Junior Market rise on greater volume – Monday

The Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange index advanced by 17.52 points to close at 2,863.43 on Monday. 23 securities changing hands, compared to 25 changing hands on Friday.
Market activity resulted in the prices of 10 securities advanced, 8 declined and 5 remained unchanged from an exchange of 2,509,141 units valued at $11,095,172 versus an exchange of 1,770,268 units valued at $6,952,112 on Friday.
Trading ended with an average of 109,093 units for an average of $482,399 compared to an average of 70,811 units for an average of $278,084 on Friday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 106,129 units at $429,494, compared to an average of 104,792 units at $405,635 on the previous trading day. February closed with an average of 338,697 units at an average value of $1,495,774 for each security traded.
IC bid-offer Indicator|At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 5 stocks ending with the bid higher than the last selling price and 3 with lower offers.
At the close of the market AMG Packaging ended with a loss of 15 cents at $2.05, with 104,354 stock units trading, Blue Power concluded trading with a loss of $1.99 at $33.01, with 10,000 units, CAC 2000 finished with a loss of 30 cents at $8.70, trading 1,000 shares, Caribbean Cream ended trading 22 cents higher at $6.50, with just 2,000 shares, Caribbean Producers rose by 1 cent to end at $4.11, with 962,877 units. Derrimon Trading concluded trading at $7.48, with 57,908 shares, Dolphin Cove finished with a loss of 90 cents at $16.10, exchanging 750 stock units, Elite Diagnostic settled with a loss of 8 cents at $2.77, with 381,025 units, Eppley ordinary share ended trading at $10, with 15,000 shares. Express Catering traded with a loss of 4 cents at $4.30, with 51,030 shares, FosRich Group finished trading at $2.50, with 33,614 shares, General Accident closed 8 cents higher at $3.04, with 169,615 stock units, GWest Corporation ended at $2.90, with 6,040 units changing hands. Honey Bun concluded trading 10 cents higher at $4.30, with 20,800 shares, Jamaican Teas rose 10 cents to close at $5, with 32,000 stock units, Jetcon Corporation traded with a loss of 40 cents at $4.50, swapping 210,424 units, Knutsford Express ended 4 cents higher at $15, with 66,427 shares. Lasco Distributors concluded trading 10 cents higher at $4.10, with 308,000 stock units, Lasco Financial finished 10 cents higher at $4.60, with 4,514 units, Lasco Manufacturing settled 34 cents higher at $4.09, with 24,200 shares, Main Event ended trading at $6, with 6,152 shares. Medical Disposables traded 5 cents higher at $4.85, with 311 shares and Stationery and Office closed with a loss of 38 cents at $5.10, with 41,100 units changing hands.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.

CrediScotia costs Lasco Financial $1.5B

Lasco Financial profit dropped for 2017 Q3.

The acquisition of company operating CrediScotia, renamed LASCO Microfinance Limited cost Lasco Financial around $1.5 billion, data disclosed in the company’s December quarterly report shows.
The acquisition was funded primarily from related party advances which stands on the books at $1.27 billion. The amount will be repaid in full from a long term instrument being arranged to raise $1.5 billion at an interest rate of 9.5% and also to provide working capital to allow for expansion of the loan portfolio.
The acquisition was the main contributor for a $1.5 billion surge in the assets of the enlarged Group, taking it to $3.26 billion at the end of December.
Scotia Jamaica Microfinance Company, name was changed, effective at the start of December, following the acquisition by LASCO Financial Services in November 2017.
LASCO Microfinance now, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lasco Financial, is the ”fourth largest contender in the local microfinance market behind Jamaica National Small Business Loans, Access Financial Services and Worldnet Investment,” a release from Lasco disclosed.
The group “aims to continue a seamless transition to merge its networks, systems and processes over the next few months to effectively organize its operations under two main business lines – money services and loans through the

Jacinth Hall-Tracey, Managing Director of Lasco Financial.

LASCO Money brand and LASCO Microfinance.”
At the end of March 2017 loans advanced to borrowers on the books was $282 million and seemed to have climbed to approximately $650 million by September last year. The acquisition has increased the group’s loan portfolio to $1.3 billion, Managing Director of Lasco, Jacinth Hall-Tracey confirms. The merger has also almost tripled the loan team to just under 90 persons, spread over 13 loan offices island-wide.
Interestingly, while the acquisition of CrediScotia took place in November, the results for Lasco show no increase in income for the December quarter. For the September quarter total revenues reached $396 million up from $272 million in 2016, but the December quarterly, reports trading income of $407 million compared to the revenue in September, but it was well ahead of the $298 million generated in the December quarter of 2016. The December quarter is usually the period of highest revenues exceeding all other quarters by a good margin. “There was reduced fX spread compared with September quarter which impacted income; it also led to a revaluation loss,” Hall-Tracey informed IC Insider.com. Profit fell in the quarter to $55 million from $100 million in September an unusual development as profit would normally be greater than the amount reported in the September quarter, after recognizing some direct expenses for the acquisition and normal seasonal operational increases,” Hall-Tracey stated. There was short term debt which attracted legal & professional fees for the short term loan and there was finance cost as well as transaction fees for the short term borrowings to settle the sale price on Hall-Tracey informed IC Insider.com.
Adjusted for the above one off cost and set back earnings from ongoing operation is well ahead of the $55 million reported for the period in 2017 and augurs well for improved results for the March 2019 results.

Mahfood family sold over 111.8m Wisynco shares

Wisynco had the largest trades on Friday.

On Friday almost 112 million shares in Wisynco Group traded with a value of $1.16 billion. “Yes the family sold 111,820,000 units on Friday with four pension funds taking up the block,” William Mahfood Chairman of Wisynco advised IC Insider.com.
Mahfood advised that when the family took the decision to go public the intension was to have sold 4 percent of the share the company to the public by way of new shares and 19 percent of the existing shares. Ahead of the initial offering a decision was made to sell only 20 percent of the company to the public with the balance to be sold after.
The sale of the shares on Friday was full filling the original decision taken which reduces Wisynco Group Caribbean Ltd holdings to just over 74 percent of the total shares issued or 2.776 billion units. Mahfood says there are no plans to sell any more shares.

Junior Market falls again – Friday

The Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange index declined for the second day, with a fall of 14.96 points to close at 2,845.91 on Friday. At the close, the prices of 11 securities advanced, 8 declined and 6 remained unchanged from 25 securities changing hands, compared to 26 changing hands on Thursday.
Market activity resulted in an exchange of 1,770,268 units valued at $6,952,112 versus an exchange of 3,574,111 units valued at $13,735,257 on Thursday.
Trading ended with an average of 70,811 units for an average of $278,084 compared to an average of 137,466 units for an average of $528,279 on Thursday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 104,792 units at $405,635. February closed with an average of 338,697 units at an average value of $1,495,774 for each security traded.
IC bid-offer Indicator|At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 7 stocks ending with the bid higher than the last selling price and 2 with lower offers.
At the close of the market, Access Financial closed at $50, with 1,188 shares trading, AMG Packaging ended 17 cents higher at $2.20, with 4,032 stock units, CAC 2000 finished at $9, with 2,000 shares, Caribbean Cream ended trading 28 cents higher at $6.28, with 2,267 shares, Caribbean Producers rose 5 cents to close at $4.10, with 2,450 units. Derrimon Trading concluded trading with a gain of 48 cents to $7.48, with 71,245 shares, Elite Diagnostic settled 12 cents higher at $2.85, with 633,886 units, Eppley ended trading at $10, with 2,000 shares, Express Catering traded at $4.34, with 22,012 shares. FosRich Group finished trading with a loss of 11 cents at $2.50, with 169,827 shares changing hands, after the company reported earnings per share of 14 cents from 81 percent rise in profits for 2018. General Accident closed 6 cents higher at $2.96, with 26,621 stock units, GWest Corporation ended with a loss of 10 cents at $2.90, with 2,260 units, Honey Bun concluded trading 20 cents higher at $4.20, with 26,000 shares. Jamaican Teas ended trading with a loss of 9 cents at $4.90, with 68,758 stock units, Jetcon Corporation traded 30 cents higher at $4.90, with 65,640 units, Key Insurance finished trading with a loss of 6 cents at $3.94, with 17,204 shares, Knutsford Express ended with a loss of 4 cents at $14.96, with 7,562 shares. Lasco Distributors concluded trading at $4, with 97,597 stock units, Lasco Financial finished with a loss of 22 cents at $4.50, with 382,367 units, Lasco Manufacturing settled at $3.75, with 52,070 shares, Main Event ended trading 10 cents higher at $6, with 7,545 shares. Medical Disposables traded with a loss of 5 cents at $4.80, with 26,480 shares, Paramount Trading finished trading with a loss of 25 cents at $3.10, with 6,515 stock units, Stationery and Office closed 18 cents higher at $5.48, with 71,200 units after the company posted a 78 percent rise in profits and tTech concluded trading $1 higher at $6, with 1,542 shares changing hands.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.

Some impressive profit results

The latest set of listed companies to report financials show an array of impressive profits for a number of them, turn around situation in one and flat results for a few.

C&W reported a small loss of $138M for 2017 before tax.

Cable and Wireless reported a very small loss for 2017 down sharply from a billion loss in 2016 and is about to break out into a highly profitable period starting in 2018. The company that has chalked up accumulated losses of more than $48 billion reported losses of only $138 million before tax for 2017, and just $383 million after tax, flowing from a 9 percent rise in revenues to $27 billion with a big rise in mobile revenues by 54 percent to $15 billion while interest cost at $5.2 billion the company lost the year, down from a loss of $1.4 billion in 2016. With the sharp fall in interest rates locally interest cost should drop by around $2 billion in 2018 and plunge the company into an excellent profit position with continued growth in revenues. Unfortunately, the parent company wants to take over the company at a low price, after local shareholders have suffered losses for many years at just the stage when good times seem to be returning.
Newly listed FosRich Group posted an 81 percent increase in profit to $55 million and earnings per share of 14 cents from revenues that fell 9.5 percent to $1.05 billion, but helped by other income of $42 million comprising mostly interest and foreign exchange gains.
Jamaica Producers enjoyed strong gains in operating profits with an increase of 77 percent to $662 million after adjusting the 2016 results for non-recurring gains of $3.7 billion. Operating income for the year was up an impressive 34 percent resulting in gross profit rising from $3.24 billion to $5.14 billion. Earnings per share came in at 59 cents.
Stationery and Office Supplies that listed in August last year enjoyed a 29 percent bounce in revenues for the full year and 37 percent rise in the December quarter to record full year revenues of $906 million and a 78 percent rise in profits to $83 or earnings per share of 38 cents.
Kingston Wharves profit climbed 18 percent from $1.29 billion to $1.63 billion for 2018 from revenues that moved from $5.41 billion to $6.37 billion for a rise of 28 percent and ended with earnings per share of $1.14.
Grace Kennedy continues to struggle to increase profits ended 2018 with flat results of $4.15 billion versus $4.12 billion in 2016. The 2016 figures and one off gains that makes the 2018 better that it appears on the surface. Revenues rose from $88.3 billion to $92 billion in 2018 and other revenues slipped from $2.38 billion to $2.1 billion. The group reports $4.15 in earnings per share.

FosRich profit rose 77% for 2017.

Supreme Ventures reports earnings per share at $44 cents from profits that are virtually flat with 2016 results coming from a 25 percent rise in revenues to $56.2 billion. Profit for the year ended at $1.197 billion from $1.178 billion. The 29017 suffered from write off of assets and impairment amounting to $484 million while repairs and maintenance rose by $110 million.
The 2017 listed Victoria Mutual Investments reports a 9 percent rise in profits to $346 million from a 19 percent rise in net income of $966 million and produced earnings per share of 29 cents.

Big drop in Junior Market – Thursday

The Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange index dropped sharply on Thursday with 64.06 points fall to close at 2,860.87 as the prices of 7 securities advanced, 11 declined and 10 remained unchanged from 26 securities changing hands, the same number changing hands on Wednesday.
Market activity resulted in an exchange of 3,574,111 units valued at $13,735,257 versus an exchange of 33,681,650 units valued at $100,532,367 on Wednesday. Trading ended with an average of 137,466 units for an average of $528,279 compared to an average of 1,295,448 units for an average of $3,866,630 on Wednesday. February closed with an average of 338,697 units at an average value of $1,495,774 for each security traded.
IC bid-offer Indicator|At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 6 stocks ending with the bid higher than the last selling price and 4 with lower offers.
At the close of the market, Access Financial closed at $50, with 15,366 shares, AMG Packaging ended with a loss of 3 cents at $2.03, with 600,000 stock units, Blue Power concluded trading with a loss of 4.99 cents at $35, with 2,000 units, Caribbean Cream ended trading with a loss of 30 cents at $6, with 26,844 shares, Caribbean Flavours traded with a loss of 70 cents at $10, with 18,827 stock units. Consolidated Bakeries closed at $1.90, with 11,700 shares, Derrimon Trading concluded trading at $7, with 53,928 shares, Elite Diagnostic settled with a loss of 17 cents at $2.73, with 317,840 units, Express Catering traded 6 cents higher at $4.34, with 13,842 shares. FosRich Group finished trading 10 cents higher at $2.61, with 72,592 shares, General Accident closed at $2.90, with 423,294 stock units, GWest Corporation ended at $3, with 147,526 units, Honey Bun concluded trading with a loss of 1.14 cents at $4, with 605,300 shares. Iron Rock finished at $3, with 3,600 shares, ISP Finance settled $1 higher at $12.05, with 7,773 shares, Jamaican Teas ended trading 29 cents higher at $4.99, with 15,600 stock units, Jetcon Corporation traded at $4.60, with 176 units. Knutsford Express ended at $15, with 4,651 shares, Lasco Distributors concluded trading with a loss of 30 cents at $4, with 432,046 stock units, Lasco Financial finished 22 cents higher at $4.72, with 339,866 units, Lasco Manufacturing settled with a loss of 49 cents at $3.75, with 199,371 shares. Main Event ended trading with a loss of 10 cents at $5.90, with 3,995 shares, Medical Disposables traded with a loss of 4 cents at $4.85, with 59,680 shares, Paramount Trading finished trading 5 cents higher at $3.35, with 32,500 stock units, Stationery and Office closed 24 cents higher at $5.30, with 147,287 units and tTech concluded trading with a loss of 1 cent at $5, with 18,507 shares changing hands.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.

Elite dominates Junior market trading – Wednesday

Elite Diagnostics accounted for 31.7M of Wednesday’s Junior Market trading.

Elite Diagnostic traded 31.7 million shares on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange on Wednesday with 26 securities changing hands, resulting in an exchange of 33,681,650 units valued at $100,532,367.
The number of securities trading on Wednesday was slightly down from 27 that were changing hands on Tuesday and resulted in 6,804,974 units valued at $25,440,524 changing hands on Tuesday. The Junior Market index advanced 28.52 points to close at 2,924.93 as the prices of 8 securities advanced, 8 declined and 10 remained unchanged.
Trading ended with an average of 1,295,448 units for an average of $3,866,630 compared to an average of 252,036 units for an average of $942,242 on Tuesday. An average of 338,697 units at an average value of $1,495,774 traded, and previously 272,715 units at an average value of $1,495,774. In contrast, January closed with an average of 122,386 shares, valued at $489,704 for each security traded.
IC bid-offer Indicator|At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 6 stocks ending with the bid higher than the last selling price and 4 with lower offers.
At the close of the market, Access Financial closed at $50, with 1,800 shares, AMG Packaging ended with a loss of 14 cents at $2.06, with 221,913 stock units, Blue Power jumped $5.12 to close trading at $39.99, with 500 units, Caribbean Cream settled 13 cents higher at $6.30, with 44,700 shares, Caribbean Flavours ended trading with a loss of 20 cents at $10.70, with 3,798 shares. Caribbean Producers traded with a loss of 35 cents at $4.05, with 30,000 stock units, Cargo Handlers closed $10.45 higher at $10.45, with 395 shares, Derrimon Trading ended with a loss of 50 cents at $7, with 127,016 shares, Elite Diagnostic finished 20 cents higher at $2.90, with 31,748,062 stock units, Eppley ordinary share settled at $10, with 50,196 units. Express Catering ended trading with a loss of 5 cents at $4.28, with 280,992 shares, General Accident finished trading at $2.90, with 70,400 shares, GWest Corporation closed at $3, with 159,035 stock units, Honey Bun ended $1.04 higher at $5.14, with 200 units trading. Jetcon Corporation ended trading at $4.60, with 161,700 stock units, Knutsford Express closed at $15, with 3,293 shares, Lasco Distributors ended at $4.30, with 41,039 shares, Lasco Financial concluded trading with a loss of 30 cents at $4.50, with 565,272 stock units. Lasco Manufacturing finished with a loss of 6 cents at $4.24, after 59,400 units trading, Main Event settled 15 cents higher at $6, with 49,590 shares, Medical Disposables ended trading 4 cents higher at $4.89, with 3,000 shares, Paramount Trading closed 20 cents higher at $3.30, with 300 shares. Stationery and Office finished trading at $5.06, with 35,154 stock units and tTech ended 55 cents higher at $6, with 13,695 shares. In the junior market preference segment, Derrimon Trading ended at $2.15, with 10,000 stock units and Eppley 9.5% finished at $7.29, with 200 shares changing hands.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.

Junior Market trading picks up – Tuesday

Trading in GWest shares accounted for more than 3.7m units.

The Junior Market enjoyed robust trading on Tuesday with 27 securities changing hands, up from 23 on Monday.
The market closed with an exchange of 6,804,974 units valued at $25,440,524 compared to 1,526,211 units valued at $4,615,508 on Monday. The Junior Market index lost 19.93 points to 2,896.41 as the prices of 10 securities advanced, 11 declined and 6 remained unchanged.
Trading ended with an average of 252,036 units for an average of $942,242 compared to an average of 66,357 units for an average of $200,674 on Monday. An average of 272,715 units at an average value of $1,495,774 traded, and previously 274,310 units at an average value of $1,538,475. In contrast, January closed with an average of 122,386 shares, valued at $489,704 for each security traded.
IC bid-offer Indicator|At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 7 stocks ending with the bid higher than the last selling price and 3 with lower offers.
At the close of the market, Access Financial jumped by $5 higher to $50, with 71,095 shares changing hands, AMG Packaging ended with a loss of 24 cents at $2.20, with 115,129 stock units, Cargo Handlers settled with a loss of 1 cent at $10.89, with 1,000 shares, Caribbean Cream ended trading with a loss of 3 cents at $6.17, with 4,000 shares, Caribbean Flavours traded at $10.90, with 2,650 stock units. Caribbean Producers finished trading 40 cents higher at $4.40, with 100 units, Derrimon Trading concluded market activity with a rise of 50 cents to $7.50, with 13,559 shares, Elite Diagnostic settled 3 cents higher at $2.70, with 1,297,976 units, Eppley concluded trading at $10, with 80,000 units, Express Catering ended trading 3 cents higher at $4.33, with 8,000 shares. FosRich Group traded with a loss of 19 cents at $2.51, with 62,000 shares, General Accident finished trading 10 cents higher at $2.90, with 438,271 shares, GWest Corporation rose 40 cents and closed at $3, with 3,703,621 stock units, Honey Bun ended with a loss of 1.05 cents at $4.10, with 355,724 units. Iron Rock concluded trading at $3, with 3,300 shares, Jamaican Teas settled with a loss of 5 cents at $4.70, with 100,150 shares, Jetcon Corporation ended trading at $4.60, with 65,965 stock units, KLE Group finished trading at $2.30, with 4,325 shares. Knutsford Express closed at $15, with 32,400 shares, Lasco Distributors ended with a loss of 10 cents at $4.30, with 184,234 shares, Lasco Financial concluded trading with a loss of 5 cents at $4.80, with 176,447 stock units, Lasco Manufacturing finished with a loss of 13 cents at $4.30, with 43,940 units. Main Event settled with a loss of 18 cents at $5.85, with 4,668 shares, Medical Disposables ended trading at $4.85, with 3,000 shares, Stationery and Office finished trading 4 cents higher at $5.06, with 25,555 stock units and tTech ended 45 cents higher at $5.45, with an exchange of 7,465 shares. In the junior market preference segment, Eppley settled 4 cents higher at $7.29, with 400 shares changing hands.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.

Junior Market volume slides – Monday

The market closed on Monday with 23 securities changing hands, up from 21 on Friday, resulting in an exchange of 1,526,211 units valued at $4,615,508, compared to 5,241,602 units valued at $19,221,963, on Friday.
The Junior Market index fell 11.94 points to close at 2,916.34 as the prices of 8 securities advanced, 9 declined and 6 remained unchanged.
Trading ended with an average of 66,357 units for an average of $200,674 compared to an average of 249,600 units for an average of $915,332 on Friday. An average of 274,310 units at an average value of $1,538,475 traded, and previously 288,936 units at an average value of $1,632,571. In contrast, January closed with an average of 122,386 shares, valued at $489,704 for each security traded.
IC bid-offer Indicator|At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 4 stocks ending with the bid higher than the last selling price and 3 with lower offers.
At the close of the market, AMG Packaging ended with a loss of 1 cent at $2.44, with 3,500 stock units, Caribbean Cream ended trading with a loss of $1.32to $6.20, with 7,900 shares, Caribbean Flavours traded 1 cent higher at $10.90, with 9,725 stock units, Caribbean Producers finished trading with a loss of 40 cents at $4, with 12,490 units, Consolidated Bakeries closed 12 cents higher at $1.90, with 8,059 shares. Derrimon Trading concluded trading with a loss of 15 cents at $7, with 1,707 shares, Elite Diagnostic settled with a loss of 23 cents at $2.67, with 1,231,455 units, Express Catering traded with a loss of 40 cents at $4.30, with 17,778 shares, FosRich Group finished trading at $2.70, with 103,300 shares. General Accident closed at $2.80, with 6,012 stock units, GWest Corporation ended 10 cents higher at $2.60, with 12,653 units, Honey Bun concluded trading 2 cents higher at $5.15, with 500 shares, Iron Rock finished at $3, with 10,000 shares. ISP Finance settled $1.05 higher at $11.05, with 2,500 shares, Jamaican Teas ended trading with a loss of 3 cents at $4.75, with 12,045 stock units, Jetcon Corporation traded at $4.60, with 11,050 units, Knutsford Express ended at $15, with 1,627 shares. Lasco Distributors concluded trading 3 cents higher at $4.40, with 19,647 stock units, Lasco Financial finished with a loss of 15 cents at $4.85, with 24,372 units, Lasco Manufacturing settled at $4.43, with 6,000 shares, Main Event ended trading 3 cents higher at $6.03, with 3,000 shares, Stationery and Office closed 2 cents higher at $5.02, with 18,059 units and tTech concluded trading with a loss of 40 cents at $5, with 2,832 shares changing hands.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.

Jamaican Teas exports sales up 66%

Jamaican Teas CEO, John Mahfood addressing the company’s last AGM in 2017.

Export sales at Jamaican Teas grew a very strong 66 percent for the December quarter while domestic manufacturing sales increased by 15 percent. Overall sales at increased 22 percent to $456 million the quarter.
Revenues from our manufacturing operations grew 40 percent in the period while supermarket sales increased by 9 percent. Profit after tax rose 9 percent to $51 million, reflecting better performance from core operations and resulted in earnings per share of 7.6 cents.
A release accompanying the results by the company, stated that, “importantly, the trend in sales continued into the second quarter and are meeting the Company’s expectations. Our investment portfolio continued to increase in value over the December levels.”
Gross profit margin increased from 23 percent to 24 percent in the quarter over 2016. Other income was down by 59 percent, falling from $17 million to $7 million. The 2016 results benefited from greater contributions from realized investment and foreign exchange gains than in the latest quarter. In this regard realized investment gains during the quarter was $6 million compared with $12 million in the same period a year ago.Marketing and sales cost rose 16 percent to $9.6 million, administrative cost rose 34 percent to $43 million, reflecting added associated with the KIW acquisition, but finance cost fell 51 percent to $4.6 million.
The company said that “with the acquisition of KIW International and the reinvestment of the proceeds of sale from the property formerly owned by the company, quoted investments at the end of the quarter totaled $319 million.” It could have a major impact on profits, if the local stock market continues to record gains for the year.
The financial position improved over 2016 with equity capital of $1.1 billion, net current assets of $549 million and long term loan of $193 million.

The stock last traded at $4.78 on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange.

John Jackson is a directors of the company.