Tea and condiment manufacturer Jamaican Teas Limited (JTL) is set to divest more of its properties this year as the company continues to scale back operations under its real estate portfolio.

More focused on the expansion of its core manufacturing business, the company, in announcing the decision, had earlier pointed to issues concerning construction delays, a softening of the real estate market and a slowdown of sales among its top reasons for parting with these holdings held under its subsidiary, H Mahfood and Sons.

After offloading one of its Harbour Street properties for $73 million in 2023, the company said it is now actively preparing to divest additional investment properties this year.

“We have more properties on Harbour Street in downtown Kingston along with others in Red Hills as well as Belvedere that we will sell,” CEO of the JTL Group John Mahfood said while speaking with the Jamaica Observer at the end of the annual general meeting last week.

On completing the sale of its three Harbour Street properties, the company is looking to bag at least $200 million in combined earnings. From the sale of its 30-unit Belvedere Apartment in St Andrew, of which 10 units have already been sold, it is also looking to recoup at least $800 million in sales from the additional 20 units.

“My estimate is that by the end of this year, we hope to finish selling all of the units,” Mahfood told shareholders present at the meeting.

Following assessments by an independent valuator in 2023 on land holdings and real estate investment properties in Kingston, fair value gains for the group climbed to $35 million, up from $30 million in the previous year.

Recently selling its Bell Road operation for $400 million after purchasing and having started consolidation of its entire operation at its new three-acre, 60,000-square-foot old Grace factory space in Temple Hall, St Andrew, which it acquired last year for over $300 million, the company is also now seriously in the process of ramping up growth across the manufacturing business. This, as it pilots the build-out of the long-awaited Caribbean Dreams Food Limited (CDFL) spin-off, whose operation officially began on January 1, 2024 and is expected to be fully materialised by 2025 pending a possible IPO launch and a main market listing on the Jamaica Stock Exchange.

Preserving the cash generated from the sale of the Bell Road factory, along with those to come from its real estate divestments, Mahfood said the company’s efforts are strategically being done as it positions to go after potential acquisitions in the near future.

“Unless you have cash, you can’t acquire companies and so in reserving the cash from these sales, we are putting ourselves in a position to be able to go after possible candidates. We have some prospective ones right now and as we go through the necessary regulatory and other due diligence, we hope to have some success soon enough,” Mahfood said to the
Business Observer.