Super plus chain contracts – to close a fifth store in Montego Bay, but expand others
October 3, 2008
Super Plus Food Stores Limited is stripping the group of its loss-making stores, and says that the business is attempting to grow revenues by concentrating more on services like its cambio operations. Chief executive officer Wayne Chen said that grocery had become the “loss leader” for the supermarket chain, but gave no specifics on the other business segments that were underperforming. Four stores have been culled from the group, and of the remaining 26, the majority, 22, are controlled by brothers Wayne and Richard Chen, while the others are held by other family members.

Will the move to LIME help Cable & Wireless?
Repositioning company from 13 different businesses to One Caribbean business
“The Jamaican consumer and for that matter the Caribbean consumer has over the years fallen out of love with C&W. Like many relationships, they continued to live with C&W because ‘no betta no deh’. Along come Digicel, younger, energetic, modern, and man looking fine. The consumer does not need much to convince them to leave C&W for the new suitor and so they do in droves. C&W, on the other hand, rather than recognize what is happening, starts to cuss and criticise the new player, who simply ignores them and continue to woo the consumer with all manners of gifts and new toys.

The consumer falls deeply in love with Digicel and many vows never to go back. Some consumers however play it safe and give C&W “bun”, by flirting and entering a relationship with Digicel, while at the same time holding on to C&W. Other consumers see the new player and prefer to stick with the evil they know.

When Miphone enters the scene, the consumer cannot believe their luck, some jump ship and leave C&W and Digicel, others give C&W and Digicel “bun”; and still others, the vast majority, and stick with whom they have.

Now, in that situation C&W has to try to woe the consumer back, they have to find out why the consumer left them and under what conditions they will return. I am yet to see a communication programme or campaign from C&W that speaks to this issue. Digicel on the other hand is showering the consumer with love, adoration and gifts; ensuring that it will have to take tremendous efforts by C&W and Miphone to woo them away. What C&W needs to understand is what is commonly known as brand affinity.”

Jamaican remittances weather downturn, for now – Cocking cites family loyalty
October 3, 2008
The Inter-American Development Bank warned that the pace at which remittances once flowed will slow down even more than it originally projected, due to the erosion of the dollar’s value, a spike in inflation and the financial meltdown in the United States.
But at least two remittance companies in Jamaica say for now money transfers from the United States are still strong despite the financial crisis there. “We have not seen any fallout at all, none. It is same as usual,” said Andrew Cocking, deputy group president and head of international business at the Capital and Credit Financial Group, whose money transfer operation is handled by subsidiary Capital and Credit Remittance Limited.

Weathering Wall Street – Financial firms say not blown over by US crisis – Jamaican market loses $44b of value in September
October 3, 2008
Sagicor Financial Corporation, the parent firm for Sagicor Jamaica Life Insurance Company and the Pan Caribbean Financial Services Group, told the Jamaica Stock Exchange that it projects to lose up to US$5.7 million on investments held with troubled US banks, but that the exposure was too minuscule to materially impair its capital. Two other cross listed regional firms, Guardian Holdings and GraceKennedy Limited, told the JSE that they had no exposure to any of the US institutions that have been rocked by America’s liquidity crisis, and that their capital was not at risk. At the same time, the brokerage house, Mayberry Investments, explained that it, too, faced no exposure to the American banks marked as distressed, saying that a filing with the stock exchange this week was merely a declaration of all the foreign exchange assets held by the firm: US$189 million.

Banker ties fallout of ‘get rich’ schemes to rising loan delinquency
October 08, 2008
While there is no empirical data to highlight the number of borrowers that have been directly compromised from the fallout in the alternative investment schemes, a sharp spike in the amount of delinquencies on loans in recent months has raised a few eyebrows in the commercial banking sector.
Scotiabank president and CEO Bill Clarke, at a Financial Services Commission investment luncheon said that there are indications that a lot of persons were affected by the collapse in the high-return “get-rich” schemes, and he suspects that an increase in the number of persons who are unable to service their loans with his institution may be related to the fallout. “In our retail banking business, we have found that over the last couple of months that there has been an escalation in delinquencies,” said Clarke. “But when we enquire as to why arrangements are not being made as originally agreed, the answer that we have been getting is ‘our revenue stream is so much impaired’.”

MiPhone switches over to Claro
October 10, 2008
America Movil is rebranding MiPhone as ‘Claro’. Boasting improved network coverage and 3G (third generation) GSM technology, Claro is scheduled to launch next month, when the network will unveil its call rates, handsets and costs including the new 3G Apple iPhone, exclusive to the network in Jamaica. The brand will be represented islandwide at 200 stores and dealerships.

Global financial meltdown – Don’t panic, but …Jamaica will take a hit – Golding
October 10, 2008
Prime Minister Bruce Golding has admitted that the global financial crisis will affect some of Jamaica’s critical economic structures, despite Shaw’s earlier claims that the country would face minimal impact. However, he is steering away from instigating panic.

Crisis team in place
October 10, 2008
Giving the clearest indication yet that Jamaica is facing fallouts from the financial crisis that has gone global, the Government is putting together a top-level team to monitor the domestic financial system, and take action as needed to steady the markets here. “There is a lot of work being done in terms of managing the crisis in Jamaica,” said Don Wehby, minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service. “We had a long meeting on Monday with all the stakeholders to determine how we are going to approach this crisis,” he said, “because it is a crisis that calls for leadership.”

Wayne Chen willing to sell
October 10, 2008
Super Plus Food Stores boss Wayne Chen said he would not refuse a good offer for the islandwide family-owned supermarket chain, but says he has not put the company up for sale. Asked outright whether that meant SuperPlus was hunting a buyer, Chen dismissed it, but did not discount it as a future possibility. “Not at all,” he told the Financial Gleaner. “Not in the short term. We are right-sizing the company now,” he added.

Claro Jamaica opens for business
October 10, 2008
The transformation of MiPhone’s network to 3G technology is a US$300-million investment for America Movil, the company said as it rolled out the company’s new brand, Claro. Claro Jamaica CEO Alejandro Guiterrez said the company had already spent US$270 million, saying it was “quite a heavy investment for the first year of operation”.

Musson ‘serges’ into chocolate business – Highgate ownership unresolved
October 17, 2008
Musson Jamaica Limited is still wrangling with Jamaica Redevelopment Foundation Inc over ownership of the Highgate brand, but the Desmond Blades operation, with the help of a sister company, has forged ahead with plans to launch into a new business. Musson, a family-run operation, this month placed on the market its own line of chocolates, packaged in at least three sizes under the name Serge, a brand owned by Seprod. Blades and his companies own about 43 per cent of Seprod, but the deal will see Musson paying a licensing fee for use of the Serge name. Paul Scott, deputy chairman of Musson and grandson to Blades, sidestepped questions on why the company had launched its chocolate under the Serge name instead of Highgate. “Serge is a very strong brand name and we support it and advertise it,” Scott told the Financial Gleaner. “We want to develop and deepen Serge in the market.”

Wisynco co-brands with Ocean Spray
October 17, 2008
The Wisynco Group, whose aggressive marketing and distribution strategy helped make Jamaica, per capita, the market leader for Ocean Spray’s cranberry juices, has added the Ocean Spray brand to its own line of purified water. The product, Ocean Spray WATA, has been soft launched and is already on some shelves here, but Wisynco boss, William Mahfood said that a formal roll-out will take place in December.

GraceKennedy plans 60 money transfer outlets in UK
October 17, 2008
GraceKennedy says it expects to have up to five dozen Western Union money remittance outlets in Britain over the next year under the super agent agreement it signed with the American firm earlier this year. Grace has already opened two money transfer stores in the UK under the deal. “We hope to have 60 locations by the end of the first year,” said Joan-Marie Powell, the managing director of GraceKennedy Remittance Services (GKRS), the group subsidiary that already operates Western Union franchises in Jamaica and in several other Caribbean countries. Western Union and GraceKennedy deepened their partnership last year when Western Union took a 25 per cent stake in GKRS.

Pulse banking on new projects to diversify income
October 24, 2008
In five years, Pulse Investment Limited is projecting that it will add $2 billion to its stream of revenues, and is working to diversify its income beyond the sponsorships and advertising contracts on which it is so heavily reliant. A model and fashion agency, chief executive officer Kingsley Cooper wants to branch out into being agent for sports figures, but in a briefing to financial journalists and analysts last week, he indicated that his plans were most heavily pinned on hospitality through his property, Villa Ronai, which is now being expanded.

PanCaribbean profits flattened by new bank
October 24, 2008
Brought down by disappointing profits in the third quarter, a bigger wage bill and other expenses year to date, Pan Caribbean Financial Services recorded flat profits of $901 million or earnings per share of $1.64, in its newly released nine-month earnings report. Pan Caribbean at the end of September had paid out half a billion dollars in salary – up 35 per cent year-on-year – its biggest spend inside total expenses of $851 million, which were up 27 per cent. The expanded cost of running PanCaribbean undercut the 13 per cent improvement in revenue which rose from $4.5 billion to $5.1 billion, and sliced four million or half a point off net profits.

Haggling begins on C&W pension properties
October 24, 2008
Handlers working on the sale of four prime properties put on the market by Cable & Wireless Pension Fund trustees are in negotiations with two potential buyers arising from bids that closed off at the end of September. The Towers, New Kingston Shopping Centre and the former drive-in cinema, all on Dominica Drive in New Kingston, as well as the Fair View Shopping Centre in Montego Bay, were advertised for sale in July.

Harmony Cove will find capital, says Hylton
October 31, 2008
Chairman of Harmonisation Limited, handlers of the Harmony Cove luxury resort project, Patrick Hylton, is upbeat about financing for the US$2 billion project in the face of a global downturn, saying the project won’t need to tap the browbeaten capital markets for funds. “Remember, the time of the approach to any capital market would be some way off,” said Hylton, who declined to comment on the status of the project. But he also indicated that it was in the interest of investors for the global financial crisis to be handled expeditiously to unfreeze credit.

H&L planning holiday blitz to rescue profits
October 31, 2008
Hardware and Lumber Limited is projecting that its markets will continue to soften into the high shopping season, but says it will ratchet up its marketing campaign to “stimulate consumer interest” over the Christmas and New Year holidays, traditionally one of its most lucrative seasons. “We normally allocate a substantial amount of our advertising dollar around the last quarter of the year, as this is our high activity period,” said Chief Executive Officer Anthony Holness. “Approximately 40 per cent of the total advertising budget which is $70 million goes towards the fourth quarter.”

Junior stock market steers toward early 2009 roll-out
October 31, 2008
Marlene Street-Forrest, general manager of the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE), has been selected by Senator Don Wehby to head a steering committee tasked to implement a junior stock market, the Finance Ministry said. The junior exchange, to be managed by the JSE, will open up to small and medium companies the opportunity to raise capital on the equities market through public offerings.

Mayberry posts big 3Q profit – But adopts conservative outlook
October 31, 2008
Mayberry Investment Limited reports a significant improvement in its unaudited financial results for the nine-month period ended September 2008, amassing net profit totalling $766 million, more than four times what the company generated for the same period last year. The 309 per cent increase in net profit boosted the company’s earnings per share by 48¢ to $0.64.

C&W rebrands as ‘LIME’
November 02, 2008
Cable & Wireless unveiled their rebranding in the Caribbean as ‘LIME’ representing their four services: Landlines, Internet, mobile and entertainment/cable television – for which they have applied to the Broadcasting Commission for an islandwide license in Jamaica. The new brand will launch across its 13 Caribbean markets: Anguilla; Antigua; Barbados; British Virgin Islands; Cayman Islands; Dominica; Grenada; Jamaica; Montserrat; St Kitts and Nevis; St Lucia; St Vincent and the Grenadines; and Turks and Caicos.

BUSINESSUITE PICK
CAR OF THE YEAR – 2008 HONDA ACCORD
The first thing that hits you when you see the 2008 Honda Accord is the shape, it’s a brand new Honda shape, reminiscent of the 2007/8 BMW 5 series but totally different. Aggressive with style and class are the best words to describe the aerodynamic shape and body styling. For me it was love at first sight. The 3.5 litre v6 test driven was a pleasure to drive; the steering wheel was totally new, neat and compact with the usual standard features, audio and cruise controls. The dash board layout and configuration again reminded me of the BMW, but you know you’re in a Honda.

SUV OF THE YEAR – The 2008 Range Rover Sport HSE
“Effortless on Road……….Legendary off Road
The Range Rover Sport, legendary for it’s off road capabilities and combines well with its on road luxury features, separate it from the rest. Although, known for its outstanding off road capabilities, this is not the kind of vehicle you want to take off road, even if it was engineered to do so. Truth is most Jamaican SUV owners hardly take their vehicles off road. So why buy them? The looks, the prestige and the appearance of doing well – financially. The Range Rover Sport is the kind of vehicle you drive if you want to separate yourselves from the pack. The black 2008 model test driven was pure luxury and certainly was effortless on the road.

PCFS commercial banking arm launched
November 05, 2008
Pan Caribbean Financial Services (PCFS) officially launched its commercial banking arm with five branches nationwide, targeting an existing 15,000-strong customer base. “Banking is personal again, and you are the reason!” deputy chief executive officer Phillip Armstrong told attendees at a reception held at the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel in St Andrew. Armstrong promised that there would be less hassle in applying for one of the new accounts and that interest would be paid daily on each dollar deposited with the bank.

Mobile rebranding taking criticism by some marketers
November 05, 2008
Some marketers think the recent mobile company name changes may have been ill advised and are arguing that they are mismatched for the Jamaican market. Claro (formerly Miphone) is Spanish for clear but Jamaicans speak English; whilst LIME (formerly Cable & Wireless) refers to a sour fruit and not relaxation in Trinidad & Tobago.

FSC approves Blue Cross deal – Now it’s all up to Audley Shaw
November 7, 2008
Sagicor Life Jamaica has got the go-ahead from regulators to acquire Blue Cross of Jamaica’s health insurance portfolio, but still needs the imprimatur of Finance Minister Audley Shaw before it can declare the transaction a done deal. “This agreement has been approved by the Financial Services Commission and now awaits a vesting order from the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service to complete the process which will broaden the service offerings to former Blue Cross clients,” said SLJ Chairman Dodridge Miller in a company statement issued.

Two options for Felicitas: Truck in new sand or wait 100 years
November 7, 2008
Frederick Moe, project manager and partner in the $8 billion Felicitas development, says the project will remain on hold until the 500 truckloads of stolen sand are recovered. But, if the police fail to track down the stolen sand, the investors would have up to a 100-year wait for new sand to grow there, scientists have said.

Irish owners of National Outdoor Advertising look regional – Spending $216 million to upgrade
November 7, 2008
Anglo-Irish investors who recently acquired two of the biggest outdoor advertising production and printing companies – National Outdoor Advertising and City Graphics – say that they are not only spending over J$200 million to upgrade capacity here, but also hope to use Jamaica as a springboard into the Caribbean and Latin America.
“Yes, we intend to expand into the Caribbean and are looking at ventures,” said Ronan McGrane. McGrane, an Irishman who, in July, took over as chief executive officer of NOA, is in the process of merging NOA and City Graphics. The merged entity will continue to operate under the name National Outdoor Advertising.
PEPSI COLA JAMAICA BEGINS PRODUCTION OF ANGOSTURA LLB
Pepsi Cola Jamaica begins production of Angostura Lemon-Lime & Bitters at its manufacturing plant on Spanish Town Road. Angostura LLB is a skilfully blended non-alcoholic, sparkling beverage of Angostura aromatic bitters and natural lemon-lime flavours.

Within LIME Jamaica, a new direction- spending smarter for better returns
November 14, 2008
Sales at Cable and Wire-less Jamaica Limited, now trading as LIME, all but stagnated in its first half year, but having strangled close to a billion dollars from the company’s cost of doing business, president Phil Green has teased more than a quarter billion dollars of operating profit from the struggling operation, beset by rivalry. Revenues of $11.27 billion at September 30 represented a slight 1.3 per cent gain on the six-month income recorded in the comparative period in 2007. But the earliest sign of the company’s improved performance was gross income, which rose 66 per cent to $7.4 billion from $6.28 billion year on year, due to the $550 million sliced off out payments to local and international carriers on whose network C&WJ calls terminated, and another $430 million from other cost of sales.
Within those numbers, signs of how Green hopes to revive the loss-making company are emerging.

PULSE BARTERS TO PROFITABILITY
Received $1.3b in sponsorship during ’08

In Jamaica, Pulse Investments Limited, a Jamaica-based company engaged in activities such as model agency representation, multi-media production, marketing, and show production and promotion, has successfully used bartering to grow revenues and profitability.

For the financial year ended June 30, 2008, the company reported net profit attributable to members of $429,891,292, or diluted earnings per stock unit of 1580 cents on operating revenue of $1,356,745,012, against net profit attributable to members of $266,143,476 or diluted earnings per stock unit of 101 cents on operating revenue of $788,791,615, for the same period a year ago.

‘DigiTV’ launch for 2009
November 14, 2008
Digicel says that it will roll-out its ‘DigiTV’ digital television service next year having received an islandwide subscriber television (STV) licence, subject to the finalisation of terms and conditions, by the Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica.
Mark Linehan, chief executive officer of Digicel Jamaica said that DigiTV could eventually broadcast elsewhere in the Caribbean, where the Irish company already operates in 23 markets having launched as a mobile service provider in Jamaica in 2001. DigiTV is the brand name of Digital Interactive Services Limited (DISL), which is a joint venture between Digicel Jamaica, content providers DC Digital and FIMI Wireless who will be the retailer.

Carlton Savannah REIT seeks new identity
November 14, 2008
Jamaica first and only real-estate investment trust, Carlton Savannah REIT Jamaica Limited has opted for a name change months into its start-up, and now wants to be known as Kingston Properties Limited. The change is pending approval from shareholders. Director Fayval Williams said the name change reflected plans for the company to build out a more diversified portfolio of real estate investments.

Local media seeing big returns from mobile marketing boost
November 19, 2008
Industry experts agree that local media companies have been big winners so far into what is shaping out to be a stiff battle for brand recognition in the competitive mobile phone market. Since the advent of cash-rich ‘Claro’ and the rebranding of Cable & Wireless (C&WJ) as ‘Lime’ last month, media companies have seen a much-needed boost in advertisement revenues from the sector, as telecoms splurge to stay relevant in the luxurious market.

$1.5b loss hits JP – But Hall promises better times ahead
November 21, 2008
Weighed down by another big gush of red ink in the third quarter, Jamaica Producers Group (JP) has reported a $1.5 billion loss for the 10 months to the first week of October, but the company’s CEO, Jeffrey Hall, insists that shareholders can look forward to better times next year. This year’s loss was $800 million more than the corresponding period in 2007. “We are putting in place a series of realistic, pragmatic measures to cut cost, diversify and grow the profitable part of the business,” he said.

GK sales top $40b, but profit sluggish
November 21, 2008
Conglomerate GraceKennedy Limited reported a slight dip in earnings in the July-to- September quarter, but its nine-month result indicates signs of a company with strong sales and a slightly better profit outturn. GraceKennedy’s bottom line grew 6.7 per cent, from $1.71 billion to $1.83 billion, within the nine-month period when sales topped $40.1 billion (9M 2007: $35b).
In the third quarter, however, net profit slipped from $591 million to $556 million on revenues that were basically flat – moving from $12.4 billion to $12.8 billion. “The world is in a global financial crisis and we need to prepare ourselves. In GraceKennedy we make sure that everything is done in a systematic way,” said Douglas Orane, chairman and chief executive officer of GraceKennedy

Latibeaudiere avoids ‘R’ word
November 21, 2008
The Bank of Jamaica said that output was likely to be flat in the December quarter, but central bank governor Derick Latibeaudiere steadfastly avoided the word recession even though the economy contracted 0.3 per cent during the nine months between January to September. A recession is classically defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

PULSE Investments “tenuous at best and unsustainable at worst”
Michelle Hirst, Research Manager, Stocks & Securities Ltd. (SSL)
December 2008
Over the past year, the price of Pulse Investments (PULS) shares has more than doubled, increasing by over 148%. Currently, at $5.70 per share, PULS’ market capitalization is J$1.5Bn – more than Radio Jamaica or Salada.
Our work finds that the market is severely overvaluing PULS. Accounting treatments on PULS’ financial statements, especially with regards to in-kind sponsorship, vary significantly from economic reality. Revenues, operating income and assets are all accounted for at levels significantly higher than their true economic value.
In addition, related party transactions such as real estate transfers and excessive management fees are value destructive to public shareholders in our view and are indicative of weak corporate governance more generally.
The sustainability of a business whose primary operation is obtaining sponsorship funds and capturing some of these funds for itself and its shareholders is tenuous at best and unsustainable at worst.
We recommend with conviction that clients SELL shares at current levels and believe that the Company’s fair value is between $0.45 to $0.60 per share.

RJR Group Could Be Facing Clear and Present Danger, Reports State Group Hurting Financially
In a recently emailed report (17/11/08) from Michelle Hirst, Research Manager at Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL), headed by Managing Director Mark Croskery, it was noted that RJR started the year well, but has fallen hard during the first six months of 2008-2009, due to the current economic environment. RJR states that revenues from endeavours such as the World Cup qualifiers will be seen in its nine month 2008-2009 results.

SSL is however not convinced of a turnaround anytime soon, stating in its report that “RJR has not been able to contain its costs as they increased across the board in Q02 2008/2009. Therefore, SSL is not convinced that RJR will increase revenues and lower costs in the near future. The stock has a book value per share (BV/Share) of JMD 2.95. It is currently trading at JMD 3.20 with a price to book value (P/BV) of 1.08. RJR has been trending downwards for the past three years decreasing 46.67% from JMD 6.00 on October 3, 2005.
SSL recommends investors SELL this stock at current levels of JMD 2.85 and up.”

The JNN and RETV acquisitions.
On the face of it, the JNN and RETV cable channel acquisitions by the RJR Group was a natural fit. In much the same way that the cable channel TVJ Sports Network was set up ahead of the last Cricket World Cup to absorb the enormous quantity of cricket coverage available to the media group, it was felt that JNN could draw on the enormous news gathering capacities, infrastructure, equipment and importantly news staff of the RJR Group News Centre.

What seemed like a natural fit, has met upon resistance and territorial blocks. Not able to draw upon the immense resources available in the RJR Group, JNN has languished, not able to take full advantage of the natural synergies.

JP cutting 200 jobs in Britain
December 3, 2008
Jamaica Producers Group (JP), seeking to stanch its big loses of the past two years and win back investor confidence, says it will cut 200 jobs or 40 per cent of the workforce, of its UK juice manufacturing subsidiary, Serious Foods. The redundancies will take place in early March a 90-day consultation with employees required under British law. “We have taken a look at the economic environment in the UK and have decided that in order to reposition the juice business to a sustainable and efficient level cuts are needed,” JP’s CEO, Jeffrey Hall.

Central Bank increases interest rates payable on BOJ Certificates of Deposits.
In an effort to stabilise the foreign exchange market, which has been significantly pressured due to a confluence of economic factors, the central bank has increased interest rates payable on BOJ Certificates of Deposits considerably. The most recent hike occurred when interest rates applicable on 365-days open market tenors increased to 24 per cent. Since the start of the year, 30-days and six-month Certificate of Deposit Rates have risen by 535 and 950 basis points respectively.

Six-month treasury-bills yield auctioned by the BOJ on November 26 was 19.26 per cent, an increase of 592 basis points since the start of the year.

Broilers stumbles in second quarter
December 3, 2008

Forced to pay higher prices for grain and hit by falling ethanol prices, Jamaica’s top poultry producer, the Jamaica Broilers Group, stumbled badly in its second quarter into a loss of just under $150 million off revenues of $6.8 billion. But the company says contracted purchases and sale of ethanol in the November and December period is sufficient for it to predict a rebound in the third quarter. The second quarter loss for the three month period ending November 1, which amounted to a net $121 million after tax credits, was insufficient to erase all gains year to date.

Jamaica in recession since ’08 start
December 03, 2008

The Jamaican economy has been in a recession since March of this year according to official data published by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin). The data showed that real gross domestic product (GDP) by quarter has declined year over year since the December 2007 quarter. Statin, which revised its GDP data to rebase its numbers from 1996 to 2003 and which began using, this year, the value-added approach to calculate economic activity, reported a 0.4 per cent decline in value-added during the December quarter of 2007 when compared to the corresponding quarter in 2006.

Additional sources: Daily Observer, Daily Gleaner, and Internet sources