Chris Berry
Ashford W. Meikle, Staff Reporter
MAJOR BROKERAGE and investment house, Mayberry Investment Limited, says that it does not expect to suffer any losses from its investment in the Dyoll Group, having made a $24.7 million provision for the approximately 1.3 million Dyoll shares which it holds.
"This amount will cover the market value of the shares and based on our results for January, any resultant loss would not materially affect our company's performance for the year," said Chris Berry in a press release.
The release came on the heels of a Wednesday Business story last week which revealed Mayberry was one of the top 16 investors in the Dyoll Group. A week prior to that, Wednesday Business also revealed that the Dyoll Group had been dropped from the high performing Mayberry Performance Index (MPI).
The Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) suspended trading in Dyoll's trading on February 15 owing to the company's failure to reveal to the JSE the extent of the exposure to Dyoll's capital base as a result of settlements related to Hurricane Ivan damages.
The executive declined to reveal Mayberry's plans once trading in Dyoll shares was reinstated. "I don't know what we're going to do... we don't know the extent of the company's [losses] but out of an abundance of caution... we are valuing those shares at zero," he told Sunday Business last week.
On Friday, Life of Jamaica was added to the MPI. Mayberry is slated to have its initial public offering (IPO) this month.
... Increases professional staff by 60 per centOVER THE past two years, Mayberry's professional staff has increased by 60 per cent, according to the company's human resources manager, Tania McDonald-Tomlinson.
Since March 2003, total Mayberry staff has grown to 90 persons, with the majority of new hires in the period being investment advisors and persons directly responsible for managing or supporting the company's customer service functions.
Mayberry's Deputy Chairman, Mark Berry, says, "The delivery of superior customer service has always been of paramount importance to our business model and as we grow we must ensure that we have both the quantity and the quality personnel to make this happen time and time again."
Mr. Berry said that Mayberry has developed and installed proprietary staff training and development systems that will help to offset the effects of staff volatility, which, he said, "is one of the greatest operational risks that the financial industry faces."
