Regency Petroleum Company Limited’s (RPL) initial public offering (IPO) officially closed on November 25, a day after it opened, as it became the fifth Junior Market IPO in 2022 to be oversubscribed.

The company sought $287.16 million in equity capital with $170.70 million being fresh equity capital from the general public and RPL key strategic partners.

With the offer officially closed, the preliminary basis of allotment should be published on the Jamaica Stock Exchange’s (JSE) website within six business days after the closing date, which is by December 1. The investor statements and refunds should be dispatched within 10 days of closing. The shares will be listed within 21 days of the closing once the JSE’s listing committee approves it for listing.

Regency’s listing would make it the 101st company to be listed on the JSE and sixth company to list on the Junior Market this year. It would also become the 47th company on the Junior Market and 149th security listed on the JSE.

Regency’s IPO will be the litmus test of not only Junior Market IPOs but also of the overall stock market, which has seen a dip in trading values and liquidity in recent weeks. The final value of successful applications and number of shareholders will indicate the appetite in the market relative to the other Junior Market companies listed this year. Apart from JFP Limited and EduFocal Limited, which each garnered more than $400 million each, the other three companies which listed this year all received more than $1 billion in subscriptions by interested investors.

Dolla Financial Services Limited made history when it received $4.762 billion in applications from more than 14,000 investors in just a week. Dolla will be listing its bond on the JSE’s Private Market within the coming weeks.

The Junior Market has set records in 2022 with its index hitting a new record high of 4,583.41 points on May 9, which meant the index was up 33.66 per cent at that point. However, the index has declined to 3,870.24 points as of Friday, which leaves it up 12.89 per cent year to date. Despite this retraction in value, the Junior Market had $14.90 billion in value traded over 207,993 transactions up to October. This dwarfed the $9.39 billion from 47,755 transactions for 2019.

There are three other expected IPOs for 2022 with AS Bryden & Sons Holdings Limited expected to list this year as well.

GK Capital Management Limited was the lead broker and arranger for RPL’s IPO while JMMB Securities Limited, VM Wealth Management Limited (VMWM) were selling agents. The offer got participate recommendation from VMWM at a fair value of $1.53, a recommendation of $1.56 from Barita Investments Limited and a buy recommendation from Sagicor Investments Jamaica Limited at $1.52.

“We anticipate significant growth in revenues to come from our next four quarters. We also plan to continue to seek properties in strategic locations to expand our automotive retail outlets and service stations and expand our LPG cylinder base by planting our stake in corporate areas and across the island in the near future,” RPL CEO Andrew Williams said in a press release.