Apr 2016 Financial News

Funds raised on the Junior Market almost kiss the $5-billion mark. Junior Market is Booming

Apr 01, 2016

Marlene Street-Forrest, general manager of the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE), on Wednesday expressed thanks to the new Government following Minister of Finance Audley Shaw’s signal at this week’s Private Sector of Jamaica (PSOJ) forum that Junior Market incentives will be extended.

Speaking at the ISP Finance listing ceremony on March 30, the general manager stated, “Minister of Finance, the Hon Audley Shaw, signalled at a PSOJ forum that the Government intends to extend the corporate tax incentive that was scheduled to expire on March 31. I wish to use this forum to thank the Government and commend them on transferring words into action. This is an element of good governance on which every company and indeed every government must be evaluated; the willingness to keep its commitment.”

It now appears that action will be taken to continue the benefit which includes five years freedom from payment of corporate taxes for listed companies with capital of less than $500 million.

Total capital raised on the Junior Market since it was launched in April 2009 now stands at $4.94 billion. The market capitalisation of the Junior Market now stands at $75.6 billion, and with the listing of ISP Finance – the market’s 28th company – this will increase to $75.8 billion, Street-Forrest noted while speaking at the listing event.

She asserted that most of the companies listed on the Junior Market have grown.

“We have seen that through the Junior Market a new breed of Jamaican entrepreneurs is emerging; one which is striving to build new and profitable companies in varying sectors of the economy, and which we believe will open doors after doors for young people who are graduating from one tertiary institution or another — thereby providing hope and reducing brain drain, something we hardly speak about nowadays but which is still very real,” the general manager said.

Street-Forrest said also that the market is growing and investors are making use of the secondary market to trade their securities.

“In 2010, our first full year of the Junior Market, the number of transactions was 1,192 and now only three months into the year, the number of transactions is 5,145. Since the inception of the Junior Market three billion shares have been trading valued at over $18 billion. Since the start of the year the index has increased by just under eight per cent,” Street-Forrest noted.

The general manager said the JSE was committed to ensuring that the market was “fair, efficient and transparent”.

Source:
BY AVIA COLLINDER
collindera@jamaicaobserver.com
Business reporter 
Jamaica Observer
Friday April 1, 2016

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/business/Funds-raised-on-the-Junior-Market-almost-kiss-the--5-billion-mark_56314