PROVEN Wealth Limited (PWL), Jamaica’s newest investment house, has launched two new products in an effort to break new ground in its strategic targeting of high net worth clientele and stamp its name in the financial sector.

“We are doing the hard work to prove ourselves and we are asking our clients to give us an opportunity to show them what Proven can do for their portfolios in the marketplace,” said Paul Simpson, PWL assistant vice-president, investor relations and marketing.

“The post-Jamaica Debt Exchange environment has meant that the whole wealth management landscape has changed, and so people cannot enhance their wealth solely by just investing in repos. They are now going to have to do the hard work of building new portfolios. Proven is putting new investment opportunities in front of its clientele. We are not just only about research, we have created structured products to help them manage their wealth,” Simpson told Sunday Finance.

Giving details about the new instruments, Simpson outlined: “We have just put out on the market the first local release of a US-Dollar index ROE-enhanced note, that is, a Jamaican dollar note indexed to the US Dollar to provide some devaluation protection and which pays a fixed-tax free rate. This is very tax efficient with an upside that it is linked to the returns on equity of Proven so the investors stand to benefit if PWL does well.”

He added: “We also have a new product on the market, a Jamaican dollar credit-linked note that gives the investor the opportunity to get a rate of return that is more than that of the current repo rate and is tied to the performance of Jamaican blue chip companies.”

Proven’s return on equity is currently in excess of 28 per cent per annum.

Proven Investments Limited (PIL) last August acquired Guardian Asset Management (GAM) Jamaica, a subsidiary of the Trinidadian insurance company Guardian Holdings Limited. The entity was renamed Proven Wealth Limited. The acquisition of GAM followed the due diligence exercise and sign off on conditional agreement of July 7, 2010. PWL is guided by seasoned board members: Chairman Peter Bunting; Mark Golding; Christopher Bicknell; Gary Sinclair; Peter Reid; Lisa Gomes; Johann Heaven and Christopher Williams.

Now that its corporate structure is firmly in place, the company said it is ramping up brand awareness.

“We are ensuring that a clear and direct communication channel is established with our high-net clients in Jamaica. Over the past weeks we have been on a campaign to introduce PWL to them through sponsorships, visits and we have started knocking on doors to let people know that we are here and we would like to compete for a space in their wallets,” explained Simpson, who recenly had marketing added to his portfolio of responsibilities.

“We will be doing very targeted and strong brand awareness through sponsorship and other activities. Some of the events in which we have been heavily involved includes the Adopt-A-ward Fund-raiser with John and Jenny Greaves, the Cinnamon Hill Golf Tournament, among others,” he added, noting that “two things that make money in this market is contact and content and my team is aiming to win that race.”

PIL’s 200 million shares priced at US 10 cents per share which opened on January 27 were quickly snapped up by 150 private and institutional investors. The deal, which netted US$20 million, was arranged by Proven Management Limited (PML).