The prospectus, for ICreate initial public offer of shares, is now out. The company seeks to raise $70 million to help fund expansion.
The offer opens on Thursday, January 31 and scheduled to close February 14, with 74,062,500 ordinary shares offered to the public at $1.01 each. The company will list on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange, if the issue is successful. Applications are to be made for a minimum of 1,000 shares and multiples of 100 thereafter. If the issue is successful, the share capital will be 197,592,500 units, with 123.5 million units owned by EMedia and Sagicor Investments.
iCreate says “it is a creative learning institute developed with the aim of filling the gap in skills training and development of creatives in the Caribbean and North America. We provide students 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.”
Existing locations are Kingston, Montego Bay, and Miami. Kingston is currently the only location that offers the full suite of courses. In Montego Bay, the company currently offer our flagship course (Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing) with the remainder to come on board once they built out the infrastructure required to deliver the courses based on our iCreate standards. “Our projected timeline for this is by or before the end of the first quarter of 2019. Miami is in the early business development stage,” the company stated in the prospectus.
The company reported a loss of $4 million for the six months to September from revenues of $18 million and projects profit of $8 million from revenues of $147 million for the year to December 2019 with profit of $62 million from revenues of $250 million in 2020.  Shareholders equity is negative $1.3 million dollar at the end of September.
The company is small, has only recently started business and is at a risky stage of development. Investors need to bear this factor in mind. While the forecast for 2020 appears attractive, the income generated in 2018 does not show a trajectory to support the high income growth, that the above forecast reflects. The business will benefit from the exposure that the IPO and listing will bring and that could help drive revenues. The positive is that current operations show signs of profit with at least two quarters last year, enjoying a profit.
The board is extremely large with nine members for a small company when seven seems more appropriate. The board comprise, Sandra Glasgow, Chairman, Tyrone Wilson, Rhys Campbell, David Wan, Mischa Mcleod-Hines, Sheree Martin, Devon Lawrence, Dr. Jennifer Bailey and Kenneth Benjamin.
The majority shares are owned by EMedia Limited, with Sagicor Investments, holding a minority position. Broker to the deal is Sagicor Investments.