PANCARIBBEAN Financial Services (PCFS) yesterday launched two new products that will give investors opportunities to participate in a range of investments from start-up companies to leveraged buy-outs.

The two new products, Sigma Venture and Sigma Corporate form part of PCFS’ unitised investment pool that also includes Sigma Optima, Sigma Solution and Sigma Liberty.

With a minimum investment of 50,000 units, priced at $1 each, investors can participate in either the Sigma Venture or the Sigma Corporate. Subsequent investments should have a minimum $5,000 units. Sigma Venture provides investment opportunities in private equity, junior market companies, venture capital financing for start-ups and companies in their third stage financing cycle all within local, regional and international markets.

Sigma Corporate is a bond fund that provides investment opportunities in commercial paper and debt structures in private and public companies located in Jamaica, the Caribbean and internationally. Both products aim to provide higher yields to the aggressive investor and have a longer- term investment focus as each requires a minimum one-year investment period.

According to Sigma Unit Trusts fund manager Kevin Donaldson, it is the first time that these investments will be open to the small-scale, individual investors in Jamaica.

“These products are not ordinarily available to investors in our marketplace. The Venture Fund is the first of its kind as well as the corporate bond portfolio. They both provide an investor with the exposure to a new and emerging asset class, geographical diversification, potentially higher yields and higher growth,” Donaldson said yesterday at the launch held at the Terra Nova Hotel

All-Suite in Kingston.

Donaldson said the time had come for innovation as a result of the availability of investments capital given that the market for government paper has shifted. He pointed to the historic listings on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) as examples of this shift in investor focus, and a “hunger for new products”.

The Sigma Venture product will include JSE listed companies.

Assets in Sigma Venture already include Junior Market-listed Dolphin Cove, and the movie Ghetta Life. Donaldson said other companies are also being contemplated with two additional Junior Market listings on the horizon for PCFS and a private equity deal in the works.

Both the Venture and Corporate products have a tax advantage to the investor. There are no transfer or capital gains tax on the returns or sale of units in Sigma Venture, while Sigma Corporate has a tax on capital gains that only come into effect once the units are sold and the funds are withdrawn. However, capital gains that are reinvested do not attract the 25 per cent taxation charge. A management fee of 1.5 per cent is charged on the total value of the fund now valued at approximately $7 billion.

PCFS currently controls 19 per cent of the market for Unit Trusts, but with the launch of these two products, Donaldson is hopeful that market share will grow from the number two position the company now holds.

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