BARITA Investments Limited said it remains in active pursuit of acquisition targets, signalling that it is undeterred by the recent failure of its parent company Cornerstone Financial Holdings to complete the purchase of a further 30 per cent stake in Bermuda-based Clarien Group.

“We are very open to expanding the business in inorganic ways through looking at new markets or new opportunities through business combination and so on,” Ramon Small-Ferguson, CEO of Barita Investments, said at the company’s annual general meeting (AGM) on Friday.

Small-Ferguson did not say if there are any deals on the horizon, neither did he mention anything about the setback the company faced in its quest to acquire an additional 30 per cent stake in Clarien from NCB Financial Group (NCBFG). Both parties hammered out an agreement a little over a year ago for NCBFG to sell the stake to Barita. But, just a day before the AGM, a release on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) website indicated that the deal “expired with the parties not extending the agreement”. Had Barita acquired the shares it would have become the largest shareholder in Clarien with a 70 per cent stake, replacing NCBFG’s holdings from the current 50 per cent to just under 20 per cent.

But even as that deal has fallen through, the company has already refocused on its business lines while it awaits any opportunity to make an acquisition.

Here in Jamaica, the company said with interest rates starting to fall and expected to stabilise, “traditional revenues” are expected to return particularly from trading, after “the impact the post-pandemic monetary policy stance had on them”, though it points out market sentiments remain low. In 2024 it reported net interest income rose 11 per cent to $646 million.

The alternative investments space, which had done well for them in recent years, started showing some weaknesses last year and the expectation is for the “trend to continue as we look forward to both the current financial year and the future.”

In 2024 revenues from alternative investments accounted for 72 per cent or $3.5 billion of its recorded $4.9 billion gains from investments.

Yet, even with the company expecting that performance to taper off, it is still banking on its alternative investments portfolio to continue earning for it, especially with plans now seemingly at the final stage to develop a portion of the real estate properties it manages through MJR Holdings, a real estate company. Small-Ferguson said preliminary work on the developments has been done in the last few months and the company has now “entered into a development management agreement to develop 2 projects by the end of 2026 or early 2027”.

“One will be a light warehouse development and the other will be mixed-use commercial and residential property,” Small-Ferguson shared, without saying where those developments will take place or the cost.

However MJR Holdings, a company acquired in 2022 by its Barita Unit Trust Real Estate Portfolio, owns close to 2,000 acres of land at locations such as Reggae Beach and Green Castle in St Mary. The company has also scoped out developments ranging from hotels, residential, multi-family residential, commercial facilities, as well as warehousing and other light industrial solutions — but when those will come on stream is yet to be announced.

But, real estate is not the only alternative investment Barita has plans for in the upcoming year. The company has been actively helping its clients to raise over US$150 million in private credit and is expecting to continue building positions and exit strategies in that market.

“In parallel, we are focusing on seeking to launch a fund that will allow our customers to participate alongside us in this emerging asset class,” Small-Ferguson said. Barita is awaiting regulatory approval for the fund to be launched.

On its balance sheet it has cash to burn, though it maintains its “approach remains anchored in cautious optimism, prudent risk management and agile capital allocation”, as expounded by its chairman Mark Myers at the AGM.

Still, with its strong foundation built on a capital base of $35 billion — the highest among securities dealers and about a quarter of the capital amongst its peers — the company has more than enough resilience to weather the economic headwinds that may emerge in the near future.

“That has allowed us to establish a fairly stable funding base to really fuel our investment strategy over the last several years,” Small-Ferguson noted.

Over the last five years funds under management grew from $247 billion in 2020 to $405 billion in 2024.

Now, as it awaits finalising its reorganisation into a financial holding company, Small-Ferguson said the entity will double down on driving a digital-first journey both inside and outside the company.

The company said it is doing this by enhancing its core platform, enhancing IT security infrastructure, fostering a culture of ideation and innovation in the team, and building a centralised enterprise data warehouse that can also improve in decision-making.

It said it hopes those investments will help it to seamlessly integrate customers across the Barita Financial Group when that structure is finalised.

“A key part of the financial holding process from a customer’s perspective is bringing the bank closer to our Barita clients,” Small-Ferguson noted.

Barita Investments Limited.