The Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ) has shelved its planned listing of its business process outsourcing (BPO) assets on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) due to prevailing market conditions.

This was revealed in a recently released CARICRIS (Caribbean Information and Credit Rating Services Limited) report where the PAJ’s credit ratings of CariA- and CariA (regional rating scale) and jmAA+ (Jamaican rating scale) were reaffirmed. The PAJ will instead be concentrating its efforts on the Caymanas Special Economic Zone (SEZ) which it intends to spend $8.88 billion in the current March 2027 fiscal year (FY).

“Subsequent to our last report and in line with the recommendations from its consultants’, PAJ prudently deferred the planned privatization of its real estate portfolio within the Special Economic Zone and BPO segments, which was intended to monetise its BPO-related assets,” the CARICRIS report stated.

The PAJ had indicated plans as early as 2021 to list an entity which would manage the real estate assets totalling 852,276 square feet. These assets were situated at SEZs in Montego Bay and the Portmore Informatics Park. This privatisation effort was being handled by the Development Bank of Jamaica which handles public private partnership (PPP) transactions.

The PAJ was seeking a securities broker in early 2024 to facilitate the stock exchange listing. The PAJ even anticipated the completion of the privatisation effort in the March 2026 FY as stated in the Ministry of Finance and Public Services (MOFPS) 2025/2026 public bodies budget. The monetisation of these assets was expected to support investments into other critical projects.

“The authority decided that prevailing market conditions were not conducive to achieving favourable valuation outcomes and therefore postponed the transaction,” the CARICRIS report added.

The privatisation effort represents the latest efforts for the Government to monetise the assets of certain public bodies to support its various endeavours. The Government of Jamaica (GOJ) raised a gross amount of $9 billion in March 2025 when the National Road Operating and Constructing Company Limited (NROCC) sold its 20 per cent stake in TransJamaican Highway Limited (TJH). GOJ also raised $14.1 billion when NROCC sold 80 per cent of TJH in March 2020 and $5.5 billion in May 2019 when it sold its stake in Wigton Energy Limited via the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ).

The divestment efforts for the Jamaica Mortgage Bank (JMB) continue as planned based on the MOFPS having a stand-alone budget for the public body. The government previously announced in mid-2024 that it was seeking an investor to take a 40 per cent stake in JMB before listing it on the JSE. A move is also being pursued to sell the mortgage insurance portfolio administered by the JMB before the divestment exercise moves forward.

The JMB reported $971.09 million in revenue and $244.29 million in profit before tax (PBT) for the March 2025 FY. It had $7.64 billion in total assets and $6.87 billion in loans receivable for the period. Total liabilities and equity were $4.63 billion and $3.01 billion, respectively.

The estimated revenue for the March 2026 FY was projected at $758.93 million with $156.65 million in PBT. The JMB estimated that its balance sheet for the March 2026 FY would be $6.94 billion with $5.86 billion in loans receivable.

The move to shelve the PAJ’s BPO asset listing is the latest change to happen in the last six years, based on Government announcements. The government had announced plans in early 2019 to list its 19 per cent stake in the Jamaica Public Service Company Limited (JPS) while former Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke had announced plans to list a special purpose vehicle for Government infrastructure assets. However, these plans never materialised, with the government currently renegotiating JPS’s all island licence before the July 2027 expiration date.