Initial Public Offers

I Create another IPO coming soon

December 10, 2018 by IC Insider.com

iCreate, a fairly new company that is involved in the creative industry is at an advanced stage of planning to raise funds publicly by way of an IPO, ahead of a potential listing on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange.
According to the company’s website, they are a Creative Institute, developed with the aim of filling the gap in skills training and development of creatives in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean. As a part of the creative eco-system, students are provided with a wide range of career opportunities in the Creative Economy, while being a key partner of the Advertising Industry, Film Production Companies, Animation and Gaming Companies, and Creative Outsourcing initiatives.
iCreate partners with the University of the Commonwealth Caribbean (UCC) as its Creative Training arm for courses offered in Jamaica and the Caribbean. iCreate is also partnered with the Digital Marketing Institute, to become the only institution in the Caribbean licensed to deliver their Digital Marketing Diploma programme.
The majority shares are currently owned by eMedia Interactive Group with Sagicor Investment said to hold 19 percent of the shares. The total of just over 123.5 million shares issued are issued currently that will go to 196 million if the IPO is fully taken up. The issue should be coming to the market place soon, by the end of the year or early in 2019. Tyrone Wilson is the Managing Director of the Group.

Also expected to list in 2019 are Wigton Wind Farm which will provide an investment more for income than growth. Also exploring listing are a paint company and a manufacturing company from central Jamaica.

Filed Under: Initial Public Offers Tagged With: eMedia Interactive Group, Emerging markets, iCreate, Jamaica Stock Exchange, Jamaican Stock, junior market, Sagicor Investment, Wigton Wind Farm

Why is Fontana IPO priced so low?

December 7, 2018 by IC Insider.com

Owners and directors along with their advisors ought to know the value of their company. But this publication must ask the question if Fontana has really done so well and will continue to expand, why is it priced so low?
At a premium over net book value of 88 percent, the stock is one of the cheapest of Junior Market listings, with the vast majority selling at a premium of 3 to 4 net book and an average PE of around 13 excluding the extreme highs and lows. One would expect the stock to be priced closer to 10 times earnings before tax, that would put the price closer to $3 than $1.88 and that would place price to net asset value at a premium of 200 percent, still below the market average. The fact that the company is setting up a new branch and looking for more expansion, makes the case for a higher price more compelling as investors are most likely going to rake in much profit from this stock. The only problem the general public will not get many shares to buy up front as it is set tobe heavily oversubscribed. Investors can expect this one to at least double shortly after listing.From where we sit we think the brokers did the owners out of several million dollars on this issue but then the owners may want Jamaicans to party with them on the 50^th anniversary.

Filed Under: Buy Rated, Initial Public Offers Tagged With: Emerging markets, Fontana, Jamaica Stock Exchange, Jamaican Stock, junior market

Fontana IPO set for heavy oversubscription

December 7, 2018 by IC Insider.com

Fontana’s prospectus initial public offer, first mentioned by IC Insider.com is now out but with confusion as to the pricing. The price seems to be $1.88 except for reserved shares at $1.69 each.
Whether the price is 1.88 or $2 the stock is priced very attractively priced for investors at a PE that is well below that of the Junior Market that it will be listed on and is expected to be heavily oversubscribed. The general public has been allocated 113,434,802 shares at a PE ratio of just 6.4 times 2018 earnings, well below the market average of more than 15, but things get even better as the interim results to September this year show a huge jump in profit from $11.5 million to $51 million before tax, with sale revenues up just 5.5 percent to $936 million while cost of sales declined from $650 million to $640 million, thus improving gross profit margin. While revenues grew just 5.5 percent in the quarter administrative cost climbed faster by nearly 10 percent to $223 million. At the same time inventories rose 19 percent to $680 million over the levels at September 2017 and are up 15 percent from June 2018 figure, a development that requires clarification. The PE ratio based on the interim figures suggest that the PE will fall to around 6 or less for the 2019 fiscal year, with good prospects for continued growth in the business.
The Company, in March 2013 acquired the former Azmart location in Barbican Square, Kingston and opened its Ocho Rios location in November 2013. There has been significant growth in sales from these locations. Kingston and Ocho Rios branches now represent 27 percent and 16 percent of the total sales, respectively, the Company stated. Revenues from the Ocho Rios branch increased from $113 million in 2014 to $536 million in 2018, while revenues at the Kingston branch grew from $508 million in the 2014 fiscal year to $871 million in 2017 with growth slowing to 5 percent in the financial year 2018.
The new Waterloo Square location which will open in financial year 2019, is expected to add 28,000 square feet of retail space, an increase of over 40 percent and bolster sales. It is expected that the Waterloo Square store will provide greater buying power to negotiate more favourable terms and rebates with key pharmaceutical partners on the local market. The company is seeking further opportunities to expand its branch network in growing communities such as Montego Bay and Portmore. The anticipated increase in sales will provide greater critical mass to support the sourcing of higher volumes of inventory directly from China with greater margins.
The Company invites Applications for 124,937,565 Subscription Shares, which are to be newly issued. The Company is also inviting Applications on behalf of the Selling Shareholder for 124,937,400 shares. A total of 136,440,163 shares that are initially reserved for priority applications. The minimum amount to be raised by the Company from the sale of the Subscription Shares is $234,040,086.
The Company was established in 1968 at the Manchester Shopping Centre in Mandeville by Shinque “Bobby” Chang and Angela Chang. Today, the Company is run by Kevin O’Brien Chang (Chairman), Anne Chang (Chief Executive Officer) and Raymond Therrien (Chief Operating Officer) with the support of Independent Directors. The Company operates pharmacies and retail stores in Jamaica with 5 locations across the island and 330 employees. Its core business is the sale of pharmaceutical products through licensed pharmacies, and a range of beauty and cosmetic items, housewares, home décor, toys, baby items, electronic, school and souvenir products.
The Company recorded revenues of $3.4 billion in financial year 2018, representing an increase of $272 million or 8.66% over the prior year and an increase of approximately 91% from $1.76 billion in 2014. Pretax profit for 2018 declined 6 percent from $322 million in 2017 to $303 million after rising from $237 million in 2016 that was up more than 100 percent over the 2015 profit of $115 million. The slowdown in 2018 is attributed to the state of emergency in Montego Bay and road construction in the Barbican area.
The stock has been accorded IC Insider.com critical BUY RATED accolade.

Filed Under: Buy Rated, Initial Public Offers Tagged With: Emerging markets, Fontana, Jamaica Stock Exchange, Jamaican Stock, junior market

Fontana another IPO another set of errors

December 7, 2018 by IC Insider.com

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Fontana operators of a series of Pharmacies in Jamaica has now released the Prospectus for their initial public offer but like Elite Diagnostic last year, there are errors in this document that needs correction and explanation.
This is an unfortunate development for yet another issue, that seems very attractively priced. The directors have all signed off on the document that has gone through the Financial Services Commission, the Jamaica Stock Exchange and the Company Office of Jamaica, so why the errors and important ommission.
The introduction in the prospectus speaks to a price of $1.88 except for reserved shares at $1.69 but later on in the body of the document it speaks to a price of $2 for each share, making it unclear exactly what the price really should be? In the interim results to September, there are two issues, one is an error and the other, information that really needs clarification. The interim cash flow has no profit, nor depreciation and it therefore is not balanced and needs correcting.
The gross profit in the interim results jumped sharply,even as revenues grew just 5.5 percent with inventories are up 19 percent at the end of the quarter over 2017 and 15.5 percent over June this year. Why the big jump in inventories with sales are just rising moderately? Importantly, this raises questions about the accuracy of the inventory levels and the gross profit margin for 2018. Management should explain the sharp changes in this area so that investors can better understand why there is such a sharp jump in the quarterly profit.
This publication finds it difficult to once more raising issues relating to a prospectus. We are concerned that enough care is not going into them. The breach of GWest Corporation relating to the non-disclosure of information relating to an extraordinary meeting that was said to approve the issue of preference shares that was never brought to investors’ attention is fresh and has not been properly dealt by the regulators or the company. The regulators seem to have turned a blind eye to it. We need to raise the standards if the capital market integrity is the be enhanced.

Filed Under: Commentary, Initial Public Offers Tagged With: Emerging markets, Fantana Pharmacy, Gwest Corporation, Initial Public Offer, Jamaica Stock Exchange, Jamaican Stock

Equityline the latest JSE IPO

December 5, 2018 by IC Insider.com

Equityline Mortgage Investment Corporation a Canadian company is the latest company offering shares to the public to take up. MPC Caribbean Clean Energy IPO to raise US$50 million is currently opened with a price per share of J$130 or US$1 in the Trinidad market.
Equityline is issuing up to 5 million Series A preferred shares to raise US$10 million at a price of US$2 per share. With the opening of the issue set from December 10, 2018 and scheduled to close on December 31.
If the Invitation is successful in raising at the minimum capital of 2,500,000 shares is met, the shares will be listed on the Jamaica stock exchange. If fully subscribed to, US$9.4 million of the proceeds will be used to acquire a portfolio of mortgages.
The Corporation has specifically targeted investments in mortgages where the yield and other fees generated will enable it to pay out a cumulative monthly dividend at a rate of 8% per annum on the shares. For each fiscal year ending December, the Corporation intends to pay a surplus special dividend equal to the taxable income for that fiscal year and capital gains dividends equal to the Corporation’s taxable capital gains for that fiscal year, less dividends previously paid.
The Corporation was incorporated in January 2018 under the Business Corporations Act (Ontario) with the intention of qualifying as a mortgage investment corporation under the Income Tax Act (Canada). The Corporation has not undertaken any commercial activity since incorporation.
The principals behind the Corporation have a history of operating in the mortgage lending business in Ontario. The Manager believes that it has a specialized skill set in this sector of the mortgage lending market, and therefore has established the Corporation for the purpose of bringing those business skills to the public. The Corporation focuses its investments primarily in urban markets and their surrounding areas, which the Corporation believes are typically more liquid and provide less volatile security for mortgage loans. The Corporation focuses its investment in Ontario, however, the Corporation’s Asset Allocation Model permits the Corporation to invest in mortgages across Canada if the Manager deems it to be advisable. The Corporation intends to further grow its portfolio by periodically raising capital through equity offerings and using the proceeds of such offerings to fund additional mortgages generated through the Manager or other sources. As a MIC, when calculating its income tax payable in Canada, the Corporation may deduct dividends that are paid from income to reduce corporate income tax. The Corporation intends to pay out all of its net income and net realized capital gains as dividends with the result that the Corporation will not pay any income tax. To reduce its tax owing to zero, the Corporation may pay surplus dividends, after payment of all dividends on any Preferred Shares, at the end of the fiscal year. Taxable dividends, other than capital gains dividends, are treated as interest income to Shareholders for Canadian tax purposes.
Both IPO offers are more aligned with persons looking for income than for capital appreciation, the same could also be true for other energy based entities to come that have no expansion plans that will be funded by internally generated or borrowed funds.

Filed Under: Initial Public Offers Tagged With: Equityline Mortgage, Jamaica Stock Exchange, MPC Caribbean Clean Energy

MPC Caribbean Clean Energy next IPO

November 20, 2018 by IC Insider.com

MPC Caribbean Clean Energy ltd is a Caribbean-based investment company set to be the next Initial Public offer in Jamaica and Trinidad simultaneously in early December.
The company is being sponsored by German based MPC Capital that is publicly listed since 2000 with a market capitalization of €158 million.
Trinidad regulators have already signed off on the prospectus while the draft prospectus is now going through the FSC in Jamaica, Martin Vogt, managing director of MPC capital advised IC insider.com.
The company was established in 2017 with the clear vision to invest in renewable energy projects in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean region through the MPC Caribbean Clean Energy Fund LLC. The listed company will be just an investing vehicle, with capital raised to be invested through MPC Caribbean Clean Energy Fund LLC, the entity investing directly in the projects.
The company will seek to raise at least US$50 million in the Jamaican and Trinidad markets with the IPO expected to debut around the first week in December. Brokers for the issue are JN Fund Managers.
The Company is registered in Barbados and was established by the clean energy investment specialist MPC Renewable Energies (MPC), a 100% subsidiary of the publicly listed German asset and investment manager MPC Capital, based on its extensive renewable energy experience worldwide and after research and analysis of the Caribbean market.

JPS has signed an agreement to purchase power from the company at 8.5 US cents per KWH.

The initial investment in Jamaica is “Paradise Park”, a 50 MW solar park in Westmoreland with a capital outlay of US$64 million. Once completed by May 2019, the solar park will be the largest photovoltaic power plant in the island. Vogt told IC Insider.com that they have a 20 years power supply contract with JPS. The company also has a 21 MW wind power plant in Costa Rica that has been in operations since 2015 and is profitable. Importantly, the Jamaican operation which is now being built out will have a rated capacity of 50 MWH.
The plan is to raise around US$200 million for investment in the region’s renewables. According Vogt, the Jamaican government is expected to open the market in 2019 for bids for 150 MW renewable supply and the company is planning to bid for another 50 MW to add to the Paradise Park operation. If the bid is successful the expansion will result in some amount of economy of scale in the operation.
The is likely to invest in the Wigton Wind Farm when that company goes public in the first quarter of 2019.
The rate of return for the company is expected to be north of 9 percent per annum which will make it attractive for investors looking for income but payment of dividend may not be more than once per year initially.
The stock issue is likely to be a relatively high income generator, rather than one for rapid stock price gains. shares will be sold in Jamaica in local dollars but in Trinidad they will be in US dollars.
News reaching IC Insider.com is that Fantana Pharmacy should be heading to the market soon, to raise around $500 million to help fund the new location on Waterloo Road in Kingston. A few others are said to be planned for next year with IC insider.com gathering that at least two are in the manufacturing sector and one in the financial sector.

Filed Under: Initial Public Offers Tagged With: Emerging markets, Fantana Pharmacy, Jamaican Stock, JN Fund Managers, MPC Caribbean Clean Energy, Wigton Wind Farm

Public gets small amount of Seprod shares

November 12, 2018 by IC Insider.com

Some of Seprod,s product

Just under 92 million shares of Seprod were offered for sales by Facey Group in October and was oversubscribed. All applications for Reserve Shares in the offer were fully allocated, according to a release from NCB Capital Markets.
55 million shares were reserved for employees and directors and existing Seprod shareholders and the Lead Broker.
Subscribers from the general public will receive up to the first 5,000 units for which they applied, with the balance greater than 5,000 units allocated approximately 16.56 percent. The shares were priced at $23.99 each but trades on the Jamaica Stock Exchange at $39.

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

Early Xmas gift for Seprod stakeholders

October 17, 2018 by IC Insider.com

Seprod shares being sold at $24 each.

Shareholders of Seprod and management and directors are in for an early Christmas present as Facey Group on Behalf of the International Finance Corporation offers 91,914,894 shares for sale at a price well below the level the stock has been trading at in recent times.
The offer is being made to the public but 55 million shares are reserved for staff, managers, executives, directors and former directors and shareholders of Seprod including Facey Consumer staff.

The offer is at a discounted price of $23.99. Last week the stock traded as high as $62 as limited selling of the stock in the market led investors to bid the price up to acquire some that were on sale, but pulled back to $49.50 on Friday and traded at $39 on Tuesday as investors reacted to the offer.
Up to 30 million shares are reserved for staff, managers, executives, directors and former directors of the Company and its subsidiaries. 15 million shares are reserved Shares for shareholders of the company (with JCSD accounts) as at August 31 and 10 million shares are reserved for the Lead Broker.
According to a spoke person for the Facey Group, the shares are a part of the shares that were acquired when the Company has reached an agreement with Seprod to acquire the consumer business consisting of distribution of consumer and pharmaceutical products in Jamaica earlier in the year. As part of that arrangement, Facey Group holding in Seprod was restricted to less than 50 percent and the shares being offered for sale was held as nominee on

Some of Seprod,s product

behalf of International Finance Corporation who had invested in the group as a part of an agreement for them to continue to recover their investment when an IPO was effected. The shares were priced at the time they were initially issued when they were trading at $28, IC Insider.com was advised.
For the six months ended June 2018, Seprod generated revenues of $10.44 billion, an increase of $2.07 billion or 25 percent over the corresponding period in 2017. Net profit increased 29 percent for the period to $598 million in the 2017 period. The 2018 results are bolstered by the transfer of the former Jamaican dairy operations of Nestle within the Group effective January, this year.
The directors’ report stated that, “had these operations been included in the Group’s results in 2017, the increase in revenues for the six months ended 30 June 2018 would have been $1.20 billion or 13 percent and the increase in net profit would have been $77 million or 15 percent.”
For the June quarter, revenues rose 33 percent to $5.48 billion with gross profit rising sharply to 36 percent from 24 percent in 2017, with gross profit hitting $1.96 billion and profit after tax coming in at $325 million attributable to Seprod’s shareholders, 37 percent ahead of the 2017 out turn.
Based on the expansion of Seprod foot print and new ventures recently entered into, the future of the group seems solid and this could be bettered if they can put the ongoing losses of sugar behind them.

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

Under 1,000 investors bought Stanley Motta

September 2, 2018 by IC Insider.com

Stanley Motta shares were recently listed on the Main Market Jamaica Stock Exchange in late August after a successful initial public offering (IPO), which raised $4 billion for the Musson Jamaica, the sellers of the shares.
Investors were given the opportunity to be a part property rental business located at 58 Half-Way-Tree Road next door to New Kingston, the country’s premier business centre. The IPO which opened July 6 and closed on July 20, attracted just under 1,000 investors and is one of the issues since 2018 with the lowest number of investors who bought into the issue. That is not surprising as the issue was geared to long term investors. Since listing the stock that was sold at $5.31 has fallen in price and last traded at $4.60 but could well increase significantly, as it now boast a PE ratio of just 10 at the latest price.
58 Half Way Tree Road, boasts five buildings with more than 230,000 square feet of office space for BPOs and other technology-based companies.

Filed Under: Initial Public Offers, JSE Main Market, Stock Market Tagged With: Emerging markets, Jamaica Stock Exchange, Musson Jamaica, Stanley Motta

Stanley Motta list Wednesday

August 21, 2018 by IC Insider.com

58 Half Way Tree Road owned by Stanley Motta.

After more than a month from closing of initial public offering (IPO) in July, Stanley Motta will be listed on the main market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
The company successfully raised $4 billion from the sale of 757,818,862 ordinary shares to the public at $5.31 each. The shares will start trading after the listing of the company when trading commences at 9:30 in the morning. NCB Capital Markets, was the lead arranger and broker for the initial public offering that closed on July 20. The issue was just subscribed to, with NCB Capital Markets picking up a relatively small amount of the units.
The Stanley Motta own property at 58 Half Way Three Road in Kingston comprises 200,000 square feet rentable space, is said to be the Caribbean’s largest technology park, which is set to employ more than 5,000 Jamaicans within the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and technology industry, working for international brands like Alorica and Amazon.
Rental income for a full year is likely to be in the order of US$2.5 million with most expenses picked up by tenants, it should net out around the same amount tax free. The yield on investment will translate to just under 7 percent.