Lasco Distributors profit disappoints

May 31, 2019 by

Lasco Manufacturing dropped 40 cents to push Junior Market down.

Revenues rose by 11.44 percent to $18.1 billion from $16.3 billion at Lasco Distributors for the 2019 fiscal year to March, but the good news stop there.
Cost rose rapidly while other revenues declined. Administrative, marketing and sales expenses rose sharply by 20 percent to $2.98 billion from $2.49 billion resulting in pretax profit dropping sharply to $692 million from $1.08 billion.
Operating profit rose 11.9 percent to $3.55 billion from $3.17 billion. Taxes rose to $94 million from $75 in 2018 leaving net profit at $598 million and earnings per share at 17.5 cents versus $1 billion or 29 cents in 2018. The 2018 result, got a boost from inflows from a claim against Pfizer that resulted in other income of $395 million with 2019 generating just $139 million.
Gross cash flow brought in $880 million but the company ended with net cash outflows of $400 million. Cash and short term investments amounted to $1.5 billion down from $1.8 billion in 2018. Fixed assets grew to $1.8 million from $1.48 billion in 2018.

Lasco Distributors products.

At the end of the year, borrowed funds amounted to $540 million. Payables ended at $2.84 billion down from $3.6 billion in 2018. Current assets slipped to $6.6 billion from $5.9 billion. Shareholders’ equity grew to $5.2 billion from $4.57 billion.
Earnings per share for 2019 came out at 17.5 cents with IC Insider.com projecting 30 cents for 2020.The stock traded at $3.70 at a PE Ratio of 13 times current year’s earnings.

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

Juniors drop 100 points AJI up 12,190 pts

May 27, 2019 by

With less than 15 minutes to the close of trading, the Junior Market index dropped 99.56 points 3,057.15 but the JSE All Jamaican Composite Index jumped 12,189.89 points to a record 470,855.28.

The JSE Index surged 11,077.42 points to a new record of 428,872.50 as Scotia Group traded at $53 and NCB Financial Group trades at $155 but was, up to $164 earlier in the day and PanJam Investment jumped $7.50 to $97.50.

Wigton Windfarm had less demand and traded 196 million shares and now trades at 69 cents.

Filed Under: Breaking News, JSE Combined, Stock Market Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Sweet profit baking at Honey Bun

May 27, 2019 by

Honey Bun doubles Q2 profit.

Profits before tax increased by solid 82 percent to $72 million for the Junior Market listed Honey Bun for the company’s second quarter to March. Profit after tax surged a much stronger 104 percent over the similar 2018 period to $71 million.
For the second quarter to March, revenues increased 15.5 percent over the correspondent quarter last year to $406 million from $352 million in 2018, with the growth bettering the 14.2 percent or $36 million revenues in the first quarter to December.
“Revenues from export sales have increased by 16 percent over the prior period, sales growth is attributable to our meeting customer demand having invested in increasing our production capacity over the period,” the director informed shareholders in their report accompanying the quarterly results. For the six months period, revenues increased by 15 percent over the correspondent of last year to $775 million, up from $675 million in 2018 while profits before tax increased by 57 percent to $112 million and after tax profit grew 75 percent to $109 million. The financial performance was driven by improvements in productivity, process efficiencies and other cost savings initiatives. Administrative, Marketing and finance cost rose 13 percent in the second quart and 17 percent for the half year compared to the similar periods in 2018.

One Honey Bun’s Products.

Earnings per share for the six months period rose to 23 cents from 13 cents in 2018 and for the quarter from 7.4 cents to 15 cents. For the full year, IC Insider.com forecast earnings of 45 cents per share with 2020 projected to reach 75 cents.
Total current assets less current liabilities amounted to $178 million, up from $115 million in 2018. The company’s cash as stood at $166 million with investments at $85 million while borrowed funds amount to just $26 million. Shareholders’ equity ended the period at $713 million.
The stock traded last on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange at $5.01 at a PE ratio of 11 times 2019 earnings, well below that of the majority of companies.

Filed Under: Buy Rated Tagged With: , , , , ,

JSE wants to double share ownership

May 25, 2019 by

The JCSD now has 154,500 shareholders on its registry with the near 12,000 new ones this month.

There are nearly 155 thousand investors listed as shareholders in the Jamaica Central Security Deposit but the Jamaican Stock Exchange (JSE) is planning to double that number in five years.
The number of local share ownership got a big boost from the 11,772 new investors who applied for shares in Jamaica’s recent IPO, Wigton Windfarms recently.
The addition of new investors pulled in by the new stock offer, brings the total to 5.5 percent of the country’s population. According to Marlene Street Forrest, Managing Director of the JSE, “the number based on the adult population is 12 percent. The aim is to get to 20 to 25 percent of the adult population in five years.” The numbers may not sound great deal but Jamaica ranks pretty high globally.
Data gleaned by IC Insider.com shows that just 12.3 percent of UK overall population own shares in public listed companies, stock ownership in India is not more than 2.5-3 percent of the total population. In 2011, Austria had 7 percent rate and Germany was around that of Jamaica at 5.6 percent while France was at 14.5 percent. The data is clearly saying that the world have not done a good job of educating the population about stock ownership.

NCB pulled in more shareholders in 1987 than any other listing on the JSE

The JSE will be using a variety of means to get the numbers up in Jamaica. Government’s divestments have the most telling impact in increasing the numbers of new investors. The major reason is the need for aggressive marketing of IPOs, of government entities, to get full take up of the shares.
According to an article written by Emma Simon of the British Telegraph newspaper, in April 2013,
“One of the lasting legacies of Margaret Thatcher’s administration was to enable and encourage millions of ordinary people to invest in the stock market. In 1979 just 3 million people owned shares, 7pc of the adult population. By the end of the Eighties one in four people – 12 million adults – owned shares. The boom was fuelled by a wave of privatisations in which many state-owned industries were sold to private investors.” The situation was similar in Jamaica, where the number of shareholders, estimated at around 10,000, but National Commercial Bank, Now known as NCB Financial Group, the first government divestment attracted more than 32,000 investors, more than tripling the number of shareholders.

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

10th record closing high for JSE

May 24, 2019 by

Wigton Windfarm traded 472.8 million shares to close at a record 83 cents and NCB Financial Group closed at $153 to help push the JSE main market to a tenth record close for the year.
At the close, the JSE All Jamaican Composite Index jumped 4,339.37 points to a record close of 458,665.39 and the JSE Index climbed 3,943.35 points to a new record of 417,795.08.
Wigton Windfarm shares were trading for the second day on the exchange after a successful Initial Public Offer and has gained just over 60 percent so far. The market closed with Wigton having 129 million shares on the bid to buy and 39.8 million units on offer of shares. The stock closed with 10.9 million units on the bid at 83 cents and 2.09 million units are on offer at 84 cents.
Meanwhile the Junior Market index traded with a gain of 10.21 points to close at 3,138.66.

Filed Under: Breaking News, JSE Main Market, Stock Market Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Wigton pulls 11,772 new investors

May 23, 2019 by

Popular new stock issues have a way of electrifying stock markets and empower new stock market investors to increase their wealth.
It happen when National Commercial Bank went public in 1987 and again with the Wigton IPO.
“While the overall number of applications was 31,200, we are pleased to report that 11,772 or 38 percent are new investors to the market. This represents an increase in the number of account holders in the JCSD of 7.6 percent,” Marlene Street Forrest managing Director of the Jamaica Stock Exchange stated in addressing the observers at the listing ceremony of Wigton Windfarm listing on Wednesday.
Street Forrest went on to say, over 64 percent of those who invested were under 50 years of age with approximately 50 percent under 40 years old.” According to Street Forrest, females comprised 56 percent of the applicants for shares compared to 44 percent males. “The average spend for new investors was approximately $124,000 with the offer oversubscribed by 158.8 percent.”

Wigton stock could double soon.

Wigton is the largest IPO the list on the JSE since the listing of NCB, Telecommunication of Jamaica in the latter part of 1980s. In recent times, it is ahead of Wisynco Group with 7,769 applicants. “We have made tremendous strides as Wigton with total applications of 31,200 and four times the size of that offer has taken 21 days from the close of the offer to listing today” Street Fporrest stated that,
Andrew Holness, Prime Minister of Jamaica, stated that he wanted not only for Jamaicans to own assets but to share in the profitability of the company and this was achieved with the Wigton issue. He noted also that shares the company own in Jamaica Public Service and Jamaica Mortgage Bank will be divested in the short to medium term.
The stock closed with the price rising by a maximum of 30 percent at 65 cents trading 8,351,000 but ended with the bid at 66 cents which will allow it to trade as high as 85 cents on Friday.

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

Wigton opens at 65 cents

May 22, 2019 by

Wigton stock could double soon.

Shares of the latest public offer of Wigton Windfarm, will start trading today on the Jamaica Stock Exchange when the market opens at 9:30 at 65 cents.
Within minutes of opening more than 8 million shares were on the bid between 35 cents (just 1 bid) and 76 cents with sellers offering more than 12 million units to sell between 60 cents and $5
After a few minutes of trading just under 7 million shares traded at 65 cents. The shares will be restricted to a maximum price rise of 15 cents today or 30 percent of the IPO price, which is the maximum the stock exchange circuit breaker rule permits. If the bid closes at 84 cents at the close of trading then it can trade as high as $1.09 on Friday when the market reopens after the Labour day holiday.
The stock should be very liquid and that may constrain the price movement as speculators take profit early. The PE ratio of the stock is 8.5 times earnings but with many main market stocks priced in the 15 times region Wigton could get to that valuation and sell just under $1.
Mayberry Investments the main broker for the issue stated that the public sector pool was oversubscribed accordingly and all Public Sector workers who applied for less than 15 million shares were fully allocated while investors from the general public, were fully allocated up to 8.5 million shares.

Filed Under: Breaking News, JSE Main Market, Stock Market Tagged With: , , ,

Wigton shares list today

May 22, 2019 by

Wigton stock could double soon.

Shares in the highly sought after Wigton Windfarm will start trading today on the Jamaica Stock Exchange when the market opens at 9:30 this morning.
The shares that saw more than 31,000 investors the 11 million units that were on offer was heavily oversubscribed and persons within the financial market expects that it will trade at a premium to the 50 cents offer price. The shares will be restricted to a maximum price rise of 15 cents today or 30 percent of the IPO price, which is the maximum the stock exchange circuit breaker rule permits. If the bid closes at 84 cents at the close of trading then it can trade as high as $1.09 on Friday when the market reopens after the Labour day holiday.
The stock should be very liquid and that may constrain the price movements as speculators take profit early. The PE ratio of the stock is 8.5 times earnings but with many main market stocks priced in the 15 times region Wigton could get to that valuation and sell just under $1.
Mayberry Investments the main broker for the issue stated that the public sector pool was oversubscribed accordingly and all Public Sector workers who applied for less than 15 million shares were fully allocated while investors from the general public, were fully allocated up to 8.5 million shares.

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

Wigton Windfarm lists next Wednesday

May 15, 2019 by

Wigton IPO prospectus is out.

The wait by investors in the latest initial public offer of Wigton Windfarm to Jamaicans to list will soon be over with the shares set to list on the main market of the Jamaican Stock Exchange next week Wednesday.
The JSE in a response to IC Insider.com question today said that they are planning for the listing for next week. Other information has confirmed that the listing ceremony will start at 8:30 on Wednesday.
The government of Jamaica that previously owned all the company through Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica upheld the decision to sell all of the shares. Investors gobbled up all the 11 billion shares at 50 cents each and still wanted more as some 32,000 applications went after the issue making it one of the initial public offers to attract more than 30,000 applicants.
Information gleaned is that the allocation of shares will leave many of the bids with large amount of shares will not see much more than 4 million units being allocated to them.

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

Jamaica Producer’s appetite for acquisitions

May 8, 2019 by

Jamaica Producers sale of 30 percent of JP Snacks Caribbean, for  $720 million add to the group’s cash pile for the Group bringing it to just over $6 billion.
The total amount of financial resources provide good ammunition to undertake a sizeable acquisition, locally or overseas.
In an exclusive interview with Jamaica Producers’ Managing director, Jeffrey Hall, IC Insider.com gleaned that the group has a number of plans under its belt. Hall stated that all their businesses are doing well, but The Group is looking growth opportunities in infrastructure and Manufacturing. The low cost of and abundance of local capital is opening up possibilities for local businesses not seen for a long time, Hall stated. However, the group is not about to take on just about any business.
Tortuga International Holdings Company 62 percent subsidiary of Jamaica Producers is one such acquisition the group did a few years ago. The company manufactures the rum cake for sale with the main target being the overseas residents. The company produces rum cake in Jamaica for all the markets except Cayman suffered a fall in revenues in 2018. Tortuga International had revenues of $879 million in 2018, down from $907 million in 2017, according to the group’s audited accounts. Hall attributes the decline to the effects that hurricanes in the region on tourism traffic to some countries within the region.
“Tortuga will launch Mamajuana Rum Cake in the Dominican Republic in the second quarter of 2019 and Vanilla Rum Cake un Mexico in the third quarter of the year Hall told IC Insider.com.  
Producers delivered $816 million profit for shareholders of the group up from $662 million in 2017 from a 21 percent increase in revenues to $19.6 billion compared to $16.2 billion in 2017, at the same time gross profit rose below the increase in revenues at 16.4 percent. Segment results show JP Foods and Drinks division revenues rising 29 percent to $11.3 billion from $8.8 billion in 2017 and delivered segment profit that rose 36 percent to $378 million while the logistic segment comprising mainly Kingston Wharves grew revenues 11 percent to $8.3 billion for a 26 percent rise in profit $2.7 billion.

 

Filed Under: Company News, General Business News Tagged With: , , , ,