JMMB reported a big jump in profits from ongoing operations for the first quarter to June this year with profit after tax and due to shareholders of J$753 million and earnings per share of 46 cents for the quarter ending June 2013 compared to $470 million in 2012. The investment bank now looks set to rake in profits of around $2 per share for the year to March 2014, which makes the stock cheap at the last selling price of $8.

Last year, JMMB acquired all the shares of Capital & Credit Group. The 2013 figures are a combination of both entities, unlike 2012 when there was only a few days results included of both. Hence, the comparison with each year’s figures may appear distorted. For the current year, net interest income grew to $1.178 billion from $984 million in 2012. Gains on securities trading jumped more than 100 percent to $674 million from $300 million. Overall, net operating income was up strongly to $2.06 billion from $1.39 billion. Operating expenses also moved up from $837 million to $1.13 billion, a 35 percent increase that is mostly related to the CCFG acquired entities. Last year’s results had a one-off gain of $1.57 billion resulting from the CCFG acquisition, which was a surplus of assets acquired over the purchase price.

Regionally, Dominican Republic contributed J$390.9 million to Group profits. The Trinidad & Tobago based IBL Group, an associated company, contributed a loss of J$25.5 million due mainly to additional provisioning for loans. The Group has already stated that they have agreed to acquire the shares held by the other shareholder in the bank.

Shareholders’ equity stands at $18.7 billion at the end of June and the group has total assets under management of $175.5 billion and increase of $20 billion since last year June, a growth of 14 percent. JMMB has placed focus on lending with loans having increased by 17 percent to $12 billion since March or 69 percent annualised. While loans are a relatively small part of the assets, it could be one of the more profitable areas if lending is done smartly to minimize losses. If growth continues at the current pace, in a few years it could be a major part of the group’s assets and add much to profits. More importantly, when the IBL shares are fully owned the total loans will effective increase sharply over what is being shown now.

For the quarter, banking and related services only contributed revenues of $487 million out of a total revenues of $3.77 billion and profit of only $77 million.

JMMB is a financial conglomerate with the principal activities are securities brokering, securities trading, merchant banking, dealing in money market instruments, operating a foreign exchange cambio and managing funds on behalf of clients.

Insider call | JMMB is an IC Insider Buy Rated stock.

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Jamaica Money Market Brokers reported improved 2013 fiscal year results to March with net profits of $3.87 billion, the first time in its history. Not even the $750 million loss incurred in the write-off of investment premiums that the company had to effect in swapping government debt for lower yielding ones could dent the profit for the year.

All the good news did not come about from normal operations. In 2012 the company acquired all the shares of Capital & Credit Group (CCFG) and merged some elements into JMMB‘s other operations. The acquisition price was less than the net asset value of the acquired company resulting in a book gain of $2 billion. Had it not been for these one-off items, profit would have been lower by approximately $1.1 billion. In 2012, the company earned $2.2 billion after tax but those results were boosted by a large one-off gain from a security sale. IC Insider’s assessment is that earnings from ongoing operations, is around $1.65 per share.

Interest earned | For the year ending March, JMMB earned $11.25 billion in interest. In 2012, the comparative amount was $9.17 billion. The company improved the interest margin considerably, from 63 percent to 70 percent, garnering $4.648 billion compared to $3.54 billion in 2012. Net interest and other income amounted to $6.997 billion up from $5.99 billion in the previous year. The 2013 figures have 9 months income from the CCFG acquisition. Unfortunately, operating cost rose faster that the income with expenses climbing $1.4 billion to $4.6 billion. When the one-off gain in income realised in 2012 is taken into consideration, the increase cost does not look that bad against the growth in income.

Size can matter | Total assets climbed to $167 billion, higher than the amount at the time of the take over. Growth here is important if the group is to keep profits on the rise. Mergers and acquisitions usually result in duplicated cost which is reduced overtime. JMMB should fully integrate CCFG operations during this year and should minimize cost and start to enjoy most of the benefits of the merger. To date, not much is seen in the profit results to suggest that the group has benefited much from the acquisition. The improved interest margin may have been one of the benefits.

The last quarter had revenues of $3.85 billion, a gain of 28 percent over the similar period in 2012 and is up from an increase of 20 percent realised in the December quarter. Pretax profit before exceptional income and charges was up to $735 million compared to $590 million in 2012. In spite of the debt swap charge, a tax credit of $791 million for the quarter resulted in after tax profit climbing to $647 million versus $441 million in 2012. In the March 2012 quarter, there was a tax charge of $144 million.

Capital | In spite of the write-off of the premium on GOJ bonds that were swapped, JMMB still carries $1.7 billion as investment fair value reserves up from just $400 million in 2012. The gains have helped, along with the profit reported for the year, to push the equity capital to $16.7 billion up from $10.8 billion in 2012.

Undervalued | JMMB will be acquiring the shares it does not already own in International Bank in Trinidad, no terms have yet been announced. This acquisition will put management in full control and enable them to optimize business and returns from it. The annual accounts show minority interest of $118 million, so this share of profit plus whatever increase obtains for this year will flow to profit.

JMMB could produce net earnings in the order of $3.2 billion for the year ending in March 2014. The outcome could be positively influenced by trading gains and how active the stock market becomes. An active stock market would result in increase brokerage fees and gains from trading shares for their own account as well as increase in the size of the unit trust portfolio that would also result in increased fee income.

Stock outlook | The shares that were languishing at $8 jumped on the release of the results to $9 on heavy volume. The shares which are listed in Trinidad are also in demand on that stock exchange. The PE is around 6 times 2013 earnings from ongoing business and is selling below net book value as well.