AFTER just over eight months since its official listing on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, the share price of AS Bryden and Sons Holdings Ltd has appreciated significantly, its chief executive Richard Pandohie has said.
On 10 November last year, AS Bryden & Sons Holdings Ltd officially listed its ordinary shares on the Main Market of the JSE and its Class A Preference Shares on the JSE USD Share Market.
Trading under the short name ASBH, the company started trading at J$22.50 on the main market.
At the close of trading on Friday, the stock was trading at J$40.89, an increase of 82% from its original price.
Speaking to the Sunday Express Business, Pandohie said ASBH has been very well received on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange but there has not been much trading because there are not many shares available. But the price has increased significantly since we listed it, Pandohie said.
The next step, according to Pandohie, is to ensure that ASBH is listed on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange (TTSE).
Initially, it was hoped that ASBH would also be listed on the TTSE last year.
We have also committed to listing on the Trinidad Stock Exchange, so we are behind schedule on that. We are working with the Trinidad SEC (Trinidad and Tobago Security and Exchange Commission) to find a way to achieve that. We definitely want to be listed before the end of the year, Pandohie revealed.
ASBH's listing was one of the organization's goals when it was acquired by Seprod Ltd.
On June 6, 2022, Seprod Ltd, the regional manufacturing and distribution company headquartered in Jamaica, acquired 60% of the shares of AS Bryden and Sons Holdings Ltd. AS Bryden was valued at $267.9 million (J$6.09 billion) when Seprod Ltd sought to acquire it.
Besides its listing, Pandohie said ASBH was ready to adopt an acquisition mindset to build a regional structure.
Earlier this week, the company completed the acquisition of Caribbean Producers (Jamaica) Ltd (CPJ) when more than 492 million common shares of CPJ were purchased for a total cost of US$32.82 million on the Jamaica Stock Exchange.
Pandohie said the acquisition was a good deal. CPJ was also listed on the Junior Stock Exchange of Jamaica, a 30-year-old company founded by two entrepreneurs and their family. They are very much in the hospitality sector, supplying hotels in Jamaica and the region. They have some operations in St. Lucia and are a very good partnership, allowing us to come in and get a lot of synergies on both sides, he said.
In fact, we are very pleased with the new board. They have appointed Nicholas Hospedales, a Trinidadian based in Bryden, as the new CEO, which is also consistent with what we told staff when we arrived, that they should no longer see their careers as being limited to Trinidad, Pandohie said.
According to Pandohie, the plans explained to staff are actually coming to fruition.
I think there's a huge opportunity for AS Bryden. It's been a private company in Trinidad for 100 years, very little known, and it's transforming into something different now, we're doing things differently.
Asked about the company's intention to buy more shares of CPJ, Pandohie confirmed: “At this stage, the first stage of the cash purchase of 44.8% of the shares, we have signaled our intention to buy more. We want to reach a higher amount of shares.”
Addressing the impact of the CPJ acquisition on staff, Pandohie said he does not anticipate any staff displacement.
The owners that we had the privilege of buying it from are very committed to their people. These are people that have grown with the business; we don’t anticipate any staff movement. Obviously, we wanted someone who knows our system, who knows that Bryden is the one that’s going to move forward, so we moved the CEO. The CEO is from Trinidad. We’re growing, we need people. We need people who are passionate about the business, who understand the business, so we don’t anticipate any staff movement. There isn’t, but we see an opportunity for our people in Bryden to experience another part of the growth, so Nicholas coming there creates an opportunity for one of our young, talented managers to be promoted. It creates an ice cube atmosphere,” Pandohie said.
On the challenges that lie ahead, he said: “You can never underestimate cultural fit. So that’s something we’re going to work on very closely, and just building the regional infrastructure would require more investment, more talent and more money.” He stressed that these challenges are just part of the business.
Furthermore, he stressed, execution is key, saying that it is one thing to have a strategy; execution is important, and the urgency of execution, so we have to really commit to it. But, aside from that, in many businesses, including ours, we came in with our eyes wide open to the challenges of the foreign exchange market in Trinidad, the availability of liquidity, but we have to help ourselves reduce our dependence on that by finding sources of revenue outside the country. The pace at which we do that is very important.
Pandohie welcomed ASBH's regional focus. AS Bryden is very Trinidad-centric and has a lot of skills and expertise that could be extended regionally and also to reduce our foreign exchange exposure here, which is a big part of it. We have made two acquisitions, a smaller one in Barbados and now the one in Jamaica CPJ. Both have a lot of similarities; both are in the premium beverage sector, both are in the restaurant sector, the hospitality sector, and there are clear plans to grow those sectors. And also, to reduce our exposure to generate more foreign exchange from businesses, he said.
“We now have a strong ASB presence in Barbados, we have a strong presence in Guyana and Jamaica, and if we see another regional opportunity that fits our strategy, we will certainly take it,” Pandohie said. He believes the time is right to do so.
The company's annual general meeting is scheduled for July 16.
