Proven sets more ambitious target for share offer
PRIVATE EQUITY firm Proven Investments Limited’s additional public offering of shares, or APO, will hit the market on March 11.
The company wants to raise at least US$50 million from investors, but its prospectus, released this week, indicates it may exercise an option to increase the target to US$75 million or around $10.5 billion in Jamaican currency. The offer is underwritten by Sagicor Investments.
The funds are meant to finance new acquisitions and projects.
“While we are more likely to seek investments in our core areas of expertise, such as financial services, we remain alert to take advantage of opportunities as they arise, and, as we have in the past, will continue to regularly consider investments in the real sector,” said Chairman Hugh Hart in the prospectus.
Proven’s current portfolio of investments include stakes in financial firms mostly, namely, Proven Wealth, Access Financial, Boslil Bank, International Financial Planning Limited, and JMMB Group. But more recently, the investment company has been venturing into other areas outside its own core market, evidenced by its acquisition of a stake in party company Dream Entertainment Limited.
The prospectus did not disclose in any detail the entities it plans to buy, but the Financial Gleaner understands the funds raised will be pumped into real estate projects and back the acquisition of a financial outfit.
Proven was listed on the USD market in 2011, under the symbol PIL, and cross-listed on the JMD side of the stock market a few years later.
The stock opened trading at US$0.29 on Thursday, but has traded as high as US$0.35 year to date.
The APO is priced at US$0.28 or $38.64 per share. The offer runs from March 11 to 30.