THE development of Jamaica’s capital market and, in particular, the introduction of the Private Market on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) has piqued NCB Capital Markets’ (NCBCM) interest in pursuing more private equity opportunities in the current calendar year.

So far the company has led the listing of four instruments on the JSE Private Market — the most by any brokerage house — including preference shares valued at $2.01 billion for Colossal IC Holdings.

“We believe that the advent of the Junior Market and the deleveraging of the Government over the years has contributed significantly to a private equity culture that’s emerging,” NCBCM CEO Steven Gooden said during a Jamaica Observer Business Forum.

“Private equity has become increasingly topical. We have seen the emergence of quite a few private equity funds. We have seen the establishment of the Caribbean Alternative Investment Fund as a lobby group focused on alternative investments of which private equity is a big component,” he continued.

“More and more business people in Jamaica are warminig up to private equity as a means of a financing alternative, and we expect this trend to also occur in other jurisdictions across the Caribbean,” the NCBCM CEO stated, pointing out that the Trinidad and Tobago market is another market in which the investment house will be exploring opportunities.

He pointed to the liberalisation of the twin-island republic’s capital market with the introduction of the SME Market on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange in 2019 as a catalyst for the development of a more structured private equity framework, similar to that of Jamaica. However, he added that private equity is part of that gradual step to listing on any of these indices as companies will need the guidance of brokers to develop the proper corporate governance structures.

With a history of listing companies on both the Main Market and Junior Market of the JSE, Sekou Crawford, NCBCM manager — deal origination and structuring believes that the brokerage house can also extend assistance to companies that are privately held and are looking to engage in private equity transactions.

“We believe that there is an opportunity for businesses now that may be ready to list today or access public funding today, but at some point in the future these are the companies that can get there… So this is an opportunity available to us from a pipeline perspective, that we start looking at these companies and arrange private equity transactions for them with a view to take these companies public,” he outlined.

NCBCM works with family-run micro-, small- and medium-sized entities (MSMEs) to raise capital through private-equity type transactions, according to Simone Hudson, assistant vice-president of alternatives and fund management.

One such solution is the Regional Opportunity Fund, a portfolio managed by the NCBCM’s Stratus Fund, which Hudson oversees.

“A number of SMEs may not be where they ought to be in terms of being listing ready. As a wholistic financial group we pride ourselves in being able to provide different types of financing along the entire capital structure to satisfy businesses wherever they are in their life cycle,” she stated, pointing also to the NCB Group’s retail banking, corporate banking, and MSME products.