Palace Amusement Company is set to split the stock that last traded at $620 per share on Monday, with a range of 620 to $1,150 for 2022.
The company informed the Jamaica Stock Exchange that the Directors proposed to meet on Tuesday, December 20, 2022, and will be discussing the possibility of a stock split. A split is almost a certainty, with the company having borrowed over $700 million, the opportunity exists to raise fresh capital by way of an additional public issue of shares to pay down the debt. Splitting the stock to make them more attractive to retail investors would be a logical step.
To achieve an attractive price and create wide-scale public interest would require a split in the order of 100 to 200 to one of the existing issued shares and would raise the issued number of shares to between 250 to 300 million units.
Other companies talking about stock splits that could come in 2023 are Medical Disposables that could come with a stock split and a rights issue of more shares to use to fund expansion.
Stationery and Office Supplies informed shareholders at the recently held Annual General Meeting that the directors have been looking but currently the liquidy of the stock does warrant one just yet.
Others that should give serious consideration to splitting their stocks are Access Financial Services, with the stock trading over $20, Dolphin Cove priced in double digits, Barita Investments, Cargo Handlers, Honey Bun, ISP Finance, Knutsford Express and Main Event.
Trinis missing the salient points
Another Trinidad company (Massy Holdings) is set to list on the Jamaica Stock Exchange on the basis that the sophistication and growth opportunities are evident in the Jamaican securities market that has become increasingly more dynamic over the past few years.
They may be right about the Jamaican capital market, but they are missing the real issues. The stock prices of listed companies in T&T Stock Exchange have been priced out of the reach of the average Trinidadians and the directors don’t seem to understand that or worse seem to care about the smaller investors. Guardian Holdings with 232,024,923 million shares issued and Massy with nearly 98 million shares will just not have the liquidity to trade frequently in good volumes in either the Trinidad or Jamaican market. Unfortunately, those are not the only companies in that market that are so affected. The companies need to have the issued number of shares increased. for decent trading in the Jamaican market around two to three billion issued shares will be an appropriate level.
The other factor is the need to put the companies on a growth path for profits that investors can have confidence in acquiring and holding the shares. The weakness in this area of profitability, is not the sole purview of the companies, as the government has a role to play in this.
Guardian Holdings hit 52 weeks high on TTSE.
The evidence is crystal clear, investors love stock splits and they help move stock prices as investors buy up shares they previously ignore for being overpriced. This has been without a doubt the clear case in the Jamaican market. For years PanJam Investments directors resisted recommending to shareholders the splitting of the company’s stocks but relented a few years ago, with the stock price that was stagnant for years coming to life and rewarded shareholders with much higher value afterward. It is therefore difficult to understand why directors, with the evidence so clear, want to have elevated stock prices and limited liquidity of their stock. Last year Apple and Tesla sand split their stocks to much investors acclaim, just this week Nvidia Corporation in the USA, with the price jumping after announcing a four for one split.