Despite the uncertainties of the novel coronavirus pandemic on the impending year, Mayberry Investments Limited (MIL) said it is anticipating continued growth for the company with hopes to secure another round of record achievements as seen in its last financial year.

Christopher Berry, executive chairman, while addressing shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting, held via both live stream and face-to-face in hybrid format at the Knutsford Court Hotel in Kingston earlier this week, said that as the reality of a vaccine draws nearer, locally, he was expecting improvements within the economy, stock market and businesses alike.

“My expectation is that the stocks will recover with the economy and if the economy is weak in the first half — we certainly expect it to get better in the second half of 2021,” he said. Noting that while he wasn’t as optimistic about the stability of foreign exchange, he was looking forward to the continuation of interest rates remaining low and a V-shaped-type economic recovery which is short and quick.

Recounting the activities of 2019 Berry said that the financial year was one marked by several record achievements for the company.

“It was a good year for Mayberry, we had record earnings of $5.8 billion in comprehensive income and our stockholders equity increased by 42 per cent. Looking back, another major achievement was also the Wigton Windfarm initial public offer (IPO),” he said.

“It was very successful, with over 30,000 investors in that IPO, and we met all the targets that the Government wanted us to hit,” he continued.

He said that irrespective of the fallouts brought on by the onset of the pandemic, the company, though adversely affected, was able to pivot via an active digital transformation strategy which allowed it to do business remotely and allow for continued and easier communication with customers.

Gary Peart, chief executive officer (CEO) of Mayberry also said that the tripling of several core stocks in its offshore portfolio listed as Mayberry Jamaica Equities (MJE) also helped to contribute to the the record outturns in 2019 which saw equities towards the end of that year approaching some $19 billion.

He said that 2019 will be remembered as one in which the company has reached various milestones on its path to sustainability, notably raising some $5.7 billion from the public market through IPOs and another $1.8 billion in private equity transactions.

“This is just testament to when you position your portfolio and it performs what can be done. It is just tremendous when we could grow the capital of the business in the way we could for the years leading up to 2019. We had a very good previous four years culminating in 2019 and we expect to see that continue despite the impacts of COVID on our 2020 numbers,” he said.

In its third quarter results ended September 30, 2020, MIL secured recovered net profits of $332 million when compared to the $3.9 million loss in the previous quarter as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic.