Sterling Investments Limited, (“SIL”) a St. Lucia registered investment company, is slated to be listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, on October 13. No shares will be offered to the public, but may be purchased after they are listed.
In 2013, the company generated income of $70 million and comprehensive profit of $56.7 million, including $11 million from unrealised gain on investments. For the six months to June this year, income amounted to $25.7 million plus gain on sale of investments of $2.8 million and $25 million in Forex gains resulting in profit of $34 million, for the half year. SIL generates interest income from securities owned and capital gains realized from increases in the price of the securities.
The company began operation in December 2012 and enjoyed growth in in total assets, to reach $492 million at the end of 2013, and net assets of $440 million, with a loan of $31.5 million. At the end of June this year, total assets climbed to $737 million, with net assets of $554 million and loans of $171 million. “Over 92 percent of SIL’s assets are invested in US dollar fixed income assets, comprising, Non-Investment Grade Corporate bonds 37 percent, Investment Grade Corporate bonds 29 percent, Municipal Bonds 26 percent and Private Equity 8 percent” the company reported at an investment forum used to introduce the proposed listing.
“Over the last 18-months, SIL’s net book value per share has grown by 38 percent after fees and distributions. This rate of return has been influenced by favourable movement in bond prices over the review period and movement in the Jamaican dollar. The average coupon rate on the securities in SIL’s portfolio in June 2014 was 8.34 percent per annum, while the average yield to maturity was 8.36 percent per annum,” management said. The company, however, uses leveraging which can boost the net income per share above the actual interest income, if all goes well. The total number of issued ordinary shares is 4,014,547 units giving a net asset value of $138 per share at the end of June.
“For the year 2013 a total of J$7.9 million was paid in dividends or J$2.96 per share for a dividend yield of approximately 3 percent, the Company pays dividends twice yearly,” Sterling said.
The directors of the company are, Derek Jones (Chairman), lawyer and former partner of Myers Fletcher, Michael Bernard, former CEO of Carreras, Maxim Rochester, former PriceWaterhouse partner and Charles Ross, CEO of Sterling.
The number of shares are very limited, and should result in a stock that is illiquid. With the return of stability to the local currency and the level of buoyancy now seen in the daily flows, at a time when inflows tend to be inadequate to meet supply, suggest that earnings going forward will not benefit much from local exchange rate slippage, on this basis earnings per share should normalise to around $45-50 million per annum, around $13 per share, not making for an attractive buy, unless one expects major movement in the local exchange rate, going forward.
Sterling Investments listing set for October
Low market activity on JSE
Thursday is the second consecutive day, of painfully low participation and very low level of trading activity, on the Jamaica Stock Exchange. At the close of the market, the prices of 5 stocks rose and 7 declined, as 17 securities changed hands, culminating in only 554,449 units trading, valued at a mere $5,499,290, in all market segments.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator was negative, showing 6 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 10 stocks with offers that were lower.
Main Market| The JSE Market Index declined 892.06 points to 71,976.11 and the JSE All Jamaican Composite index fell 997.48 points to close at 79,190.56.
Gains| Stocks gaining with last traded prices, at the end of trading in the main market are, Carreras with 3,210 shares, increasing 8 cents to $34.63, Jamaica Money Market Brokers ordinary trading 11,168 units at an increase of 5 cents to end at $7 and Scotia Group with 35,420 shares gained 3 cents to $19.05.
Firm| The stocks in the main market to close without a change in the last traded prices are, Desnoes & Geddes with 42,950 units, closed a$4.77, Mayberry Investments 420 shares closed at $1.50, Proven Investments with 9,000 units, ended at 18 US cents and Sagicor Group put through 271,779 shares at $9.65.
Declines| The last traded prices of stocks with losses at the end of trading in the main market are, Cable & Wireless with 113,885 units changing hands, for the loss of a cent at 29 cents,
Jamaica Producers 333 shares changing hands 25 cents lower at $15.50, Kingston Wharves 750 shares traded 80 cents lower at $5.50, National Commercial Bank with 14,694 units, ended losing 14 cents to $17.80 and Pan Jamaican Investment with 25,000 shares traded 10 cents down, at $49.
Preference| Proven Investments 8% preference share traded 14,290 units 7 cents off at $5.
Number of securities traded tumble on JSE’s
Wednesday’s Jamaica Stock Exchange activity, resulted in the prices of 3 stocks rising and 3 declining as 13 securities changed hands, culminating in 1,736,129 units trading, valued at $21,538,328, in all market segments.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 5 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 5 stocks with offers that were lower.
Main Market| The JSE Market Index gained 629.81 points to 72,868.17 and the JSE All Jamaican Composite index rose 704.23 points to close at 80,188.04.
Gains| Cable & Wireless is the only stock gaining in the main market with 12,971 shares trading, 1 cent up to 30 cents.
Firm| The stocks in the main market to close without a change in the last traded prices are, Jamaica Money Market Brokers with 998 ordinary units to close at $6.95, Mayberry Investments with 4,580 shares at $1.50 and Proven Investments 9,000 units traded at 18 US cents and Radio Jamaica 3,000 share closed at $1.04.
Declines| The last traded prices of stocks with losses at the end of trading in the main market are, Sagicor Group with 62,921 shares, the price fell 25 cents to end at $9.65 and Scotia Group traded 952,872 units to close 23 cents lower at $19.02 .
Preference| Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% preference share traded 367,113 units at $3.02.
Market closes out month down
Tuesday’s activity on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, culminated in the prices of 8 stocks rising and 7 declining, as 21 securities changed hands. A total of 5,217,834 units traded, valued at $54,942,294, in all market segments.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed 14 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 5 stocks with offers that were lower. The increase is probably due to month end window dressing by some portfolio managers would want to impact the value of the funds under management at the end of the month and quarter.
Main Market| The JSE Market Index lost 160.31 points to 72,238.36 and the JSE All Jamaican Composite index declined by 179.24 points, to close at 79,483.81.
Gains| Stocks gaining with last traded prices, at the end of trading in the main market are, Caribbean Cement, with 109,500 shares changing hands, ended 4 cents higher at $2.40, Grace Kennedy put through 19,208 units with a gain of 70 cents to $58.20, Jamaica Producers had 122,728 shares changing hands, gained 25 cents to $15.75, Mayberry Investments with 5,420 shares closed 4 cents higher at $1.50 and Sagicor Group traded 738,840 units, with an increase of 65 cents, to $9.90.
Firm| The stocks in the main market to close without a change in the last traded prices are, Berger Paints with 3,500 units, closing at $1.66, Cable & Wireless with 453,827 shares at 29 cents, Desnoes & Geddes 45,000 share at $4.77, Pan Jamaican Investment 417,537 shares trading to close at $49.10, Proven Investments 27,700 ordinary shares, to close with the price at 18 US cents and Seprod with 40,000 shares, closed at $10.90.
Declines| The last traded prices of stocks with losses at the close of the main market are, Carreras, down 8 cents to end at $34.55, in trading 93,336 units, Jamaica Broilers with 500,000 shares lost 50 cents to end at $4, Jamaica Money Market Brokers with 42,087 ordinary shares trading, lost 5 cents at $6.95, National Commercial Bank had 452,630 units changing hands, with a 5 cents loss, at $17.94 and Scotia Group with 351,187 shares, closed 5 cents off at $19.25 .
Preference| Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.50% preference share traded 222,593 units, with a gain of 5 cents to $3.50 and Jamaica Money Market Brokers 7.50% preference share traded 110,462 units at $2.
JSE slips back with 7 stocks up 7 down
Monday’s activity on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, resulted in the prices of 7 stocks rising and 7 declining with 16 securities changing hands, a total of 2,648,086 units traded, valued at $28,212,290, In all market segments.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed 10 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 6 stocks with offers that were lower.
Main Market| The JSE Market Index fell 106.01` points to 72,398.67 and the JSE All Jamaican Composite index declined 118.54 points to close at 79,663.05.
Gains| Stocks gaining with last traded prices, at the end of trading in the main market are, Cable & Wireless with 217,861 shares trading, with a 1 cent rise to 29 cents, Jamaica Broilers 18,500 shares changed hands, 10 cents higher at $4.40, Jamaica Money Market Brokers 4,500 ordinary closed up 5 cents at $7, followed by Jamaica Producers with 19,231 units, to gain 30 cents at $15.50, Pan Jamaican Investment put through 59,124 shares, 10 cents higher to end at $49.10 and Seprod had 36,500 shares changing hands, 10 higher at $10.90.
Firm| The only stock in the main market to close without a change in the last traded price is Ciboney, with 155,500 units at 7 cents.
Declines| The last traded prices of stocks with losses at the end of trading in the main market are, Carreras with 60,148 shares, lost 2 cents to end at $34.63, Desnoes & Geddes traded 100,825 units at a loss of 3 cents, to end at $4.77, Grace Kennedy ended at $57.50, down by $1.95 with only 572 units trading, National Commercial Bank with 222,880 shares, closed with a cent loss at $17.99, Sagicor Group price slipped 40 cents to $9.25 with 1,188,145 shares and Scotia Group declined by 20 cents to $19.30 with 315,896 shares trading.
Preference| No trading took place in the preference section.
2 days with more declines than gains on JSE
Activity on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, ended Friday with the prices of 5 stocks rising and 7 declining, as 20 securities changed hands. A total of 2,173,764 units traded, valued at $31,949,596, in all market segments. For the week, there were three days when the main market indices declined, to two days of advances. There was a small net increase in the indices, with two days when there were slightly more stocks falling, over those rising.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had 6 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 5 stocks with offers that were lower, in line with the recent sideways movement of the market.
Main Market| The JSE Market Index fell 567.08 points to 72,504.68 and the JSE All Jamaican Composite index declined 634.10 points to close at 79,781.59, slightly higher than the 79,650.40 points, it closed the prior week at.
Gains| Stocks gaining with last traded prices, at the close of the main market are, Gleaner with 35,000 shares trading, with a cent rise to $1.06, Grace Kennedy 1,523 shares closed 45 cents higher at $59.45, National Commercial Bank with just 7,000 units changing hands, was up 5 cents at $18 and Proven Investments 55,000 was higher by 0.01 cent at 18 US cents.
Firm| The stocks in the main market to close without a change in the last traded prices are, Caribbean Cement, putting through 4,001 units at $2.36, Carreras with 300,378 units at $34.65, Jamaica Producers with 1,118,531 shares ended at $15.20, Kingston Wharves closed with only 1,652 shares trading at $6.30, but there is little interest in the stock at these prices that is close to one the big trade of 466 million units took place at on Wednesday, the stock now has bids at $5.01 and lower and Sagicor Group with 2,400 shares closed at $9.65.
Declines| The last traded prices of stocks with losses at the end of trading in the main market are, Cable & Wireless with 19,600 shares, lost 2 cents to end at 28 cents, Jamaica Broilers traded just 6,500 units with a 10 cents loss, to end at $4.30, Jamaica Money Market Brokers 7,092 ordinary shares traded with a 5 cents loss, to end at $6.95, Mayberry Investments 3,060 shares closed down 1 cent, to end at $1.46, Scotia Group with 119,680 shares, closed 50 cents lower at $19.50 and Supreme Ventures closed with a 15 cents fall, to end at $1.80, with 10,346 units.
Preference| Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% preference share traded 76,000 units at $3.02 and Proven Investments 8% preference share changing hands with 30,000 units at $5.07.
Scotia Group climbs to $20 pushes indices
After the big trade in Kingston Wharves shares on Wednesday worth over $3 billion, Thursday’s trading seem light in contrast. The main attraction in today’s trading, was the gain in Scotia Group share price, accompanied by more than 1.2 million shares, helping to push the index up, quite sharply. Market activity on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, resulted in the prices of 6 stocks rising and 6 declining as 17 securities changed hands, resulting in 12,983,655 units trading, valued at $63,224,180, in all market segments.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator showed 6 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 6 stocks with offers that were lower.
Main Market| The JSE Market Index jumped 1,007.75 points to 73,071.76 and the JSE All Jamaican Composite index rose 1,126.85 points to close at 80,415.69.
Gains| Stocks gaining with last traded prices, at the end of trading in the main market are, Berger Paints with 3,500 shares trading, rose of a cent to $1.66, Jamaica Money Market Brokers with 10,212 ordinary shares, gained 5 cents to end at $7, Scotia Group rose 99 cents, as 1,230,365 shares changed hands at $20 and Scotia Investments increased 10 cents with 4,825 units to $21.80.
Firm| The stocks in the main market to close without a change in the last traded prices are, Carreras 13,736 units at $34.65, Jamaica Producers with 1,000,520 shares at $15.20 and Proven Investments with 8,639 shares, closing at 17.99 US cents.
Declines| The last traded prices of stocks with losses at the end of trading in the main market are, Barita Investments with 6,777 shares, lost 1 cents to end at $2.18, Kingston Wharves traded just 5,000 units at $6.30, with the loss of 20 cents, National Commercial Bank had 17,500 shares changing hands, with a 25 cents cut in price to $17.95, Sagicor Group with 11,325 shares, closed 10 cents less at $9.65 and Sagicor Real Estate Fund had 306,147 units being active, the price fell 2 cents to $6.50.
Preference| Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.50% preference share traded 87,271 units at $3.45 and Jamaica Money Market Brokers down 7.50% preference share traded 8,660,000 units at $2.
Jamaica Producers buys more KWH shares
Kingston Wharves $3 billion trade, dominated activity on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, in Wednesday’s trading. The Wharf company had 466 million units of its stock sold to Jamaica Producers and Seaboard Corporation, a United States company, involved in food, energy and the shipping industry, by National Commercial Bank.
The stock traded at $6.50 up from $5.01 on Tuesday, but it had a bid of $5.75 which allowed the trade to take place 29.75 percent above the closing price on Tuesday. Normally, there would be a 15 percent limitation on the daily trading price movement, from the prior day’s last traded price. but allowances are made for cases where the bids or offer of the previous day better reflect the market value of the stock.
Trading activity resulted in the prices of 10 stocks rising and 5 declining as only 20 securities changed hands, resulting in 470,310,461 units trading, valued at $3,066,292,531, in all market segments.
Main Market| The JSE Market Index gained 631.80 points to 72,064.01 and the JSE All Jamaican Composite index rose 706.45 points to close at 79,288.84.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, in the main and junior markets, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator had only 4 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and 7 stocks with offers that were lower, suggesting a likely negative movement in prices on Thursday.
Gains| Stocks gaining with last traded prices, at the end of trading in the main market are, Berger Paints with 3,799 shares trading, with a 3 cents rise to $1.65, Carreras with 1,500 shares changing hands, 35 cents higher at $34.65, Desnoes & Geddes put through 13,083 units with a gain of 10 cents to end at $4.80, Grace Kennedy had 4,955 shares changing hands and gained $1, to $59, Kingston Wharves 466,435,712 shares traded with a gain of $1.49 to $6.50, Mayberry Investments closed with a 2 cents gain at $1.47 after 9,000 units went through the market, there were no stock on offer at the close of trading, National Commercial Bank never benefited from the big sale of Kingston Wharves shares and had 89,031 units active, with a 20 cents increase to $18.20 and Sagicor Group saw 3,157,519 units moving 50 cents higher, at $9.75.
Firm| The stocks in the main market to close without a change in the last traded prices are, Proven Investments with 30,000 units, closed at 17.99 US cents and Radio Jamaica with 2,132 shares at $1.04.
Declines| The last traded prices of stocks with losses at the end of trading in the main market are, Caribbean Cement with 93,220 shares, lost 19 cents to end at $2.36, Sagicor Real Estate Fund traded just 14,436 units with 28 cents loss at $6.52 and Scotia Group with 93,248 shares, closed 8 cents lower at $19.01.
Preference| Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.75% preference share traded 10,500 units at $3 and Jamaica Money Market Brokers 7.50% preference share traded 27,546 units at $2.
Little gain from NCB’s KWH sale
National Commercial Bank will collect $3 billion for the sale of its 32.59 percent investment in Kingston Wharves, which it executed today, on the Jamaica Stock exchange at $6.50 per share. But the banking group will not see a boost in its profit from the transaction although the shares were purchased at much lower price than what they have been sold at.
At the end of September last year, the investment was booked at $2,705,495 as the group accounted for their share of profit from the time the investment was made some years ago shortly after the banking was taken over by Lee Chin the majority owner of the bank. Since then Kingston Wharves reported profit of $734 million of which $240 million would be attributable to the bank’s holding. That would bring the amount booked up to June this year to $2.945 billion leaving a small difference which is less than the amounts of profit they would have booked had the sale not taken place.
The group will benefit going forward, from funds that it can either lend or invest in other areas. Jamaica will benefit from some foreign exchange inflows, as a result of the sale.
Kingston Wharves dominates
Kingston Wharves $3 billion trade dominated activity on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, in Wednesday’s trading. 466 million units of the stock, was sold to Jamaica Producers and an overseas entity in the shipping industry. National Commercial Bank was the main seller. The stock traded at $6.50 up from $5.01 on Tuesday but it had a bid of $5.75 which allowed the trade to take place at 29.75 percent above the closing price on Tuesday.
Trading activity resulted in the prices of 10 stocks rising and 5 declining as only 20 securities changed hands, resulting in 470,310,461 units trading, valued at $3,066,292,531, in all the market segments.
Main Market| The JSE Market Index gained 631.80 points to 72,064.01 and the JSE All Jamaican Composite index rose 706.45 points to close at 79,288.84.
Junior Market| The enjoyed trading in 324,780 units valued at JSE $353,366. The Junior Market Index fell 2.40 points to close at 649.56 as just 5 stocks traded with 2 advancing and 2 declining.