Business
JAM | Oct 3, 2022

Big news on the horizon for EduFocal: Mayberry announces J$200-million loan

Shemar-Leslie Louisy

Shemar-Leslie Louisy / Our Today

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Reading Time: 2 minutes

Brokerage firm Mayberry Investments Limited has announced that it has made a J$200-million dollar loan to Jamaica’s leading online learning and examinations preparation platform EduFocal during an investor briefing earlier today (October 3).

“The loan will be for seven years, fixed at 9.5 per cent interest for the first two years and a potential rate reset after two years as we anticipate interest rates will be coming down,” said Dan Theoc, senior vice president of investment banking at Mayberry Investments Ltd.

From left: Gordon Swaby, CEO of EduFocal Group, and Dan Theoc, senior vice-president of investment banking at Mayberry Investments Ltd.

Gordon Swaby, CEO of EduFocal, informed the briefing that the funds would be used to refinance the company’s debt and “largely be the only material loan on our balance sheet moving forward with a very favourable interest rate”.

Said Swaby: “This will significantly strengthen our balance sheet – and this gives us a significant runway and that’s something we’re very excited about.”

Swaby clarified that EduFocal would be focusing on “segments” Education (K-12), Health Education and Edufocal Engage – Software as a service (SAAS) content for corporations.

He also mentioned that EduFocal is now also working very closely with Mayberry on “a fairly large acquisition still in its early stages”.

From Left: Gordon Swaby, chief executive officer of EduFocal; Dan Theoc, senior VP of Investment Banking and Rachel Kirlew, assistant VP of Mayberry Investments Limited.

“We like to find the diamonds in the rough, we like to look for businesses that have the discipline to list on the JSE and what comes with that and then have great growth prospects, we like to help finance these businesses – we get in early, sometimes we take a private equity stake, we list the companies, we take them public but it doesn’t stop there, we continue working with these businesses to help fund them to allow them to raise financing.”

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