Mayberry Investments (MIL) offer of 120,114,929 ordinary shares at $7.56 in the capital of Mayberry Jamaican Equities opens today at 9 and is scheduled to close on July 30.
The offer is slated to raise $908 million after cost of relating to the issue. The shares are expected to be listed on the main market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange, if the issue is successfully taken up and will result in 80 percent of the shares owned by MIL. MIL states in the prospectus that they will reduce their holding if they receive institutional buying interest in them.
There is an inter-company margin loan of J$545,386,403 due to MIL but after the offer, the loan is expected to be fully repaid. The offer is fully underwritten by companies owned by Mark and Christopher Berry.
Mayberry Jamaican Equities is a closed end mutual fund that will be paying a cash dividend. The Board intends to adopt a liberal dividend policy. Assuming there are sufficient distributable reserves then for each financial year the Company intends to target a dividend payout of up to 75 percent of net profits after tax.
Mayberry Head office in Kingston.
The Company does not have any employees of its own and that is consistent with its business model. It has an investment management agreement with Mayberry Asset Management (“MAM”). MAM in turn relies on the investment expertise of its principals, Christopher Berry, Konrad Mark Berry and Gary Peart, to provide the requisite investment management services to the Company. A performance fee of 8% of any increase in the Company’s Total Comprehensive Income must be paid to MAM.
The Company will buy and sell securities from, and to, brokers and dealers in the Jamaican market and the US securities market. It may also invest in bonds or notes issued by borrowing companies.
At the end of 2017, shareholders equity stood at US$71 million up from US$51.6 million in 2016 as the underlying investment grew in value. Revenues from interest dividends and trading gains amounted to $3.7 million from $1.7 million in 2016 and profit of US$3.1 million compared to $1.26 million. The company reported profit of $1.25 million for the March 2018 quarter from total revenues of $1.87 million and shareholders’ equity rose to US$76.2 million.
There are positives and negatives to take from the offer. Unlike unit trust, the issue may not provide the same level of liquidity, but the use of leverage from time to time can boost returns for the portfolio, if executed properly. The flip side it can negatively affect returns if the portfolio value stagnates of falls.
The vehicle is new to the stock exchange and it is not known how investors will price the stock once listed.
