Initial Public Offering

Cari-Med heading for Jamaica Stock Exchange

Word on the street is that the Cari-Med Group is preparing for listing on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, with all probability that this will take place by early 2023 ICInsider.com has been reliably informed.
The company was launched in 1986 as Cari-Med Limited, a small pharmaceutical distribution company, by Glen and Marva Christian.
“The Group has an excellent reputation in the market and is the dominant pharmaceutical company in the country”, one source informed ICInsdier.com.
The Group represents and distributes Lysol, Harpic, Gillette, Duracell, Wrigley, Scotch Brite, Ensure and Purina, to name some of the products they manage.
In 2020 a restructuring of the companies within the Group resulted in Cari-Med being renamed Cari-Med Group, the parent company of the Group.
Marketing activities are organized under three divisions, Consumer and pharmaceuticals, with the third being medical supplies, Hospital, Medical Equipment and Disposables, staffed by sales and marketing personnel teams.
The Group serves markets across the Caribbean region with exports of its home brands such as Lullabye baby products, BemStar Adult Diapers, and the KenClean line of laundry products.
The Group invested more than $6 billion in the development of a distribution centre in St. Catherine to house a 258,000-square-foot facility on land along Salt Pond Road in Bernard Lodge to house the warehouses and administrative offices of the Consumer Goods Division.

CariMed and NCB Capital Markets staff at the signing of an agreement appointing the brokerage house as financial advisers.

Cari-Med employs over 900 employees has been with the company website indicates. Dun & Bradstreet put revenues for the Group at Cari-Med at US$37 million and Kirk Distributors at US$38 million and the Cari-Med building in New Kingston is said to generate rental income of US$20. But one source is of the view that the revenues in the distribution may be closer to J$15 billion, which could deliver a profit of around $600 to $700 million, but the financial cost to build out the warehouse may result in net profit being trimmed below this level.
NCB Capital Markets is the broker for the issue.

Portland JSX over

VM Wealth were the brokers for the IPO.

More than 550 applicants banked $1.52 billion on the prospect of Portland JSX Limited delivering superior returns for them. The company offered 111,818,812 ordinary shares at $11 each in an initial public offering on June 6 to raise $1.23 billion. Investors demanded 23.5 percent more than the amount offered and the company took it all.
VM Wealth Management advised that the Portland JSX IPO closed on June 22, with the offer oversubscribed and raising $1.52 billion, said lead broker VM Wealth Management.
The terms of the prospectus allowed the directors the right to accept subscriptions in excess of the stated raise and will issue and allot additional Shares to satisfy as much of the applications in excess of the stated raise as they, in their sole discretion, shall determine appropriate.
It is the intention of the Company to apply to the Jamaica Stock Exchange for admission of the ordinary shares to the main market.
The invitation to investors stated, “Many investment opportunities remain in essential services throughout the Caribbean, and Fund II is well positioned to pursue them.” DOUGLAS HEWSON, Chairman of Portland JSX stated in the prospectus.
Hewson further stated “With Fund II, Portland is seeking to replicate the success of Fund I – in simple terms, it is the same team executing the same strategy but with the benefits of lessons learned. Our view is that the Caribbean remains overlooked and underserved by equity capital providers. With Fund II, we continue our strategy of investing in scalable businesses in defensive industries while exploiting this capital gap for the benefit of our investors.

The Team believes we are off to a good start. We have closed on USD136 million with leading global emerging market investors, have completed three investments in sectors we find very attractive on a risk adjusted basis (wind energy, telecommunications and financial services), have a strong pipeline of investment opportunities, and have an investment team that is passionate about making a difference. As an investor increasing its capital commitment to Fund II, PJX and, by extension PJX shareholders, will benefit from a look-back into current fund portfolio.”
The Company is incorporated in St Lucia in September 2015 and the business of the Company is to invest as a Limited Partner in Portland Caribbean Fund II which in turn invests in other businesses over a period of several years.
The performance of the Company is highly dependent on the timing of these investments. The Company intends to use the proceeds of the IPO to invest primarily as a limited partner in Portland Caribbean Fund II, which holds a portfolio of equity or debt securities of companies, located in the Caribbean and Latin America the majority of which, over the life of PCF II, are expected to be private. According to the prospectus, PCF II’s objective is to provide above average returns over the long term primarily by investing in undervalued companies with good potential. The industry focus is telecommunications, financial services and energy.
At the time of the IPO the company issued 170,926,161 ordinary shares and the issue brings the total to 309 million units. The company intends to distribute one hundred percent of distributable net profits as dividends.
IC Insider views investment in the company as one for long-term returns, with the hope that the businesses the funds are invested in deliver a good rate of return. The full allocation for all applicants will mean that there will be reduced demand after listing as it appears most demand for the stock has been filled.