SSL Ventures to tap the market for $250m for pipeline investments

ITH A change in business model, from music publisher to venture capital financier, and its first earnings report distributed to the market, SSL Venture Capital Jamaica is looking to raise a quarter of a billion dollars of fresh capital to pump into investment targets that it has in the pipeline.

It follows three investments made by the company, which trades as SSL Ventures, in earlystage marketing outfits in July.

SSL Ventures appears to be leaning towards the equity market as the means of raising the cash for the next round of investments that will be pumped into small and medium enterprises, but is yet to finalise the fundraising mode.

“We have a pipeline of over $250 million and it is just left for us to strategise about how we’re going about funding the pipeline,” said Chairman Mark Croskery in an interview with the Financial Gleaner.

“The intention is to raise more capital via rights issue or preference shares now that the results are out, so that the company can make more acquisitions in the SME space,” he said.

The company is also contemplating bringing in a new partner, or a private investor. CEO Drew Gray said Stocks & Securities, which holds 80 per cent of the shares in SSL Ventures, through at least two vehicles, is prepared to give up a portion of its stake in exchange for cash infusion to fund investments.

Its three investments to date in Bar Central, Blue Dot Data Intelligence and Muse360 Integrated amounted to $100.85 million, Gray said. The investments were reflected as goodwill on SSL Ventures’ cash flow statement and its balance sheet for the September quarter. Total assets of the new company topped $203 million in September, which is more than five times its holdings of $38 million last year.

Citing the quarterly revenue of $58.5 million reported by SSL