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.
