.
RBC Royal Bank (Jamaica) has been incurring large annual losses which led to its parent taking the decision to divest themselves of the local operation making it the second time that the company has exited the local market. In the 1990s Royal Bank of Canada sold out its remaining local interest to Jamaica Mutual life who subsequently sold it to National Commercial Bank.
Sagicor Group earlier in the year confirmed the acquisition of RBC Royal Bank Jamaica’s operations for a price of $9.5 billion with the book value at $9 billion at the end of March.
Pooling Sagicor Bank with that of RBC will create a combined banking group with assets of nearly $76 billion with loans of $38 billion with $28 billion coming from RBC and revenues around $12 billion
This will not be the first time that Sagicor Bank would have entered in merger arrangements having absorbed Manufacturers Merchant bank and Trafalgar Development Bank some years ago.
The RBC operation was been bleeding around $500 million per quarter the book value. For the twelve months to September last year the RBC lost $1.7 billion and $456 million between July and September according to central bank’s data. For the year ending October 2012, RBC reported a loss of $2 billion before tax which was down from $3 billion in 2011. In 2012 loan losses contributed $650 million to the loss and income was inadequate to cover housekeeping expenses. Most likely the NDX in 2013 that cut interest rates would have negatively affected them thus reducing the net interest margin. Royal Bank’s problem apart from heavy loan losses is the fixed operating cost that the income generated cannot match. The Group will embark on cost cutting some of which is expected to flow from branch closure where branches overlap.
Inflation jumps 1% in May
June 16, 2014 by
Inflation jumps 1 percent in May, the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin) stated in a release today, compared to the index for April. An increase of 0.7 percent in ‘Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages’ and 3.6 percent increase in the index for the division ’Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuels’ were the major reasons for the sharp climb. The movement in the index for May 2014 resulted in a calendar year-to-date inflation rate of 2.4 percent. Inflation declined in April by 0.7 percent compared to March this year.
According to Statin, the division ‘Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages’ was impacted by increases of 1.9 percent and 1.6 percent in ‘Bread and Cereals’ and ‘Milk, Cheese and Eggs’ respectively. There were declines of 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent for the classes ‘Fruit’ and ‘Vegetables and Starchy Foods’ respectively. Within the division ‘Housing Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’ the advance in the index for ‘Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’ of 7.3 percent was moderated by the fall of 3.4 percent in the index for ‘Water Supply and Miscellaneous Services Related to Dwelling’
The other divisions that recorded increases in the All Jamaica ‘All Divisions’ index were: ‘Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco’ 0.5 percent, ‘Clothing and Footwear’ 0.2 percent, ‘Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance’ 0.5 percent, ‘Health’ 0.2 percent, ‘Transport’ 0.4 percent, ‘Recreation and Culture’ 0.1 percent, ‘Restaurants and Accommodation Services’ 0.5 percent, and ‘Miscellaneous Goods and Services’ 0.5 percent.
Profit down at Blue Power
June 16, 2014 by
Blue Power reported a fall in profit for the year to April this year with profit declining to $93 million compared to $104 million in 2013 with most of the decline coming in the last quarter, with the quarterly profit falling to $22.7 million versus $37.1 million in 2013, but the April quarter’s profit was above the third quarter profit of $15.2 million. Earnings per stock unit moved down 10 percent from $1.84 to $1.65.Management indicated the overall contraction of demand in the country and the completion of projects supported by a foreign agency in the last two years, are contributing factors to the flat sales with combined sales for the twelve months at $1.05 billion roughly the same amount as in 2013. Revenues in the last quarter came in at $268 million versus $345 million in 2013. The last quarter figure is slightly below the $263 million generated in the January quarter.
Divisional profit contributions came from the Lumber Depot division with $42 million, while the Blue Power division provided $51 million with sales rising 5 percent from $303 million to $318 million for the Blue Power division while the Lumber Depot division had a small decline of 2 percent from $745 million to $728 million.
Administrative and other expenses fell to $135 million from $136.5 million. Gross profit declined to $218.3 million from $232 million in 2013.
Financial strength| The company remains financially sound with the bulk of the $95 million funds generated during the year, going to fund increased inventories and receivables but they still held on to $136 million in cash, at the end of the financial year. Equity climbed to $431 million up from $346 million last year.
The company announced that they will be considering the payment of a dividend at a meeting to be held on Monday, June 23, 2014.
Management stated that they have undertaken a number of initiatives to contain costs and improve margins. They also indicated that they completed solar installations at two of their locations which will begin to impact positively on energy expenses during the coming year and the third energy-saving project will be completed before the end of this calendar year and its impact will be felt in the fourth quarter. For the current fiscal year earnings should come in close to that earned for the 2014 year.
Guardian General Profit drops
June 16, 2014 by
Guardian General Insurance the Jamaica general insurance arm of the Trinidad Stock Exchange listed Guardian Holdings recorded lower profits in 2013 than it did the year before thanks to higher claims and lower investment income. Profit after tax came in at $272 million versus $392 million in the prior year even as premium income rose to $109 billion up from $$8383 million. The company reported an underwriting loss of $39 million compared with a surplus of just $12 million in 2012 due mainly to increased underwriting losses of $877 million versus $552 million in 2012.
Investment income fell from $389 million in 2012 to $296 million while administrative expenses climbed to $427 million from $323 million.
Total assets moved from $6.12 billion in 2012 to $8.65 billion due to the combination of what was formerly Globe Insurance and West Indies Alliance in September 2013 and equity ended down at $2.87 billion from $2.98 billion as dividend of $1.16 billion was paid out during the year.
