Transjamaican Highway is JSE top stock

December 1, 2024 by
Transjamaican Highway with earnings on track to reach 39 cents per share for the year, ended as the top performing company on the Jamaica Stock Exchange at the end of November with the stock price rising 81 percent and ending the month at a record closing high of $4.88 and is up 88 percent when dividends of 19 cents paid during the year are included.

A measure of the Main Market performance can be gleaned from the All Jamaica Composite Index recording a mild increase to the end of November, with a cut in interest rates from just under 12 percent to 6.7 percent, with the market starting to rise from a bottom in September to a nine and a half months high at month end.
In the period, almost half of the Main Market listed ordinary stocks recorded gains in the first 11 months of this year while 26 declined and one remained unchanged. Former Junior Market listed, Lasco Manufacturing delivered a solid 66 percent rally during the period. Energy producer Wigton with ownership restrictions lifted earlier in the year, rose a robust 59 percent followed by cigarette marketer Carreras, with a 38 percent increase, with First Rock and General Accident each gaining 32 percent and QWI Investments 31 percent.
The top 10 losing stocks, recorded losses from 14 to 44 percent, with Pulse Investments as the leading loser dropping a hefty 44 percent, following the loss of its founder and chief executive earlier in the year, RJR Group, with a torrid year of lower revenues and heavy losses, was next with a decline of 36 percent followed by Proven Investments down 26 percent, with profit under pressure, NCB Group, with an increased supply of stock on the market following a tepidly received additional share issue in May this year, suffered a 26 loss and Sagicor Group 19 percent.

Filed Under: Feature Stories, JSE Main Market, Stock Market Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

2020 IPOs offer opportunities but

February 17, 2020 by

Investors can look forward to 20 new listings for the Jamaica Stock Exchange in 2020, split equally between Junior and Main Market stocks, information from the Jamaica Stock Exchange indicates.
The final number could be more, or it could end being less than the above number. Over the past two years, offers of new shares on the market affected demand for stocks already listed on the exchange at the time of the offering, as some investors disposed of exiting stocks to raise funds to invest in the new offerings. Switching stocks had more impact in the Junior Market than the Main Market. Investors can expect more volatility this year if the new offers come close to the number mentioned above. The sell-off of existing stocks offers investor opportunities to pick up some good quality stocks at bargain prices.
First Rock is the first issue to come to the market to take up a large sum to expand its operation with more real estate acquisitions. Government-owned Trans-Jamaican Highway comes to market and could pull $14 billion from the market, and could add several thousand new investors to the market as the publicity associated with the issue attracts new investors. Caribbean Assurance Brokers is the third for 2020 and as they seek $100 million in new capital. Alliance Financial Services’ initial public offer is scheduled to come in February or early March, with the broker being JMMB Securities.
Others that expressed an interest in 2019, to list include, Tropical Battery, AJAS, Marathon Insurance Brokers, ARC Manufacturing, Express Fitness. Government of Jamaica’s ownership in the Jamaica Public Service Company, Jamaica Mortgage Bank, Factories Corporation, while UDC should have some entities that should go as well.
Grace Kennedy Capital Market has five issues working on to come to market during the year; one is said to be in the food flavouring business.

Filed Under: Investment 2024 Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

IPOS and more IPOS

February 6, 2020 by

First Rock IPO closed on the originally scheduled day last week. There was no announcement made about the level of subscription, but IC Insider.com gathers the issue was oversubscribed.
Sharp on the heels of First Rock is Trans Jamaica Highway that is coming to gobble up as much as $14 billion. IC Insider.com’s preliminary review of Trans Jamaica Highway prospectus is that it lacks critical information for investors to make a proper assessment of the issue easily. So much is happening with the company finances, that investors should be provided with a profit forecast for 2020 and 2021 at least. Building a robust capital market requires more information not less. It is full time that investors get all relevant information so they can make informed investment decisions. The average Jamaican cannot make a proper assessment of this unusual company. It is unacceptable that some companies have to provide forecasted earnings regardless of how meaningless they may be and others with relevant information that can guide investors, keep it to themselves.
IC Insider.com’s preliminary assessment is that the PE ratio for Trans Jamaica based on estimated 2020 earnings is around 25. It not attractively priced as Wigton Windfarm. A more detail assessment of the offer will be coming soon.
IC Insider.com gathers from usually reliable sources that Caribbean Assurance Brokers’ prospectus will be out on Thursday as they seek to raise just $100 million from the market.

Filed Under: Feature Stories, Initial Public Offers Tagged With: , , , , , ,

First Rock heads to market for US$18m

December 20, 2019 by

First Rock Capital Holdings, the real estate owners and developers in January next year open their public share offering to the Jamaica capital market to raise up to US$18,487,465 in added capital.
The Company issued 166 million class A shares before commencing commercial operations in the first quarter of 2019, following the successful closure of its private placement in March 2019 that raised US$15.5 million.
The Initial Public Offer by First Rock is up to 106,083,332 Shares in two classes with Class A comprising 51,053,333 US$ Class A Ordinary Shares at 12 US cents each and 10.8 US cents for Reserved shares. Additionally, 55,029,999 Class B Ordinary shares are Jamaica dollar-denominated and priced similar to the class A share. The company reserves the right to upsize the offer by an additional 53,041,666 shares in the event of oversubscription.
The general public will be offered Shares of 16,250,000 Class A Ordinary shares, with 14,553,333 units reserved for Key Strategic Partners and 20,250,000 reserved for First Rock Affiliates. Of the 55,029,999 units of the Class B Ordinary shares, 37,916,666 are available for the general public, with 3,613,333 shares are reserved for subscription to Key Strategic Partners and 13,500,000 shares are reserved for subscription by First Rock Affiliates. Application to list on the JSE is dependent upon the Company’s raising at least $200 million or the US dollar equivalent.
The company owns properties in Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica and in the USA.
Opening Date January 13, next year and scheduled to close on January 31.
First Rock reported a loss from operations of US$203,648 before a US$374,301 forex gain to September resulted in a pretax profit of US$170,653.
The forecasted is for the profit of US$2,647,696 in 2020, US$4,653,992 in 2021 and US$6,614,802 in 2022 with income coming from rental and from 2021 includes revenues from the sale of units. The projections have annual inflows from foreign exchange gains and fair value increase in investment properties.  While the fair value gains may well occur as forecasted, there is no certainty that there will be annual forex gains.
The company’s directors are, Dr. David Lowe, Douglas Halsall, York Page Seaton, Kisha Anderson, Norman Reid 8 Davis Avenue, Alton Morgan and Lisandra Rickards. Sagicor Investments are brokers to the issue.

Filed Under: Initial Public Offers Tagged With: , , ,