Mayberry Jamaican Equities (MJE) new stocks shares climbed 10 per cent Tuesday morning, while its directors knocked champagne glasses at the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) in downtown Kingston to celebrate the listing of the new company.

MJE’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Gary Peart, made the announcement at the close of the brief ceremony which attracted a roomful of MJE, JSE investors and media personnel and marked the most important development in the history of its 33-year-old parent, Mayberry Investment Ltd (MIL).

Mayberry’s Chairman Christopher Berry described his company as “the best placed in Jamaica to raise capital”.

Berry was supported by Mayberry CEO Gary Peart who paid tribute to the Mayberry staff for “one of the most complicated listings we have ever done”.

He noted that Mayberry had declared a dividend in specie on February 28, which ensured that it took at least 5,000 investors into the newly formed subsidiary.

Peart also happily announced that these shareholders will not only end up with the dividends from the recent IPO shares, but also the specie stock dividends.

“It was a wonderful experience and we look forward to the next set of listings,” he told the audience.

Managing director of the JSE, Marlene Street Forrest, said that it was further evidence that the stock markets are working.

She said that with the inclusion of the $908 million raised by MJE in its recent IPO, the JSE has raised a total of $16.1 billion since the start of 2018.

“And that’s good. So the market is working,” she added, noting that as at July 30 the market’s capitalisation amounted to $1.11 trillion, and after yesterday’s listing that had been increased to $1.25 trillion.

This also increased the total number of companies listed to 74 and the total number of securities to 107.

Berry, who was the main speaker at the event, linked the huge investor response to this listing as well as the IPOs managed for other companies, as an indication of a “bull run”, which he suggests is just beginning.

He noted that some people were actually getting it wrong and suggesting that the market was overvalued.

“But, my perspective is this: The prosperity we are seeing on the stock exchange now is based on improving earnings, and those improvements are buttressed by a new philosophy of fiscal responsibility, which has been accepted by both the PNP and the JLP. So you can literally take the politics out of the equation. My view is that we are in the beginning of the longest bull market that we have seen in the history of Jamaica: The longest, and it is just beginning,” Berry stated.

“So, what happens in the markets is that you will look at a stock and you will think that it is overvalued, until the earnings come out,” he said.

He said that recent reports of National Commercial Bank’s (NCB) trading movements were indicative of what has been happening. However, he noted that these are the kinds of things that will continue to happen, and some people will find themselves selling their stocks too early and eventually regretting the action.

Berry noted a huge information gap existing between the average citizens and those participating in the stock market. But he explained that it was the basis of the foundation of Mayberry, which relies on research and investor education to get information which it can pass on to its investors.

Noting that while his father, who founded the company, was not rich, he said he was able to “rub shoulders” with “Jamaica’s business titans of the time”, and learn enough about how equity was much more powerful than fixed income.

“At Mayberry we realise that there is a big gap between somebody trying to learn how to invest, and actually being able to do it well. That’s why at Mayberry every single client has their own personal adviser, someone trained by us to help you make these types of decisions, because there is this gap and this is where MJE comes in,” he added.

JSE acting chief regulator, Andrae Tulloch, said that the decision to go to the stock exchange demonstrated Mayberry’s passion for Jamaica’s equities markets.

Master of Ceremonies was JSE marketing manager, Neville Ellis. The strip was inserted by Mayberry directors Konrad Mark Berry, and Richard Du Boulay.

Another director, Natalie Augustin, from St Lucia, received the Rule Book from Tulloch. Prayer was led by Mayberry’s senior vice-president for sales and marketing, Philbert Perry.

Mayberry closed its offer for sale of over 120 million ordinary shares in its subsidiary, Mayberry Jamaican Equities Limited (MJE), just a few hours after it officially started on June 9.

Sale of the 120,114,929 ordinary shares, at the price of $7.56 per share, were made subject to a prospectus of the company which was released on Friday, June 29. Following the release of the prospectus, the application list was opened at 9 am, but the offer was quickly gobbled up by a flood of applications and the list was closed at 1 pm.

The shares offered for sale constituted 10 per cent of the issued share capital of MJE, and the amount raised was $908 million.

Mayberry continues to hold 80 per cent of the issued share capital of the company, while the other 10 per cent is held by its stockholders, following the February distribution in specie.