BLUE Power Group’s public share offer will unlikely stay open for the week it is being made available after it opens tomorrow as 75 per cent of the shares have already been taken up.

The local soap manufacturer aims to raise $87.9 million by inviting subscriptions for up to 22,599,000 shares at $3.89 per share, which will be listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) Junior Market.

But 16,867,770 shares, or 74.6 per cent of the offer has been reserved.

Individuals who made loans to Blue Power amounting to $68.17 million as at 31st October 2009 elected to convert $59.9 million of those loans to 15,405,300 shares while Mayberry Investments Limited — the company’s financial advisor — will take up 948,300 shares in lieu of professional fees for financial advisory services.

Another 257,100 shares have been set aside for employees after directors agreed to convert $1 million of loans owed to them by the company into shares for staff, which will give them a 0.46 per cent stake in the company.

Blue Power intends to use the greater part of the proceeds of the funds raised as a result of the Invitation to fund the expansion of its current business model in Jamaica and in its export markets, being the areas of concentrated settlement by the Caribbean diaspora in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

It even secured a new contract two months ago to manufacture bath soaps under the LASCO name.

The company, which also retails contruction materials, made profit before tax of $22.6 million for the year ending April 30, 2009, but that was already matched by its half-year profit this financial year when it made $22.3 million in pre-tax profit for the six-month period ended 31st October 2009.

Its equity also stood at $56 million at October 31, 2009 while the company will have a market capitalisation of $219.8 million after the share offer.

According to the prospectus, the board anticipates it will pay out annual dividends of between 10 and 20 per cent of annual after-tax profits “where such profits are available for distribution, subject to the company’s need for reinvestment of some or all of its profits from time to time in order to finance its growth and development”.

As it will be listed on the Junior Market, Blue Power will be subject to a tax break.