Mar 2009 Financial News

Major SVL shareholder dumps shares...Hoo made $230m, avoided $90m loss on share sale by selling in early January

Mar 11, 2009

Close to 200 million shares, or 7.5 per cent in Supreme Ventures Limited was sold across the floor of the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) yesterday at nearly half the price of the year-to-date high.

The Business Observer was not able to confirm who sold the shares but the 196,659,968 shares that crossed the floor was the exact amount held by SGC Worldwide Limited at the end of February.

The share price closed at $1.72, 32 cents lower than it started the day and $1.53 lower than the year-to-date high, but, perhaps more importantly, it closed at $1.52 lower than the price it closed when the last major shareholder sold a big chunk of his shares.

In early January, when Paul Hoo sold 80 million of his shares in Supreme Ventures Limited (SVL) to INTRALOT (St Lucia) Limited, a subsidiary of the Greek firm by the same name with which the gaming and lottery company has partnered to enter the sports betting arena, he made at least $220 million from the transaction.

Perhaps more importantly, he managed to avoid losing $91 million on the deal should he have completed the transaction yesterday.

Yesterday, the share price closed at $1.72 down from the $3.29 it closed on January 8 - up 42 cents on that day - when 85 million shares traded across the floor and the likely day Hoo's sale occurred.

SVL, of which Hoo is chairman, notified the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) on January 16 that "a director through his associated company has made available 80,000,000 SVL shares for sale".

According to the shareholders' listing in February, SGC Worldwide Limited held the exact number of shares traded yesterday. Senoda Limited, a company incorporated outside of Jamaica to hold the bulk of Hoo's shares, had 79,121,782 shares less than it held at the end of December, while INTRALOT (St Lucia) saw a similar increase in its shareholdings - it now holds 185 million shares, or seven per cent of the SVL.

Intralot has already committed to acquiring up to 10 per cent shareholding in SVL, which means it has another 80 million shares to acquire.

The stake in SVL is said to be "an indication of INTRALOT's commitment to play a significant role in the region and is a decisive step for INTRALOT's penetration into the Caribbean gaming market," according to a SVL press release last October.

SVL made the announcement when the firm had formalised plans with INTRALOT to launch fixed odds betting operations in Jamaica after SVL acquired Big A Track ("2003") Ltd, a company with a bookmaker's licence.

Start-up of project activities is subject to regulatory approval by the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Commission (BGLC).

Hoo transferred the bulk of his shares to Senoda in mid-2006, around the same time that fellow major shareholder, Janette Stewart agreed to transfer 578,190,418 shares held in SVL to Falcon Global Capital, a company duly incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. Stewart is the legal and beneficial owner of all the shares in Falcon Global Capital.


Source:
Jamaica Observer
Wednesday, March 11, 2009

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines/Business/html/20090311T020000-0500_147396_OBS_MAJOR_SVL_SHAREHOLDER_DUMPS_SHARES.asp