Ashford W. Meikle, Staff ReporterIN MANY ways, the scene at Mayberry's monthly investment seminar, held last Wednesday at the Knutsford Court Hotel, was a harbinger of things to come.
At the end of the forum when the research manager at Mayberry, Keisa Ansine, announced that the prospectus would be available at the registration there was a near stampede as prospective investors snapped up copies of the prospectus. "One per person!" pleaded marketing manager, Kerry Berry-Teape.
Yesterday scores of eager investors thronged to brokerage houses across the Corporate Area anxious to get their bids in as Mayberry Investments Limited officially opened its subscription list for its Initial Public Offer (IPO) to the general public. Up for sale are almost 184 million ordinary shares - priced at $5.05 per share - representing about 28 per cent of the Mayberry's issued shares.
THIRSTY MARKET
"People are hungry for money," commented an economic analyst who was present at the Mayberry Investment Forum. He told the Financial Gleaner that, "IPOs are rare in Jamaica. The last one was Capital and Credit Merchant Bank two years ago. And with interest rates going down, people are busy looking where to put their money. The market is thirsty for this sort of thing."
Checks made by the Financial Gleaner with several brokerage houses in Kingston revealed that their clients have been turning up at their offices since last Thursday when the prospectus was first published in The Gleaner. A client relations officer at JMMB's Island Life branch wearily said, "Today has been a very busy day. We had to put in an extra row of chairs to accommodate the crowd that has been coming in."
According to senior investment consultant at Barita Investments Limited, Nigel Goffe, "Generally (there has been a) very wide interest. As is typical with IPOs, people are buying who would not normally buy shares. There has been a real solid demand ... I am hearing it from other brokers. There has been a steady stream." The executive noted that "The demand so far is largely from individuals ... it is going to be interesting to see the level of interest shown by institutions."
A representative at DB&G Stock Brokerage Division said "We've seen a lot of crowd since very early this morning. Since early this morning the parking lot has been full. Very high demand!"
The demand for the stock has been so huge that last month's private placement was oversubscribed after just two and a half days. Through that placement the company had sought to raise J$946 million. The private placement yielded J$1.3 billion. "This response has surpassed all of our expectations and we are very pleased about this tremendous support from our institutional and high net worth customers," said Mayberry's chairman, Christopher Berry, in a release.
When this newspaper first broke the news about Mayberry's intention to list one analyst at a major commercial bank gushed, "This (IPO) will be huge. Christopher (Berry) is going to make a lot of money from this deal, and so will we. This IPO will no doubt be over-subscribed."
Interestingly, NCB Capital Markets (NCBCM), in its March issue of its Business Briefs, advises that Mayberry is "not a recommended buy." However, a business community, speaking on anonymity with the Financial Gleaner, dismissed NCBCM's analysis, pointing out that the brokerage house has been sceptical of the IPOs that have come to the market since 2002. "Those IPOs (Capital and Credit merchant Bank and JMMB) have since done very well," the executive commented.
