Sygnus Credit Investments (SCI) has made its biggest capital raising activity from its just concluded additional public offering (APO). The company, which is regarded as a leader in the regional private credit investment industry, successfully closed its APO on Wednesday, December 30.

The APO, which was targeted to raise US$ 22 million or J$ 3.3 billion, has exceeded its target in subscription, raising approximately US$27.58 million (J$3.94 billion) for both share classes.

Sygnus received a total of 3,757 subscriptions from Jamaicans and the wider Caribbean region with over 50 per cent from institutional investors.

This represents the biggest capital raise by SCI, which previously raised capital of US$16 million in a private placement in 2017 followed by a record-breaking initial public offering (IPO) of US$ 22 million in 2018.

SCI’s management is boasting about the successful APO, noting that, “this highly successful raise of US$ 27.58 billion in December 2020 came in the middle of a pandemic and is even more significant as it speaks to the solid track record of SCI.”

“Raising this level of capital for private credit under these market conditions signals the continued growth of the private credit market within the region.

“We are excited about the progress of SCI over the last three years and its commitment to establish private credit as a mainstream source of capital in the Caribbean financial service ecosystem,” stated Berisford Grey, co-founder and president of SCI.

The APO, which opened to the public on Friday, December 18, 2020, originally offered up to 196,372,431 ordinary shares to the public at a cost of US$0.140 per US$ ordinary share and J$16.30 per J$ ordinary share.

In light of the oversubscription, SCI has exercised the right to upsize the invitation to 240,887,900 new ordinary shares reflecting a 54 per cent upsize to the maximum allowed by the prospectus dated December 11, 2020.

According to Grey, “We are extremely pleased with the strong support from institutional and retail investors and particularly impressed with the number of new investors to take the opportunity to participate in this APO and the support from medium-sized firms financed by SCI. With this raise we move into 2021 very confident about executing the strategy of hitting the USD$100 million in total portfolio investments within the stated timelines.”