Jamaican traded real estate investment company First Rock Capital Holdings is expanding in St Lucia, where the business is domiciled.

First Rock Capital is ramping up its investment pipeline in St Lucia, having targeted commercial income producing opportunities in the country. The planned expansion in St Lucia comes as the company reports its 10th-consecutive quarter of profitability.

The Jamaica Observer can confirm that First Rock Capital’s investment pipeline is getting ready to acquire commercial properties, as part of its thrust to expand its St Lucian operations. Caribbean Business Report sources say the company has already pinpointed a number of commercial spaces within the industrial belt in the capital of Castries.

When contacted First Rock Group president and co-founder Ryan Reid was hesitant in speaking about the St Lucian expansion, noting that the Jamaica Stock Exchange, where its shares are traded, would first have to be notified about any expansion plans. However, he opined that, “First Rock Capital is a St Lucian registered company and it makes sense to cement our presence there.”

When pressed for more details on the St Lucian expansion, Reid would say no more on the matter. With the company setting to expand its footprint in St Lucia, the board has been expanded with the appointment of Dr Michael Banbury, a co-founder of the First Rock Group.

In the meantime, Reid was pleased with the company’s performance for the third quarter ended September 30, 2021. He was particularly pleased with performance of First Rock’s assets in the Cayman Islands.

First Rock Capital has been carefully managing its balance sheet, which resulted in sales of some real estate assets for gains and subsequent reallocation of capital into new opportunities. Net profit attributable to shareholders for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 amounted to US$1,875,199 which yielded an earnings per share (EPS) of US$0.0066.

For the September quarter, net profit attributable to shareholders totalled US$700,822 which yield an EPS of US$0.0025. Total assets of the First Rock Capital at the end of the quarter stood at US$ 40.94 million with shareholders’ equity of US$ 31.67 million.

Liabilities stood at US$ 9.27 million as at September 30, 2021.

In its outlook, First Rock Chairman Norman Reid (father of Ryan Reid) says, “the company looks forward to the final quarter of the year, we intend to maintain our efforts in being cautiously aggressive within the region. As we assess our strategies for the remainder of the year, we will continue to execute multi-jurisdictional asset allocation as it has proven to be a key feature of our risk-management strategy.”