Aug 2014 Financial News

Sterling eyes new date for listing in September (Jamaica)

Aug 27, 2014

STERLING Investment Limited (SIL) has set a new three-week target to be listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE).

The company should be fully listed on the JSE "by the second week of September", according to Kevin Richards, SIL vice-president of marketing and sales.

He said that the process of getting listed has been a very extensive one but "the lawyer and advisors had submitted the application last week and we expect a response from the Jamaica Stock Exchange by the end of this week".

Back in June, the company had expected to list by now.

"It looks like sometime in July based on the bureaucratic steps required," President and CEO of SIL Charles Ross told the Business Observer at the time.

Richards said that within seven days of hearing from the JSE, the company will make its abridged financial statements available to the public, after which it expects the JSE to fully approve its listing in the following week.

SIL plans to list by introduction on the main index of the JSE rather than the US equities index.

The company doesn't plan to raise capital through the listing, having done so before.

The amount of funds raised in the private placement in December 2012 was not disclosed. A second private placement was planned for Trinidad last year.

The minimum buy-in for the first private placement was $10 million, although a single share sold for $100.

Shareholders bought shares in the company last November, with a long-term view of the investment, but some institutional investors, such as pension funds, could only participate on the promise of a public listing.

However, by virtue of being listed on the stock exchange, interested investors can buy any amount of shares they want -- even one.

SIL is an investment holding company that has many investors and is a subsidiary of Sterling Asset Management, which has over-US $18 billion in management and which manages SIL's funds at a two per cent fee.

The investment strategy primarily focuses on overseas financial instruments, primarily fixed-income securities that are traded on global capital markets.

Sterling Asset's offshore mutual funds managed for over 11 years generate an average annual return of 14 per cent in US dollars per annum.

Source:
Jamaica Observer
Wednesday August 27, 2014    

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/business/Sterling-eyes-new-date-for-listing-in-September_17412415