SUPREME Ventures Ltd (SVL) said Tuesday that it has restored 60 per cent of its lottery terminals after Hurricane Melissa forced a temporary shutdown of its operations last week, causing a significant drop in sales.

The Jamaica-based gaming and financial services group confirmed the storm led to the first unscheduled suspension of its flagship Cash Pot draws in recent memory, according to Executive Chairman Gary Peart in an interview with the
Jamaica Observer.

“We shut down draws for two days because of what we were briefed in terms of what’s likely to happen,” Peart said, referring to the suspension of draws last Tuesday as the hurricane impacted the island and the day after. Operations restarted on Thursday, and the company estimates that sales remain down almost 50 per cent compared to pre-hurricane levels.

“Jamaicans are resilient,” Peart added, noting that terminals in heavily affected parishes like St Elizabeth were coming back online just days after the storm. “Interestingly, the first terminal turned on on Friday in St Elizabeth, three days after the hurricane. I won’t tell you the number [of terminals that were operational there], but some terminals lighted up in St Elizabeth, which was shocking. And since then the number of terminals on in St Elizabeth has tripled,” he pointed out. St Elizabeth was the worst-affected parish by the hurricane.

This rapid restoration is helping to recoup losses that, at SVL’s scale — with gaming revenues averaging roughly $150 million daily — represented a major financial blow.

The hurricane provided an immediate test of SVL’s strategic financial planning. Fortuitously, the company had closed a $5-billion bond issuance just a week before the storm hit. Already, $3 billion of the funds has been used to pay a bond that matured on October 30, with a further sum earmarked for a later payment this year. At the end of September, SVL had $4.08 billion in long-term debt due before the end of this year, including the $3 billion that was repaid last month.

Peart confirmed the remaining capital after those payment obligations placed the company in a “much better position” to withstand the disruption, noting that the strategic intent for these additional proceeds is to assist in the group’s diversification into fintech services and international markets.

However, so far in response to the crisis, the company has launched a wide-ranging relief initiative, prioritising support for its 40 “devastated” employees before assisting its retailers and the wider community. “We have literally signed off on some stuff to help them individually to come back,” Peart stated, detailing the provision of generators, Starlink units, and other supplies.

As the nation recovers, Peart expressed cautious optimism that a full sales recovery at SVL terminals “will be quicker than expected.” The rapid network restoration, he noted, is a positive indicator for the company’s fourth-quarter performance, which was already poised for growth driven by its ongoing strategic pivot.

That pivot involves a fundamental redefinition of the company. “We never ever saw SVL as a gaming company,” Peart stated, reiterating a vision that was outlined years ago to diversify away from gaming as its main earner. “We saw SVL at the time as a transaction company with gaming bolted onto it.” He announced that the group is now “evolving, pun intended, into a technology company,” a shift powered by proprietary software that runs services like its Evolve microfinance arm, its phone credit unit ChargeUp, and its remittance business.

This diversification strategy is already bearing fruit. For the nine months ended September 30, SVL reported a net profit of $1.84 billion, which beat its entire 2024 full-year profit. Growth was notably fuelled by a 31.8 per cent surge in sports betting, while strategic investments in fintech subsidiaries are now moving from their initial investment phase to becoming revenue contributors.

Peart attributed the strong performance to a clear, three-part strategy. “Primarily cost containment,” he said, explaining the drivers. “As I indicated at the start of the year, companies over time… get fat, but we looked into the business and started to cut out unnecessary expenses. So we benefitted from that primarily. And then secondarily, the revenue continues to grow in terms of the core business. And then third, we have invested strategically in diversifying the business.”

He confirmed that after carrying losses during the startup phase, the new ventures are now paying off. “All of those businesses that you had to carry because they were growing, they’re now producing good revenues,” he stated, pointing to expansion in its remittance business from six to 20 locations and improved performance in its Evolve microfinance and ChargeUp phone credit units.

The strategy also has a clear international dimension. Peart revealed that in Ghana, where SVL already operates, its business is equivalent to 50 per cent of the business done in Jamaica, yet this still represents a mere 3 per cent of the total Ghanaian gaming market, signalling vast potential for growth. He confirmed the company is actively “bidding on potential lottery licenses across the world”, using its proprietary software as a key competitive advantage, though he declined to identify any new markets the company is eyeing.

Looking further ahead, Peart remains bullish about 2026, anticipating “another big jump in revenues” as its digital fintech products gain full regulatory approval and scale. Balancing this aggressive growth with a commitment to shareholders—the company pays out 90 per cent of profits in dividends — is the final part of the strategy. “That’s the fun of it,” Peart concluded. “Being able to pay that level of dividends whilst growing, whilst maintaining cash… so far we’ve been successful at it.”

The company’s latest declaration — an interim dividend of 18.94 cents per share, totalling $499.55 million — is a direct reflection of that policy. The payout represents roughly 92 per cent of its net profit for the third quarter. It’s stock price closed trading Tuesday at $17.59 and is down 29 per cent since the start of the year.

PEART…recovery will be quicker than expected.