Caymanas Park

Trinidadian set for biggest share in SVL

Supreme Ventures set to be controlled by Trinidadian company.

Zodiac International Investments and Holdings Limited, a Trinidad & Tobago based corporation is making plans to take controlling interest in Supreme Ventures, IC Insider.com has gleaned from a reliable source.
Zodiac International indirectly owns half of the 49.90 percent of Supreme Ventures shares controlled by Intralot Caribbean Ventures. Zodiac International is seeking to acquire the remainder of the shares it does not already owns, making them the largest single shareholder if they succeed with the acquisition.
This publication understands that the company has engaged a leading local investment house to raise privately US$40 million to fund the acquisition. There are no indications that Zodiac intends to move the holdings beyond 50 percent and they may well sell of a portion to take it lower.
Supreme Ventures traded at $11 on the Jamaica Stock Exchange on Tuesday putting the value at $29 billion or about US$220 million.
Profit for Supreme Ventures surged 41 percent from $649 million to $918 million after tax, with second quarter profit jumping by a lesser 34 percent to $502 million from $374 million in 2016. Caymanas Park conducts live horse racing in Jamaica and was acquired earlier in the year by Supreme Ventures and is yet to start contributing to profits of the group.

Supreme Ventures profit jumps 41%

Supreme Ventures’ profit rose sharply for the 2017 half year.

Investors responded to strong increase in profit for the six months to June, for Supreme Ventures, by pushing the stock to a record high of $9 on Monday.
Profit surged 41 percent, from $649 million to $918 million after tax, with second quarter profit jumping by a lesser 34 percent to $502 million, from $374 million in 2016. The results translate to earnings per share of 35 cents for the half year and 19 cents for the quarter. The numbers suggest full year earnings of 75 cents, with the stock trading on Monday at $9, it now parades a PE of 12, sitting at the middle of main market listings, but just below the market’s average of 13. Cash flow generated from operations, amounted to just over $1.3 billion for the six months from which $607 million in dividend was paid. $356 million was paid for acquisition of fixed assets after the receipt loan funding of $380 million.
The group reported strong increase in revenues, up 27.5 percent to $14 billion for the quarter and 23.5 percent to $27.4 billion for the six months. The 2017 second quarter figures include revenues for Caymanas Park that was acquired earlier in the year.
Direct cost rose 27 percent in the June quarter, to $12.47 billion and 24 percent year to date to $24.63 billion and operating expenses moved up 29.7 percent to $842 million for the quarter as the cost of the horseracing operations impact cost and 7.3 percent to $1.5 billion for the half year.
The new Caymanas Park horseracing operations brought in revenues of $1.76 billion for the six months period and contributed a loss of $105 million. In the first quarter racing brought in revenues of $328 million and a loss of $19 million. Interestingly, the gaming operations that was a big loss maker in past years contributed $15 million in profit, up from $777,000 in 2016 but down from a profit of $21.4 million in the first quarter, while the Sports betting loss was contained to $34 million, down sharply from $115 million in 2016, but much worse than the loss of $9.5 million in quarter one.
The financial position at June saw total assets of $6.5 billion, including cash of $2.27 billion and non- current assets of $3.17 billion. Shareholders’ equity stood $4 billion and interest bearing debt at debt, at just under $500 million.