Seprod Limited intends to list its recently acquired subsidiary AS Brydens & Sons Holdings Limited on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) later this year and subsequently on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange (TTSE).

Seprod acquired Trinidad-based AS Brydens & Sons Holdings Limited on June 6 in a landmark regional transaction which will see the enhanced group earning combined revenues in excess of US$500 million ($76.12 billion) or TT$3.37 billion. AS Brydens has three principal operating subsidiaries including AS Brydens & Sons (Trinidad) Limited (ASBT), Bryden pi Limited (Bryden pi) and FT Farfan Limited (FT Farfan). It was founded in 1923 and is a leading distributor of food, pharmaceuticals, hardware and industrial equipment in Trinidad, & Tobago, Barbados and Guyana.

“We are excited to announce that we are taking the Brydens Group public. We believe in creating a culture of ownership throughout the organisation. Publicly listing our shares will allow any member of staff to become an owner of the business and to benefit from the value we create together,” said a September 30 memorandum sent to all Brydens Group staff. The memorandum was signed by Chairman Paul B Scott and interim Chief Executive Officer Richard Pandohie.

The memorandum said that all staff members will be offered the opportunity to purchase shares in the Brydens Group before the shares are publicly listed. This will be facilitated through salary advances to staff members. More information on the opportunity including how staff can apply for the salary advance was attached in documents and links sent in the e-mail to staff with any questions to be directed to the respective HR manager.

“AS Brydens is expected to be initially listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) before the end of the year, listing on the TTSE will follow at a later date to be announced,” said Pandohie in an e-mail to the Jamaica Observer. Pandohie is the CEO for Seprod.

Pandohie confirmed that Seprod owns 60 per cent of the Brydens Group with the remainder owned by other partners inclusive of the management team. The prior owners of the Trinidadian distribution giant were the Bryden, Fitzwilliam and Maingot families along with Summit Investments which was an executive profit-sharing plan of the business.

The cost of the acquisition has not been disclosed, but the Trinidad Express newspaper reported on May 8 that the acquisition was partially financed by a US$25.4-million bond issue. The two-year bond is unsecured and pays an interest rate of six per cent with a bullet payment in May 2024. CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank published a tombstone which outlined that it was the mandated lead arranger, administrative agent and co-lender in June 2022 for a syndicated senior secured term dual-currency loan to support Seprod in acquiring AS Brydens & Sons Holdings.

Seprod’s consolidated revenue for the second quarter rose by 56 per cent from $10.25 billion to $16 billion with consolidated net profit growing 49 per cent to $984.37 million. Seprod’s net profit attributable to shareholders was $883.63 million while the non-controlling interest was $100.75 million. This means that AS Brydens’ contribution in under a month for net profit was $251.87 million which comes up to $3.02 billion on an annualised basis. Seprod’s revenue was $37.74 billion in 2020 with its adjusted net profit coming in at $2.12 billion. Its 2021 revenue was $43.88 billion or US$283 million.

Seprod’s total consolidated asset base at the end of March was $45.79 billion with total liabilities and shareholders equity at $21.72 billion and $24.06 billion, respectively. Seprod’s consolidated asset base was $78.07 billion with total liabilities and shareholders equity at $47.88 billion and $30.18 billion, respectively. The $2.57 billion non-controlling interest recognised on acquisition of subsidiary means that the equity base of AS Brydens was $6.43 billion.

“It’s transformational for Seprod,” said Musson Group Chief Investment Officer (CIO) Nicholas Scott.

When asked why take AS Brydens public after acquiring it less than four months ago, Pandohie said, “Seprod is a publicly listed company, and it was always expected that ASB would be listed, as it is a part of the Seprod Group. Seprod has longstanding, strong culture of employee ownership, listing ASB will also give its employees and opportunity to own a share of their company. ASB is solid company with almost 100 years of legacy in Trinidad, we believe that employees and investors will be excited by the opportunity to own a piece of this exciting entity.”

During his presentation to shareholders at the company’s hybrid annual general meeting held recently at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel, Pandohie said, “Our ambition is to create a regional platform which is designed to reduce logistics complexity; create a scale that justifies next-level investments; become a more attractive company to best-in-class talent and be a partner of choice for great brands. In short, we have laid a platform that makes this group one of the region’s most exciting, value-creating entities,” Pandohie told

The listing of AS Brydens on the JSE would represent the continued trend of Trinidadian firms choosing to cross list in the last two years. Guardian Holdings Limited chose to list again on the JSE in May 2021 while Massy Holdings Limited listed in January 2022 to become the second-largest company on the JSE. There are also talks of another TTSE listed giant considering to cross list on the JSE.

While the broker is currently not known, NCB Merchant Bank (Trinidad and Tobago) Limited and JMMB Securities (T&T) Limited have parent brokerage firms in Jamaica. NCB Capital Markets Limited (NCBCM) facilitated the offer for sale by Facey Group Limited in October 2018 of Seprod shares. NCBCM’s GOIPO platform also facilitates the opening of brokerage accounts in the various jurisdictions they operate in.

“Initially a concern was about how a Jamaican enterprise would be welcome, having acquired such a legacy company four months into the acquisition and those concerns have been proven to be unfounded. The employees have been open and welcoming, the suppliers and customers have reiterated their support for the partnership and government and private sector leadership have been supportive. It is still early days, but the synergies identified across Seprod and ASB are going to generate a lot of value and opportunities, which shareholders, our suppliers and customers will benefit from,” said Pandohie on the integration of both entities.

While the fire left Seprod with an additional $600 million in annualised costs, the group has seen its biscuit factory return to more than 85 per cent production and its logistics park set to get on stream later this month. Demand has been climbing for goods in the local market following the removal of COVID-19 restrictions with export demand rising at a similar pace.

“Any company that’s operated successfully in the last 40 years in Jamaica has essentially the mindset of operating within a recessionary or adverse economic conditions. It’s only in the last few years where the world has started to change. I think the skills and the level of commitment that we have to cash flow forecasting and planning were formed essentially in rather less prosperous times have not diminished. We are very focused on managing our cash flow, debt maturities and working through a strategy to continually improve this business. We feel that we’re in a fairly good position to not only work through less than ideal conditions but take advantage and prosper within them,” said PB Scott in response to a query about a recession at the AGM.

Seprod will be hosting an investor briefing tomorrow at 4 pm where the Seprod chairman, CEO and Musson CIO will be answering questions posed by investors. Seprod’s share price closed the quarter at $67.39 which leaves it up four per cent year to date with a market capitalisation of $49.43 billion. Seprod shareholders will also receive a $0.50 dividend next Wednesday.

“In summary, the Seprod Group is in a good place. We have made meaningful progress in our transition from a local to a regional player. Over the next 12-18 months, the focus will be on actualising growth and value via the drivers I outlined earlier. While we are pleased with our progress, we are not at our destination, not by a long shot. All of us know our chairman, PB, is driven to create value and it is truly a privilege to be a part of his team,” Pandohie closed.