Alliance Financial Services IPO opens on December 28
ALLIANCE Financial Services Limited (AFSL) yesterday formally announced its initial public offering (IPO) for just under $2 billion in shares to the public. The IPO, which is being arranged and offered by Jamaica Money Market Brokers, opens on December 28 and closes on January 11, 2021.
Alliance Financial, which has been in operation for 24 years, has as its main product lines foreign exchange services, remittances and more recently, card services.
Despite the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, AFSL acquired the card services portfolio of Alliance Payment Services Limited and became a principal member of the MasterCard network. AFSL is now the largest issuer of prepaid MasterCards locally, largely brought about through several lucrative white labelling partnerships with corporations islandwide. It is the first provider of a direct-to-card remittance solution (Alliance ePay MasterCard), which has placed the company in a stronger competitive position in the remittance market.
Approximately 1,252,294,335 shares are being offered priced at $1.59 per share, subject to the terms and conditions of the company’s published prospectus.
The Alliance IPO features a key partner reserve pool, ensuring AFSL employees, clients and other long-standing partners have preferred access to becoming part-owners in the company.
When asked about the significance of this allocation, Robert Chin, deputy chairman and vice-president of AFSL, said “This share allocation will ensure that individual and smaller shareholders will have an opportunity to own a stake in the company that they helped to build. This will safeguard the diversity in the ownership of the business going forward. Our success is due to the people who fervently supported our vision from within, as team members, and our loyal customers and clients who have allowed us to partner with them over the last two decades. We are happy to invite them to enter into a new phase of our relationship, as shareholders.”
AFSL is also a long-standing primary agent for MoneyGram in Jamaica, a major player in the cambio industry and a principal member of MasterCard .
