Junior Market sheds 102 points in 2 days

November 7, 2017 by

Lasco Distributors rose by 23 cents but Lasco Manufacturing fell 40 cents on Tuesday.

The Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange suffered another big hit at the close of trading on Tuesday the market index shedding 53.84 points to close at 3,072.49 and bringing the loss in two days to 102 points.
Market activities ended with 21 securities changing hands, resulting in 7 securities rising, 9 declining and 5 remaining unchanged as an exchange of 801,297 units valued at $3,685,511 took place compared to 1,181,368 units valued at $5,830,463 on Monday.
Trading ended with an average of 38,157 units for an average of $175,501 in contrast to 56,256 units for an average of $277,641 on Monday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 66,035 units valued at $329,835 and $73,639 units valued at $371,926 previously. In contrast, October closed with average of 74,690 units valued at $362,548 for each security traded.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 3 stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and 2 with lower offers.
At the close of the market, AMG Packaging traded with a loss of 40 cents to close at $3.10, with 32,595 stock units, Caribbean Producers finished with a loss of 14 cents at $3.65, with 266 units traded, Dolphin Cove ended trading 43 cents higher at $17.43, with 1,000 shares, Express Catering settled 1 cent higher at $4.61, with 34,752 stock units, Eppley finished trading at $11.50, with 1,900 units. General Accident concluded trading at $2.80, with 21,288 shares, Honey Bun settled 20 cents higher at $4.80, with 41,293 shares, Jamaican Teas concluded trading with a loss of 30 cents at $3.80, with 6,968 units, Jetcon Corporation ended trading with a loss of 30 cents at $4.50, with 8,200 shares. Knutsford Express concluded trading at $14.75, with 2,410 shares, KLE Group ended trading with a loss of 22 cents at $2.28, with 5,000 units, Caribbean Cream settled at $5.99, with 830 shares, Lasco Distributors concluded trading 23 cents higher at $6.50, with 104,920 shares. Lasco Financial finished trading 40 cents higher at $4.90, with 38,423 stock units, Lasco Manufacturing ended with a loss of 40 cents at $3.90, with 243,262 units, Medical Disposables finished trading with a loss of 27 cents at $5.55, with 16,821 shares, Main Event finished trading at $5.60, with 10,815 shares. Paramount Trading finished with a loss of 29 cents at $3.30, with 121,294 units, Consolidated Bakeries concluded trading with a loss of 21 cents at $2.60, with 3,006 shares, Stationery and Office settled 15 cents higher at $5, with 97,993 stock units and tTech settled 31 cents higher at $7.40, with 8,261 shares. In the junior market preference segment,
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.

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

Sagicor Group reports solid results

November 7, 2017 by

Sagicor Group climbed 23% for the year to September.


Sagicor Group continues to deliver reasonable growth in profit albeit from a modest increase in assets that grew 4 percent over the twelve months to September to reach $363.26 billion.
But things were not a great in all aspects of the group as the overall bottom-line growth would suggests. While the Individual Lines segment, generated profits that more than doubled that of the 2016 period, rising by 105 percent, the Employee benefits segment, delivered just 21 percent better returns than in 2016 but investment and commercial bank suffered moderate decline in profit of 2 and 6 percent respectively, while other operations turned a profit of $289 million into a loss of $197 million.
Profit for the nine-month period climbed 23 percent to $9.08 billion, than the $7.39 billion recorded last year while it grew modestly by percent 9.3 percent to $3.43 billion. Revenues for the nine months rose 18 percent to $53.53 billion and for the quarter it jumped by a strong 42 percent to $23.18 billion 2016 from $16.3 billion in 2016. The earnings per stock unit are 88 cents for the quarter and $2.34 for the year to date compared to $1.89 for last year. For the 2016 the group earned $2.90 per share which should end up around $3.50 per share by year end and importantly, even higher in 2018.
The big rise in cost has been changes in insurance and annuity liabilities moving from $2.6 billion in the 2016 quarter to $8.3 billion and from $10.8 billion to $13.3 billion in the September quarter.
Sagicor traded on Tuesday on the Jamaica Stock Exchange and ended at $37.60.

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

Lasco Distributors hits Junior Market again

November 6, 2017 by

At the close of trading, the Junior Market Index dropped 48.55 points to close at 3,126.33 as the prices of 6 securities advanced, 8 declined and 7 remained unchanged with 21 securities changing hands versus on Friday.
Trading activity on Monday with, resulted in an exchange of 1,181,368 units valued at $5,830,463 compared to 1,983,899 units valued at $10,827,572 on Friday.
Trading ended with an average of 56,256 units for an average of $277,641 in contrast to 132,260 units for an average of $721,838 on Friday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to $73,639 units valued at $371,926 and previously 80,157 units valued at $358,761. In contrast, October closed with average of 74,690 units valued at $362,548 for each security traded.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 1 stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and 4 with lower offers.
At the close of the market, CAC 2000 fell 5 cents to $6.90, with 1,000 shares trading, Caribbean Flavours traded 257 shares at $12, Cargo Handlers concluded trading 5 cents higher at $10.85, with 2,000 stock units, Caribbean Producers gained 4 cents to close at $3.79, with 562,000 units, Express Catering declined 6 cents to $4.60, with 13,000 stock units changing hands. Eppley finished with a loss of 10 cents at $11.50, with 203 units, Honey Bun closed at $4.60, with 1,700 shares, Jamaican Teas ended trading at $4.10, with 1,000 units, Jetcon Corporation finished traded 4,718 shares at $4.80. Knutsford Express ended with a loss of 5 cents at $14.75, in exchanging 1,355 shares, KLE Group traded at $2.50, with 100 units, Caribbean Cream finished 49 cents higher at $5.99, with 32,300 shares, Lasco Distributors dropped 73 cents to end at $6.27, with 300,051 shares, as investors continue to respond negatively to initial court ruling on the case against Pfizer. Lasco Financial concluded trading with a loss of 50 cents at $4.50, with 47,434 stock units, Lasco Manufacturing finished trading with a loss of 20 cents at $4.30, with 9,900 units, Medical Disposables concluded trading 17 cents higher at $5.82, with 75,801 shares, Main Event rose by 10 cents to end at $5.60, with 65,139 shares. Paramount Trading closed 59 cents higher at $3.59, with 37,649 units as investors responded to the news of its expansion into the processing of chlorine and bleach. Stationery and Office fell 15 cents to close at $4.85, with 22,436 stock units trading, Sweet River traded at $3.86, with 3,225 units and tTech finished at $7.09, with 100 shares.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place

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

Main market drops 1,314 points – Monday

November 6, 2017 by

Trading on the Main Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange on Monday closed with the market indices falling with the JSE All Jamaican Composite Index dropping 1,314.00 points to 318,833.12 and the JSE Index declining 1,197.20 points to close at 290,493.04.
Trading resulted in 24 securities changing hands, 7 advanced, 8 declined and 9 traded firm with 894,417 units valued at $17,805,863 compared to 4,118,253 units valued at $67,698,071 on Friday. There were no security trading in the US dollar market, resulting in with the index remaining at 180.67.
Trading ended with an average of 37,267 units for an average of $741,911 in contrast to 164,730 units for an average of $2,707,923 on Friday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 159,395 units valued at $2,804,887 and previously, 200,104 units valued at $3,492,546. In contrast, October closed with average of 1,185,251 units at $16,528,582 for each security traded.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading for the main and US dollar market shows 8 stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and 2 with lower offers.

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

Lasco Manufacturing results disappoint

November 6, 2017 by

There was bad news and good news for Lasco Manufacturing shareholders embodied in the September quarterly report that was just released on Friday, after trading.
The good news is that the September quarter’s revenues and profit were greater than that of the first quarter to June, but far worse than for the similar period in 2016. The other good news is that “the outlook for the full year remains positive as the evidence shows that we are heading in the right direction and measures are in place to deliver improved results,” the management reported to shareholders.
When revenues rise in most manufacturing operations there is usual increase efficiency as overhead cost tends to rise more slowly than revenues, thus resulting in an increase in gross profit margin, the reverse is also true. This can be seen from Lasco operations with gross profit margin falling form 34 percent in 2016 to 31 percent in2017. In the quarter, revenues fell 11 percent to $1.986 billion while cost of sales fell only 7 percent to $1.36 billion but Gross profit dropped 12 percent to $524 million by $131 million.

Bottle heating machine at Lasco Manufacturing.

Operating expenses grew $46 million or 15 percent to $361 million and profit after tax fell sharply to $103 million from $363 million in 2016, resulting in earnings per share of just 5 cents, down from 9 cents in 2016. For the six months period, revenues fell by 12 percent to $3.5 billion from $3.95 billion in 2016. Gross profit dropped 17 percent to $1.1 billion from $1.32 million.
Operating expenses grew $85 million or 14.5 percent to $670 million and profit after tax fell sharply to $337 million from $587 million in 2016, resulting in earnings per share of 8 cents. “The increase was primarily due to growth in marketing investments to support our brand in an increasingly competitive environment” management stated.
IC Insider.com projects profit for the year to March 2018 at 18 cents and 30 cents for 2018 of course the out turn is going to be dependent on a lot of what new products can deliver in sales.
At the end of September, Lasco has shareholders’ equity of $4.6 billion with borrowings of $1.58 billion with $265 million to be repaid within twelve months and overdraft of $353 million. Trade receivables stood at $1.76 billion with inventories of $719 million while trade payables is at $1 billion.
The stock traded on Friday at $4.60 at a PE of 25 times 2018 earnings and 16 times 2019.

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

Paramount adds chlorine & bleach

November 3, 2017 by

Paramount Trading expanding into Chlorine and bleach processing.

Paramount Trading is expanding its operations by offering chlorine and bleach products for contract manufacturing, the company reported.
“The Company recently completed construction of the infrastructure required for a new chlorine and bleach plant at its 6 East Bell Road, Kingston 11 location, which will be outfitted with state of the art equipment and advanced technology.
The Company plans to commence operation of the plant in February 2018,” the release from the company states.
The Company also advises that on 26 October 2017 it entered into an Asset Sale Agreement to acquire bleach plant equipment and other assets from Seprod, for its new chlorine and bleach operations. This acquisition is in line with the Company’s goals to continuously strengthen its presence as a manufacturer in the chemicals market, and will complement the Company’s existing offerings.
Paramount Trading, enjoyed a big turn-around in profit for the first quarter to August this year, with an increase of 126 percent, to $34 million from a 31 percent increase in revenues to $331 million.
The directors’ report that accompanied the August quarterly results stated that they have “an optimistic outlook for the rest of the year and is very excited by the opportunities that will be realized. The construction of the blending plant and laboratory, in conjunction with Alllegheny Petroleum is slated to be complete during the next quarter.”
The stock currently trades at a PE ratio of 15 with the price at $3 on the Junior Market is in against the line with the market. What is true, is the nimbleness of management to identify new income generated opportunities that makes staying close to the stock potentially profitable.

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

Lasco Distributors knocks Junior Market

November 3, 2017 by

Lasco’s ICool drinks.

The Junior Market Index declined by 53.97 points to close at 3,174.88 on Friday as investors reacted negatively to the interim court findings on the Lasco Distributors’ claim against Pfizer pulling the price down by $1.14 down to $7.
At the close of the Junior Market activities, 15 securities changing hands, versus 18 on Thursday as the prices of 4 securities advanced, 6 declined and 5 remained unchanged. Trading ended in an exchange of 1,983,899 units valued at $10,827,572, compared to 1,808,817 units valued at $8,566,954 on Thursday.
Trading ended with an average of 132,260 units for an average of $721,838 in contrast to 100,490 units for an average of $475,942 on Thursday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 80,157 units valued at $358,761 and previously 61,095 units valued at $292,203. In contrast, October closed with average of 74,690 units valued at $362,548 for each security traded.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer indicator reading shows 4 stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and 3 with lower offers.
At the close of the market, AMG Packaging settled at $3.50, with 17,905 stock units, Caribbean Flavours finished trading at $12, with 243 shares, Cargo Handlers concluded trading with a loss of 20 cents at $10.80, with 2,819 stock units being exchanged, Caribbean Producers traded 5 cents higher at $3.75, with 5,000 units, Derrimon Trading slipped 1 cent to $6.99, with 131,130 shares changing hands. Express Catering ended with a loss of 9 cents at $4.66, trading 27,258 stock units, General Accident settled with a loss of 21 cents at $2.80, with 155,155 shares, Honey Bun closed at $4.60, trading 1,863 shares, Jetcon Corporation closed unchanged at $4.80, with 539,189 shares. Lasco Distributors closed with a loss of $1.14 at $7, with 521,025 shares after the court handed down an interim ruling in the case against Pfizer, Lasco Financial concluded trading at $5, with 502,835 stock units, after trading as high as $5.15, Lasco Manufacturing closed 10 cents higher at $4.50, with 22,372 units, Main Event ended trading with a loss of 10 cents at $5.50, with 14,976 shares. Paramount Trading traded 1 cent higher at $3, with 15,325 units and Stationery and Office finished trading 15 cents higher at $5, with 26,804 stock units.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.

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

Lasco Distributors drop to $7

November 3, 2017 by

Lasco Distributors shares dropped to $7 with 257,123 units trading after the courts handed partial judgement in its case for damages against Pfizer resulting from an injunction from selling the drug Salts of Las Amlodipine in 2005.
Lasco’s claimed US$300 million but the court is saying that the amount is too high based on the evidence presented.
In an interview with Lascelles Chin in 2014, he confirmed that the amount was sales estimated to be lost. In such cases the amount to be claimed would be loss of profits. From all indications, the loss is unlikely to be more than 50 percent of this amount. Based on the exchange rate of J$59.06 used to compute the inventory losses from disposal of the drug for Medimpex, the loss is likely to be priced using this rate with interest to be computed at the local interest rates.

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

Juniors resume rally

November 2, 2017 by

Trading picked up on the Junior Market on Thursday with almost three times the levels on Wednesday as 18 securities changed hands, resulting in an exchange of 1,808,817 units valued at $8,566,954.
A total of 23 securities traded on Wednesday, accounting 696,098 units valued at $3,413,352. At the close of market activities, the prices of 5 securities advanced, 7 declined and 6 remained unchanged, leading to the Junior Market Index advancing 19.87 points, to close at 3,228.85.
Trading ended with an average of 100,490 units for an average of $475,942 in contrast to 30,265 units for an average of $148,407 on Wednesday. The average volume and value for the month to date amounts to 61,095 units valued at $292,202. In contrast, October closed with an average of 74,690 units valued at $362,548 for each security traded.
IC bid-offer Indicator| At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice| bid-offer indicator reading shows 2 stocks ended with bids higher than their last selling prices and 5 with lower offers.
At the close of the market, Blue Power concluded trading at $45, with 1,000 units, CAC 2000 settled 45 cents higher at $6.95, with 1,103 shares, Caribbean Flavours traded 10 cents higher at $12, with 3,205 shares, Caribbean Producers finished trading with a loss of 9 cents at $3.70, with 27,500 units, Express Catering traded 25 cents higher at $4.75, with 18,300 stock units. General Accident settled with a loss of 10 cents at $3.01, with 7,324 shares, Honey Bun finished with a loss of 30 cents at $4.60, with 500 shares, Jamaican Teas ended trading at $4.10, with 25,971 units, Jetcon Corporation ended with a loss of 4 cents at $4.80, with 159,841 shares. Knutsford Express ended trading at $14.80, with 4,226 shares, Caribbean Cream finished at $5.50, with 20,000 shares, Lasco Distributors settled 13 cents higher at $8.14, with 299,753 shares, Lasco Financial finished at $5, with 145,831 stock units. Lasco Manufacturing finished 1 cent higher at $4.40, with 150,582 units, Medical Disposables settled with a loss of 15 cents at $5.65, with 2,784 shares, Main Event finished at $5.60, with 82,039 shares, Paramount Trading finished trading with a loss of 1 cent to close at $2.99, with 684,249 units and Stationery and Office settled with a loss of 45 cents at $4.85, with 174,609 stock units.
Prices of securities trading for the day are those at which the last trade took place.

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

Wisynco Group IPO is imminent

November 2, 2017 by

NCB Capital Markets Manager, Origination and Structuring Stanley Thompson (left) exchanges laughs with Wisynco Group Chairman William Mahfood during a signing of the IPO agreement. Sharing in the moment, too, are Wisynco Chief Executive Officer Andrew Mahfood and PriceWaterhouseCoopers Director Fiona Hyman

Wisynco Group today announced its intention to offer shares in the company by way of an initial public offering (IPO), confirming IC Insider.com report yesterday.
Information gleaned is that the draft prospectus is being vetted by the Jamaica Stock Exchange, the Financial Securities Commission and the Company Office of Jamaica with the IPO expected to come to market before the end of this year and could happen in November.
Founded in 1965 by the Mahfood family, West Indies Synthetic Company (WISYNCO) began manufacturing ‘Iron Man’ water boots from a 6,000 square foot factory in Twickenham Park, St. Catherine. The company now ”owns and manufactures a portfolio of category-leading beverage brands such as WATA and its extension of cranberry flavoured-WATA, BOOM Energy Drink and BIGGA Soft Drink. In addition to its owned brands, Wisynco is the exclusive local bottler for the Coca-Cola Company, as well as third-party beverage brands such as SqueezZ and Hawaiian Punch also distributing for global giants such as Red Bull, Tru Juice, Freshhh, Kellogg’s, General Mills, Nestlé and others.
A rapidly-growing company, Wisynco has increased sales significantly in recent years moving from JMD 12.6 billion in 2013 to $21.2 billion in 2017. Over the last five years the company’s year-to-year sales growth has ranged between 9 – 21% with a compound annual growth Rate (CAGR) of 11.06% over the same period. The business has a strong gross profit margins, averaging approximately 36% since 2012.
Wisynco’s revenues are just under the $22.8 billion generated by Lasco Manufacturing and Distributor combined. With the above profit margin, gross profit would be $7.5 billion. The two Lasco companies have administrative, selling and distribution cost of $4 billion to March this year. IC Insider.com puts the cost for Wisynco at $4.5 billion per annum which would result in a pretax profit in the order of $3 million and after tax around $2.5 billion. If the company came to market around the mid-range of PE of 12, this would value it at $30 billion. An issue of 20 percent in the IPO, would target inflows be around $6 billion, but IC Insider.com gathers that a vastly smaller sum is being targeted to be raised by the company but some existing shareholders may seek to divest some of their shares.
According to William Mahfood, Chairman of the Wisynco Group, “the IPO will allow us to share the growth and

Wata produced by Wisynco

success of our business with a wide cross section of our customers and employees, especially following on the outpouring of wishes and support after the fire last year”
With over 350,000 square feet of warehouse, 110,000 square feet of factory space the company has over 700 sales-related full time employees.
We are a proud Jamaican company with a deeply rooted commitment to the country’s development.” Mahfood said. “Our stated mission is to improve the lives of our people which extends to all stakeholders –team members, customers, partners and now with the planned IPO to fellow Jamaicans alike,” Mahfood said.
NCB Capital Markets has been engaged as arranger and broker for the transaction with PricewaterhouseCoopers acting as financial advisors to the company.

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