GWest Oversubscribed

GWest complex in Montego Bay,

The Initial Public Offering of 170 million shares by Gwest Corporation is oversubscribed with the offer closed at 4:30 pm on Thursday, December 7, the broker JMMB Securities advised the Jamaica Stock Exchange.
The offer was for 169.7 million shares at $2.50 each. The offer opened on December 7 and was scheduled to close on December 21.
GWest offer included 36,000,000 Shares reserved for the lead broker, JMMB Securities or its clients, 64,000,000 Shares were reserved for Jamaica Money Market Brokers’ Pension and Client Funds Investment Management Unit, 19,400,000 Shares for GWest clients and suppliers and 600,000 Shares for independent directors, the Mentor and employees of the Company and 69.7 million shares for the general public.
Word reaching IC Insider.com is that the offer for Wisynco Group has so far attracted around $18 billion in subscriptions but the principals want to have the widest distribution of shareholders possible, hence the continuing opening of the issue.
The GWest shares will be listed on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange.

Over 1,000 applicants push FosRich IPO over

Mark Croskery Managing director of Stocks & Securities brokers fro teh IPO speaking to Cecil Foster, Managing director of FosRich.

Stocks and Securities advised the Jamaica Stock Exchange that the “Invitation for Subscription” in the Initial Public Offering for FosRich Company Limited is “Now Oversubscribed and Closed”. The Offer closed at 9:01 am today after its official opening this morning.
Reports reaching IC Insider.com is that applications for the issue exceeds 1,000, with more than $350 million accounted for so far, with the full amount still be counted up to late Monday evening.
The company went to market to raise $200 million from sale of just over 100 million shares at $2 each. The general public were allocated just 10,070,111 units, Stocks and Securities, brokers for the IPO was allocated 50 million units and key partners and staff shares has 40,385,000 allocated to them. At this stage it is unknown if any shares from the reserves allocations were not taken up and therefore became available to boost the minuscule amount allocated for the general public. If the general pool is not boosted by much than the general public will end up only a very small sum.
FosRich is one of five IPO issues coming to market in December as VM Investments announced their issue and released the prospectus to sell 300 million shares up to $2.45 each and Elite Diagnostics is expected to issue their prospectus this week, while Wisynco and GWest both officially opens for subscription this week.

Big Wisynco payday down the road

Wata produced by Wisynco

Wisynco Group‘s primary activities are bottling and distribution of purified water and beverages and the manufacturing of a range of plastic and foam packing and disposable products mainly used in the retail, food service and tourism industry. At present the Company distributes 110 brands with over 4,000 different products.
The Company is offering 149,414,576 shares to raise approximately $1 billion to use in its operations but existing shareholders are offering 635,085,424 shares for sale at the same time as a part of the overall offering. Up to 314,700,000 Shares in the Invitation are initially reserved for priority application from, and subscription and/or purchase by the following persons: a) up to 150,000,000 Shares are initially available for subscription by the Strategic Investors and up to 52,200,000 Shares are reserved for the Broker at the Subscription Price of J$7.87 per Share and up to 112,500,000 Shares are initially available for subscription for all of the employees of the Company including executives, senior managers and directors at a price of J$7.08 per Share. Reserved Shares in any category not fully subscribed by the persons entitled to them, will be made available for subscription by the Strategic Investors Applicants at the Subscription Price and thereafter, will become available for purchase by the general public.

Wisynco operates at two main locations situated in St. Catherine. Manufacturing takes place at White Marl, while Lakes Pen carries out distribution activities. Total square footage with factory, storage & offices between the two locations is approximately 530,000 square feet.

The Invitation will open at 9 am. on Wednesday, 6th December and is scheduled to close at 4 pm on Friday, 15 December, subject to the right to close the Invitation at any time after it opens once Applications for all of the Shares in the Invitation are taken up.
It is the intention of the Company to apply to the JSE to list the Shares on the Main Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange. The Company offers no guarantee that any of the Shares will be admitted to listing. As per Rule 402 of the JSE Main Market Rules, if the Invitation does not raise 20% of the Issued Share Capital of the Company, by the Closing Date, all monies received will be refunded.
The Directors intend to apply the net Initial Public Offering from the subscription of new Shares in the Company for: • Expansion of its manufacturing capacity to facilitate growth in all current markets for existing and future products; • Investment in more efficient modern internal power generation and utilization • Potential strategic acquisitions – locally, regionally and internationally • New distribution partnerships • Expansion of the Company’s distribution fleet and infrastructure to support the build out of its ‘Route to Market’ system • The establishment of the a western distribution centre and • Increase working capital to expand distribution arrangements through additional or new third-party brands in key categories not currently served by the Company.

True Juice orange juice bottled by Wisynco

Loans from banks increased by 92.5% during 2017, moving from J$1.05 billion at the end of June 2016 to J$2.02 billion at the end of June 2017 and mature between 2018 and 2023 and were obtained for the purpose of funding the expansion of the warehouse and the purchase of machinery and equipment.
Financially, the company is strong, with shareholders’ equity of $7.6 billion and cash of $4.75 billion as of September. Profits for the 3 months to September came out at $656 million versus $591 in 2016 and for the June 2017 fiscal year, $2.24 billion versus $2.3 billion in 2016, from revenues of $19.4 billion while in 2017 revenues were $21.25 billion. For the current fiscal year to June 2018, IC Insider.com is forecasting profit of $2.6 billion, around 70 cents per share, from revenues of $24.8 billion and $3.9 billion or $1.05 per share in 2019, from sales of $29 billion.
Based on the forecasted earnings, the stock is priced at 11 times earnings and should double towards the end of 2018 based on the projected 2019 earnings. The stock is now sixth on IC Insiders.com TOP 10.

VMBS Wealth heading to market

VM Wealth planning to list soon..

There was a time when there was a drought of listings on the Jamaica Stock Exchange with the advent of the Junior Market and its success there seem to be information on coming listings cropping up regularly.
Word reaching IC Insider.com is the VMBS Wealth Management will head to market in early 2018 to be listed on the exchange. Contacts make by this publication was wet with the response that they could not respond on such matters at this time.
For 2017 the stock exchange had confirmed about 16 potential listings for the year, inclusive of preference shares. The year will definitely close short of the target, but between December and the end of 2018 is setting up to be a bumper period that increase the listings to more than 100 for the very first time.
FosRich offer will open officially on December 4 to raise just over $200 million and is brokered by Stocks and Securities who confirmed that they are working on another listing but could not release the name of the company.
With Elite Diagnostics reconfirming their intention to go to market soon, the number of potential listings are climbing. Wisynco Group is expected to release its prospectus shortly with whispers suggesting by this week end.
More trading activity is expected in the future as a results of new listing and the impact of the fall in interest rates will have on trading activities. The exchange now has 92 listings with a few duplicated ones in the main market and US dollar market will see and there could be four on the exchange suggest before the year ends with three of them regarded as definite. Brokers say they are working on 8 new ones for 2018 currently, Marlene Street Forrest, Managing Director of the Jamaica Stock Exchange advised IC Insider.com.
The three are expected to be GWest, a medical complex out of Montego Bay, is expected to raise over $400 million, the company income will come from a combination of rent from the major part of the complex and fees from operating small short term medical facility. The complex currently has a number of blue chip clients as tenants.

NCB Capital Markets Manager, Origination and Structuring Stanley Thompson (left) exchanges laughs with Wisynco Group Limited Chairman William Mahfood also sharing are Wisynco Chief Executive Officer Andrew Mahfood and PriceWaterhouseCoopers Director Fiona Hyman

Wisynco Group is looking to raise for itself $1 billion but some of its current shareholders wanting to cash out. Information suggests that shares are to be offered to a wide array of persons including the 700 staff members as well as a large number of customers hence the shares from the IPO could be pretty scarce. Caribbean Insurance Brokers being handled by Mayberry Investments is the fourth possible 2017 listings. Mayberry is also working with Neveast Supplies but this seems to be a 2018 listing.
Others that should see their ordinary shares listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, include Jamaica Plumbing and Supplies, the government’s owned Wighton Wind Farms, Jamaica Public Service Company, with the government wanting to dispose of its shares in the power company, KIW International that has taken the decision to have the company relisted. UCC Online, a segment of University of the Caribbean was expected to have gone to the market this year but have been ironing out issues to facilitate the initial public offering, they could be ready in 2018 and Sygnus Capital Investments should list in the first quarter of 2018 on the main market of the exchange. Sygnus is relatively new company established to undertake loans or make medium term investments in medium size businesses. The company which is registered in St Lucia is managed by Sygnus Capital Management a Cayman Island based corporation. The company raised US$15 million in capital and is aiming for another $5 million when they come to market, which could be as early as January next year. According to our source they have so far lent out US$11 million and generated a higher rate of return that originally expected. The company has a good stream of potential users of its funds.

Wisynco Group IPO is imminent

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.