Durrant Pate/Contributor

The board of university student housing developer and operator, 138 Student Living Jamaica (138SL) has approved five resolutions paving the way for an alternative public offering (APO) of shares to raise additional financing.

The board approved the resolutions at its meeting on Tuesday (February 7), which will now go to shareholders for their approval. As such the company is to convene an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) at which time shareholders will vote on the APO resolutions.

These resolutions are the following on which shareholders will be asked to vote:

• THAT the authorised share capital of the company be increased from 480,500,000 ordinary shares at no par value and 94,500,000 cumulative redeemable preference shares to unlimited authorized share capital;
• the company, be and is hereby authorized to issue up to 775,000,000 ordinary shares by way of an offer for subscription to the public pursuant to a prospectus in lieu of a rights issue to existing stockholders;
• the board of directors and/or any duly appointed committee thereof be and is hereby authorised to determine in their discretion any terms and conditions relating to the additional public offering (APO);
• any pre-emption rights to which the existing stockholders may be entitled, howsoever arising, be and are hereby dis-applied for the purposes of the APO.
• all ordinary shares issued in the APO once issued and allotted be and are hereby converted into stock units.

The proceeds of the equity investment are needed to pay down debt while financing current and future development. 138SL last went to the equities market in November 2014 when it went public through its successful initial public offer (IPO) of shares raising J$562.9 million from a float of ordinary and redeemable preference shares. 

The IPO includes 98.6 million ordinary shares priced at $4 and 33.68 million floating rate preference shares for $5 each. 138SL engages in the construction and lease of living facilities for students at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus.

The company was founded on August 15, 2014, and is headquartered in Kingston.