Yahneake Sterling, Staff Reporter
The more than 500,000 Jamaica Public Service Company Ltd. (JPS) customers, as well as the 1,200 employees of the company, have been promised a stake in the the company if Caribbean Real Estate International Fund (CAREIF) wins the bid for its purchase.
Donovan Gooden, operations manager for CAREIF, told journalists yesterday that the local investment company, based in Mandeville, Manchester, will offer customers and workers of the JPS a chance to become a part of the organisation's "Power Group".
As part of the Power Group, individuals would become equity partners in the light and power company.
CAREIF is a real estate company that was incorporated under Jamaican law in 2005 and offers local as well as international real estate developments and investments to both large and small investors.
The company is aiming at acquiring both the Government's as well as Mirant's shares in the problem-plagued JPS.
Bringing JPS home
"Our vision ... is to bring the Jamaica Public Service back home where it belongs, in the hands of Jamaicans," said Mr. Gooden during a media briefing at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel, New Kingston.
In July, Mirant announced it would be selling its 80 per cent shares in the JPS as it moves to concentrate on its United States holdings. Shortly before that announcement The Gleaner reported that the Government intended to sell its 20 per cent shares.
The bid for the purchase of the power company has been made through J.P. Morgan Investment Bank, which will be accepting bids on behalf of Mirant.
J.P. Morgan is a leading global financial services firm with assets of $1.3 trillion and operations in more than 50 countries.
However, officials of CAREIF were unwilling to discuss the details of the bid, as they are under a confidentiality agreement signed with J.P. Morgan and Mirant.
Chief executive officer of CAREIF, Anthony Tharpe, said the strategy that will be employed by the company will see profits being given back to the equity partners.
Individuals who choose to invest would either get profits in cash, or be credited on their JPS accounts, he said.
