Jamaica Gleaner

Cargo Handlers board approves 10-to-1 stock split

- Neville.graham@gleanerjm.com Steven Jackson Senior Business Reporter tameka.gordon@gleanerjm.com steven.jackson@gleanerjm.com

At the end of June, Salada announced that the partners in Mountain Peak Food Processors Limited would be injecting $50 million of capital to rescue the lossmaking subsidiary – Salada owns 80 per cent of MPFP – and that some of the funds would revamp the Roberts brand and roll out new products.

The injection is meant to stem and reverse three years of losses.

“We will definitely get there. I don’t want to give a time on it because we don’t read into the future, but we are heading back to where we were and better,” Miles said. THE BOARD of Cargo Handlers Limited (CHL) has approved a tenfold increase of the company’s ordinary shares via a stock split.

CHL’s shares, which trade on the junior market, are tightly held by the Hart family. CEO Mark Hart and Chairman Antony Hart together hold 60 per cent of the company.

The company’s ordinary shares in issue total 37.46 million units, which would multiply to 374.6 million if shareholde­rs approve the split. The board also approved an increase in the company’s authorised capital to 466.2 million shares.

CHL said it would advise the date of the extraordin­ary general meeting for shareholde­rs to vote their approval.

Cargo Handlers’ activity involves stevedorin­g services and petroleum haulage. The company operates from the Montego Freeport.

INCREASED BUSINES ACTIVITY

In its newly released thirdquart­er financials, CHL said the ongoing liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Montego Bay resulted in increased business activity at the ports.

“In particular the buildout of the LNG plant in Freeport brought with it increased throughput across the port of Montego Bay. This presented the opportunit­y for our stevedorin­g business coming off a record 2015/16 cruise ship season that ended in April,” CHL said in its June 2016 results.

“It is anticipate­d, however, that this activity will wind down upon the commission­ing of the plant in the next quarter.”

Power utility, Jamaica Public Service Company has upgraded its Bogue plant to operate on LNG. The first shipment of gas for the plant, supplied by American company New Fortress Energy, arrived in Jamaica last week.

Cargo Handlers made net profit of $46 million in the third quarter, compared to $29 million in the comparativ­e period a year ago. Revenue topped $81 million, up from $54 million.

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