Cable & Wireless with an exchange of 11,351,768 shares and Wisynco Group trading 4,146,449 units dominated trading with 88 percent of volume on the main market on Wednesday.
Market activity closed with 27 securities changing hands, leading to 17,559,021 shares valued at $97,721,084 changing hands. At the close the prices of 8 stocks rose, 10 declined and 9 traded firm.
At the close of the market the JSE All Jamaican Composite Index jumped 2,844.76 points to 315,947.37 and the JSE Index surged 2,591.90 points to 287,863.79.
In main market activity, Barita Investments ended with a loss of 50 cents at $7.50, with 100 stock units, Berger Paints closed with a loss of 15 cents at $17.35, with 143,691 shares, Cable & Wireless concluded trading at $1.36, with 11,351,768 units, Carreras finished with a loss of 25 cents at $11, with 799,248 shares, Caribbean Cement settled $1.50 higher at $34.50, with 26,394 shares. Grace Kennedy traded at $43.10, with 7,210 stock units, Jamaica Broilers finished trading 51 cents higher at $18.01, with 27,100 units, Jamaica Producers closed 40 cents higher at $16.90, with 17,262 shares, Jamaica Stock Exchange ended with a loss of 50 cents at $6.50, with 86,312 shares. JMMB Group concluded trading $1 higher at $25, with 107,680 shares, Kingston Wharves settled at $33.50, with 24,000 units, Mayberry Investments ended trading with a loss of 1 cent at $5.99, with 1,270 shares, NCB Financial Group traded with a loss of 1 cent at $100.84, with 99,261 shares. 1834 Investments finished trading 10 cents higher at $1.30, with 11,877 shares, Pulse Investments ended with a loss of 19 cents at $1.80, with 30,876 shares, Radio Jamaica settled 2 cents higher at $1.07, with 17,435 shares, Sagicor Group ended trading with a loss of 40 cents at $35.60, with 126,082 stock units. Sagicor Real Estate Fund ended trading with a loss of 49 cents at $14.01, with 19,627 shares, Salada Foods traded with a loss of 50 cents at $10.50, with 1,355 units, Scotia Group finished trading 4 cents higher at $52.99, with 35,488 shares, Supreme Ventures concluded trading 28 cents higher at $11.98, with 92,495 stock units, Victoria Mutual Investments finished at $4.10, with 215,060 units and Wisynco Group gained 54 cents to $11.99, with 4,146,449 shares. In the main market preference segment, Jamaica Money Market 7.5% traded at $2, with 160,230 stock units, JMMB Group 7.5% closed at $1.17, with 9,651 shares, 138 Student Living ended at $6.15, with 1,000 shares, Proven Investments climbed 85 cents to a 52 weeks’ high of $5.90, with 100 units traded.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place. For more details of market activities, see “Big surge in JSE Main market – Wednesday.”
Lasco Financial beats 2017 profit in 9 months
Profit after tax, suffered a decline in the third quarter, falling to $54.7 million from $62 million in 2016, as revenues increased by 36 percent to $405 million from $298 million in the 2016 period. The results reflect just one month’s of CrediScotia’s operation.
Responding to the growth in the December quarter results, Lasco’s Managing director, Jacinth Hall-Tracey stated in her report to shareholders, “This is attributed to seasonally strong remittance and cambio inflows bolstered by the income from its new acquisition of CreditScotia, renamed LASCO Microfinance. After recognizing some direct expenses for the acquisition and normal seasonal operational increases, profit from operations for the quarter closed at $91.4 million, an increase of 18.5 percent.” Interest cost associated with the funding of the acquisition was pushed up by $20 million in the quarter and reduced the positive gains in operating profit below pretax profit in 2016 of $75 million to $69 million.
Administrative and other expenses, jumped a sharp 63 percent to $179 million in the third quarter, but for the nine months, it rose by a more moderate 41 percent, to $531 million, well ahead of the increased revenues. Marketing cost rose 22 percent in the quarter to $135 million and 20 percent for the nine months, to $389 million.
Total assets jumped from $1.55 billion at the end of March 2017 to $3.3 billion with the acquisition of the CrediScotia shares, funded by $1.27 billion from by short-term loans, from related companies. The short-term loans will be repaid in full from a long term instrument being arranged.
The acquisition pushed Lasco’s assets to the same amount that Access Financial had at the end of September. There are two differences, Access Financial is valued by the stock market at twice the market value of Lasco’s market value of $6.6 billion, with Access at $11.55 billion. Access’s loan portfolio stood at $2.68 billion at September while Lasco is less than $1.5 billion at the end of December last year.
According to the quarterly report, in the coming months, the loan business will be combined into the subsidiary company. The combined businesses own a network of 13 branches, a large customer base and a billion dollar loan portfolio.
The company looks like it will end 2018 fiscal year with profits around $300 million level with earnings per share of 25 cents. The stock last traded on the Junior Market of the Stock Exchange at$5.24 at a PE around 20 times current fiscal year’s earning, but the focus will be on the next fiscal year when the full benefits of the acquisition of the CrediScotia is fully reflected in the results and one off cost are removed.
Elite Diagnostic IPO opens February 5
Elite Diagnostic initial Public offer that was put off due to errors in the prospectus seems set to open this week, according to the brokers for the issue an advertisement in the Sunday Gleaner states.
According to the advertisement, the issue will open on Monday February 5 and is scheduled to close on February 12. The updated prospectus is expected to be posted on the Jamaica Stock Exchange website this Monday.
The issue was slated to have opened on January 22 at a price of $2 per share with the share and was scheduled to close on January 29 for a total of 70.68 million shares being offered to raise $141 million. Omission of depreciation charge from the profit statement, resulted in an overstatement of the profit for the September quarter resulting in an addendum to the report being released. The addendum did not address errors in the balance sheet relating to fixed assets and some other items, resulting in the cancellation of the opening of the issue. IC Insider.com gathers that the Jamaica Stock Exchange and the Financial Services Commission were reviewing the report last week to ensure that it reflected the correct position.
Of the shares available for subscription in the IPO, 18 million units are reserved for subscription at $2 each. The company currently has 282 million issued shares. The proceeds of the IPO will put the company in a position to repay a substantial part of the debt due lenders amounting to $202 million.
For the financial year ended June last year, the audited financial statements show revenues increasing to $263 million and net profits moved to $44.2 million from $29 million in 2016. Gross Profit margin is very attractive at 67 percent for the 2017 fiscal year with administrative expenses at 31 percent of revenues, excluding depreciation.
Notwithstanding the errors in the interim figures, Elite shares remain BUY RATED with IC Insider.com forecasting profit of 22 cents per share for the current year to June and 35 cents for 2019. The shares are expected to be listed on the Junior Market.