Woodcats trades at 96 cents

March 17, 2026 by
Woodcats International invitation for investors to subscribe to purchase 833,333,333 Ordinary Shares, on January 26, was oversubscribed, but only just. The invitation was closed on Wednesday, February 11, but was not enthusiastically gobbled up by investors. The stock was listed on the Junior Market of the Jamaican Stock Exchange on Tuesday, with selling exceeding buying interest. The stock opened trading at 96 cents.

Summary of pre opening bids and offers.

A total of 4,869,953 shares were traded up to a high of $1.04, after which trading was halted for rising more than 15 percent, following 24 minutes of trading.
All applicants in the Employee, Key Partners and Strategic Investors Reserve Pool received the full allotment for all shares applied for. Applications from the public will receive the first 25,000 shares applied for in full, with the excess being allocated 67.66 percent.

The shares were priced at 90 cents at the IPO, with a PE of 11.5 times pretax earnings, compared with a market average of 14, and are set for a torrid period of trading.

Filed Under: JSE Junior Market, Stock Market Tagged With: , , , ,

Woodcats International heading to the JSE Junior Market

January 27, 2026 by
Woodcats International, manufacturer of wooden pallets and related products, in Jamaica, along with the majority owner are offering to the public by way of an Initial Public Offering (IPO) up to 833.33 million ordinary shares at J$0.90 per share, that will raise J$750 million, if fully taken up and is expected to list on the Jamaica Stock Exchange Junior Market, that will permit them to enjoy 10 year period of tax reduction.

Founded in 1999, the company was acquired by Derrimon Trading Company in 2018, and grown appreciably, with net profit increasing more than sevenfold over five years while doubling revenues to J$1.08 billion in 2024. Interim results show a much slower growth of just 3.8 percent to $840 million, slightly better than the 3.2 percent increase enjoyed in 2024.
The PE ratio at the IPO price of 90 cents is just 11.5, based on the latest profit results, which is below the Junior Market average of over 13, with several stocks priced around 18. ICInsider.com projects a rise in the price following the IPO and listing on the junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange.
The issue opens on February 2, 2026 and is scheduled to close on February 20,
The board of directors comprises. Earl Anthony Richards, Derrick Cotterell, Ian Kelly, Patrick Mignott, Nicole Burgher, Jermaine Burrell, Carlton Samuels.
The Company effected cost controlled measures with a 6.2 percent reduction in cost despite inflationary pressures. This reduction was achieved while expanding operations, highlighting operational efficiency. Finance costs increased due to higher lease interest expense from additional warehouse space to facilitate growth.
Current Assets amount to $479 million as of September 2025, compared to $490 million in 2024.
Cash and cash equivalents ended the period at $55 million, compared with $59 million in 2024. The company also hold investments amounting to $108 million, including 30 million Derrimon Trading Company shares with a market value of $60 million. Shareholders’ equity stands at $633 million, with non-current liabilities at $144 million, while current liabilities sit at $124 million.

PROSPECTS FOR 2026
Woodcats seems positioned for continued growth with a three-to-five year plan targeting 20 percent compound annual revenue growth through 2028. Actual outcomes can vary from plans. Key strategic initiatives include expanding certified heat treatment capacity by 50 percent within three years, launching composite wood-plastic pallets by Q4 2026, increasing pallet production output by 30 percent by 2027, and growing the Summerland retail brand with five distribution points across Jamaica and CARICOM by 2027. The Company aims to diversify revenue streams with ancillary sales contributing 20 percent of total revenue by 2028, while establishing Woodcats as the recognised regional hub for sustainable pallet solutions with entry into two new CARICOM markets by 2026. Process automation targeting 40 percent of production by 2026 is expected to reduce production time per pallet by 20 percent, supported by full adoption of digital supply chain management tools by 2027.

NCB Capital Markets is the broker for the issue.

Filed Under: Company News, Company Results, Feature Stories, Initial Public Offers Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Omni Industries overstates profit per share

February 10, 2025 by
Omni Industries reported incorrect earnings per share for the year to September and for the third quarter with the report with the errors remaining on the Jamaica Stock Exchange to date.

Last year May 250 million new shares were offered to the public, effectively increasing the total issued shares to 2.5 billion units. In a strange twist, the company reported an average number of shares at just 1.402 billion units, far less than the amounts originally issued, instead of approximately 2.376 billion. Accounting standards require that the average number of shares in issue is the weighted number of shares outstanding during the period. The company split the 20.9 million shares before the IPO into 2.25 billion. The effective number of shares from the beginning of January is total after the split, of 2.25 billion.  The 250 million new shares issued in May are to be taken together with the 2.25 billion units to compute the weighted average share issued in computing the earnings per share for the year to date and the total issued shares of 2.5 billion are used to compute the EPS for the quarter as there is no average as all 2.5 billion shares were issued before the quarter started.
The effect of the error is that the critically important earnings per share reported in the quarterly are severely overstated. Instead of 2.7 cents for the quarter and 10.4 cents for the nine months, earnings should be 6 cents for the nine months and 1.5 cents for the September quarter.

The company seems to have used the originally stated capital and computed the average based on that. Stock splits or bonuses do not change the equity capital of a company, all they do is to increase the number of issued shares. There is no averaging of the amounts before and after the split as the new shares in issue replaces the original amount. Only freshly issued shares will result in the need for a weighted averaging of the amounts in issue.
Almost three months have elapsed since those results were posted with the glaring error and it still remains on the website of the Jamaica Stock Exchange. This and other issues are reminders that investors are not well served in Jamaica.

 

Filed Under: Company News, Company Results Tagged With: , ,

RA Williams comes to market with error filled prospectus

July 17, 2024 by

The initial offering of 400 million shares in RA Williams opens today at 9 in the morning at $1 each and is scheduled to close on the 31st of July but is expected to close much earlier.
Unfortunately, the prospectus has errors relating to data on profitability in 2024, resulting in uncertainty as to what years some of the information relates with both captioned with 2024 as the financial years and error in the interim statement of financial position to January.
The company currently has 1.16 billion shares outstanding and will have 2 billion units issued at the end of what is expected to be a successful offer. The shares are to be listed on the Junior Market, bringing the total listing back to 48. A total of 190 million of the shares being offered are reserved, with just 210 million available for the general public.
with profit before tax of $133 million before tax for EPS of 83 and a PE of 12 times earnings as of April this year. With the market average PE close to 14, there is not much room for short-term growth other than the hype of initial investment in the IPO and the limited number of shares on offer.
R.A. Williams, a primarily pharmacist-owned and operated pharmaceutical distribution company, that started operations in Spanish Town, St. Catherine in 2012.
In commenting on the issue, the Chief Executive Officer, R A Williams states, “We have recently concluded negotiations with Fourrts (India) Laboratories Pvt Ltd and Mankind Pharma Limited, which will see us introducing new treatment options in areas that require treatment with anti-infectives and dermatological options. From this expanded product offering, we expect a boost in the company’s revenues.”
Willaims went on to state, “The Company is in a new cycle of its growth which will be underpinned by the utilisation of a higher proportion of equity to fund its future expansion. As a result, the proceeds from this Invitation will be mainly used to repay the Company’s debts. This debt reduction will have the immediate effect of reducing the Company’s financing costs, thereby increasing the Company’s profitability and the expected returns to shareholders.
They currently distribute over 130 products, serving more than 700 customers across the island.
Growth in Revenues has been strong since 2020, with an increase of 41.6 percent For the year ended April 2023, to $1.4 billion, above sales of $994 million in 2023, which increased by a sharp 54 percent from $647 million in 2021 and was up 29 percent over the $502 million in 2020 with 2020 seeing an increase of 19 percent.
While revenue growth has been impressive, the annual improvement in the bottom line is even more impressive up to 2023. In 2020 while revenues climbed attractively, profit declined 51 percent from $36 million in 2019 to $18 million but grew 133 percent to $42 million in 2021 and by 26 percent to $52 in 2022 and 88 percent in 2023 to $98 million.
Margins on sales have been impressive at 42 percent over the past two years and an average of 43.4 percent since 2019.
Revenues grew by just 6.3 percent for the year to April 2024 to $1.5 billion with profit falling before tax to $133 million from $161 million in 2023.
Shareholders equity stood at $386 million at the end of April this year. In January 2024, short term loan which is erroneously grouped under a caption headed current assets, amounts to $215 million and related party loans of $107 million.
Sagicor Investments are brokers for the issue.

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

Omni loses altitude early

June 13, 2024 by

Trading in the shares of this week’s newly listed Omni Industries is frozen after 5,000 shares were traded at $1.05 at 12:44 PM after over 4.29 million shares were traded as high as a dollar $1.30.
The stock is scheduled to resume trading just before 1.45 PM. Bids on the stock have thinned out with 21 bids to purchase shares with the highest being 45,000 shares at $1.02 while the lowest offers are at $1.24 for 201,765 shares with 148 offers currently up to a high of $6 and 69 with offers at $1.41 and below. Bids and offers could change markedly when trading resumes, but the quick fall back in price since Tuesday is not a good sign for investors trying to get out with a decent profit in the short term.
The Junior Market Index slipped to 3,693.66 points from Wednesday’s close of 3,712.88 while the JSE Index rose from 318,607.35 to 320,281.27.

Filed Under: Initial Public Offers, JSE Junior Market, Stock Market Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Omni Industries list and jumps 30%

June 11, 2024 by

Omni Industries Limited, the latest listing on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange following an offer of 500 million ordinary shares to the public in May at $1 each, traded 3,138,093 shares up $1.30 for a rise of 30 percent on the public offer that was oversubscribed.
The stock opened trading at $1.25, triggering the market circuit breaker before trading up to $1.30 up to 11.44 AM. The stock has several bids and offers with the highest bid of 995,429 shares at $1.30 with one offer at $1.35 then at $1.40.
As a result of the oversubscription, 20 million shares allocated for Employees were allotted 97.8 percent of the amount applied for. Key Partners’ pool of 234 million shares was allocated 87.2 percent of the applications.  Lead Broker Reserve Pool received all of the 125,068,617 shares that were allotted. The general public was allotted the first 10,000 ordinary shares applied for and 25.5 percent of the balance.

Filed Under: Initial Public Offers, JSE Junior Market, Stock Market Tagged With: , , , , ,

61% over the top

September 25, 2023 by

One Great Studio Initial Public Offer of shares earlier this month was 61 percent oversubscribed in successfully raising just over $338 million. The stock commenced trading on Tuesday last week on the Jamaica Stock Exchange Junior Market and became the 49 listed Junior Market company but that won’t last that way for long as General Accident is expected to migrate to the Main Market on September 29.
The IPO attracted over 3,600 new subscribers and brings the total number of ordinary shares listed on the exchange to 101, pushing the number of securities listed to 149, a release from the Jamaica Stock Exchange stated.
The total capital raised by Junior Market companies totals $21.23 billion, with the above listing lifting the market capitalization of the Market from $187.34 billion as of September 18 to $189 billion.
“We are proud that you will be listing on a market that when benchmarked to pre-Covid activities is doing well,’ said Ms Andrea Kelly, General Manager of the Jamaica Central Securities Depository and JCSD Trustee Services, in her welcoming remarks at the Listing Ceremony. Ms Kelly stated that during the period 2017 to 2019, a total of 79,480 new accounts were created and 110,353, from 2020 to August 2023. “What this means is that we are steadily, despite the current market conditions, building a pool of investors from which companies can tap for equity and debt capital through the Main, Junior and Bond Markets”, stated Ms. Kelly.

Djuvane Browne, Managing Director

Addressing the audience at the Company’s listing ceremony, IGS, Djuvane Browne, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, said, “This is an extremely humbling experience and I think the market has communicated clearly through this offer that they are still interested in investing in great companies. We’d like to thank everyone who participated in this offer “The listing of One Great Studio on the Jamaica Stock Exchange holds profound significance for both Jamaica and the wider region. It exemplifies the potential of young and aspiring entrepreneurs who, armed with their ideas and dedication, can transform those concepts into tangible plans and a client-centric focus.”
One Great Studio that was offered to the public at $1 ended trading on the first day of listing at $1.14 up 14 percent and went on during the week to trade as high as $1.36 on Thursday.

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

One great Studio IPO allocations

September 5, 2023 by

Allocation of ordinary shares in the public offer of 338,627,439 shares in One Great Studio Company Limited that was oversubscribed, has been determined.
According to Barita Investments, brokers for the issue, all applicants in the One Great Studio Team Members and Key Strategic Partners will get full the amounts applied for and General Public the first 20,000 shares applied for and approximately 34.09 percent of the balance.
Applications that were only accepted in part will be refunded the balance of their subscription monies as per the Prospectus, the release stated. The release states that they will now proceed to apply for a listing of its Ordinary Shares on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange, that will bring the total listings on the market to 49.
The level of oversubscription was not stated, but the level of allocation suggests that it was not one of the hot issues as a result, there is unlikely to be any sort term bounce of note, in the early days after the shares are listed.

Filed Under: Initial Public Offers, JSE Junior Market, Stock Market Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Profit climbs at Caribbean Assurance Brokers

June 14, 2023 by

Caribbean Assurance Brokers (CAB) is not one of the more popular Junior Market stocks, coming to the market just when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in Jamaica, and got little post-IPO bounce and has never won the support of the wider market. The company reported record full year and 2023 first quarter profits, yet the stock continues to struggle although currently trading up from the price before the release of both results.
Operating Revenues rose 11 percent from $423 million to $469 million for the year ending December 2022, while Other Operating Income generated $37 million which was down 7 percent from $40 million in 2021, resulting in total income rising 7 percent to $506 million from $463 million in 2021. Profit for the year rose 32 percent to $75 million from $57 million in the prior year, with earnings per share of 30 cents up from 21 cents in 2021.
Selling Expenses were virtually flat for the year at $146 million compared with $145 million in 2021, Administrative Costs rose 10 percent to $281 million from $255, depreciation charge fell 10 per cent to $16 million and finance costs fell 32 percent to $4 from $6 million in 2022.
For the 2023 March quarter, revenues climbed 12 percent to $101.9 million from $90.6 million for the 2022 March quarter. Other Operating Income fell from $14 million to $12 million resulting in total revenues of $114 million rising 9 percent above $105 in 2021.  The company earns the bulk of its income and profit in the September quarter. Profit jumped 840 percent to $17 million after tax from just $2 million in 2021, with earnings per share of 7 cents.
Selling Expenses fell by 30 percent to $25 million from $36 million in 2022, Administrative Cost rose 7 percent to $70 million from $66 million, depreciation charge rose 21 percent to $5 million from $4 million in 2021 and finance costs fell 45 percent to $593,176 from $1 million in 2021.

Caribbean Assurance Brokers selling at a PE of just 8 based on historical earnings & 5 times 2023.

Cash inflows from operations delivered $24 million, up from just $7 million in 2022, but cash funds climbed by $132 million by the end of March after spending $37 million on addition to fixed assets with a reduction in receivables and an increase in payables contributed $146 million in positive flows during the three months period.
At the end of March, shareholders’ equity stood at $480 million up from $390 million at the end of March 2022 and $463 million at the end of December 2022. The company continues to be lightly leveraged with borrowings of $59 million of which $53 million is short term and due to be repaid within twelve months.
Current assets stood at $536 million at the end of March versus $418 million in 2022. Cash and equivalent was $385 million up from $286 million at the end of March 2022, with receivables at $148 million, up from $127 million in 2022.
Current liabilities ended the 2023 quarter at $345 million at the end of March, up from $229 million at the end of March 2022.
ICInsider.com projects EPS of 50 cents for the current year, with the stock priced at $2.53 it last traded on the Junior Market and sits at the number 2 spot on ICInsider.com TOP10. The PE is a mere 5 times 2023 earnings and 8 times 2022 earnings and is one of the most undervalued stocks on the market currently.
The directors approved a modest dividend of 2.67 cents per share, well below the target stated in the prospectus of up to 25 percent of profits. The payment will be on October 26, with the ex-dividend date of September 14.

Filed Under: Buy Rated, Company News, Company Results Tagged With: , , , ,

Image Plus crashed on launch

January 20, 2023 by

Image Plus Consultants share crashed on launch after listing on Friday morning on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock after the price reached a high of $2.25 with 104.4 million units trading in the early morning session.

Dr. Karlene McDonnough – Chairman of Image Plus Consultants Ltd.

The price fell back to just over the IPO issue price of $2 after 90 minutes and traded up to $2.20 after more than two hours of trading. Within a few minutes after midday, investors exchange slightly more than 9.8 million shares, with the last traded price of $2.09.
The listing brings the total number of companies on the Junior Market to a record 48. The shares will be amongst the few IPOs since the covid9 pandemic that failed to rocket higher on the first day of trading.
The company offered 247,889,936 new shares to the public at $2 each, to raise $495,779,872 before expenses, with the offer that opened on December 28 and closed on December 30, last year and was oversubscribed.
Applications from Key Stakeholders, Broker Reserved and Employees got full of the amount applied for, with the General Public getting the first 10,000 New Shares applied for and 35.68 percent of the balance.

Filed Under: Initial Public Offers, JSE Junior Market, Stock Market Tagged With: , , , , ,