IPO was oversubscribed by 230%

In its 10th year of business, educational service provider EduFocal yesterday (March 15) became the 44th company listed on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE).

It is also the 98th company to be listed on the JSE. EduFocal’s successful initial public offer (IPO), which opened on March 3, at 9:00 am, closed a minute later due to oversubscription of approximately 230 per cent.

The IPO was for inviting subscription for 129,689,219 ordinary shares at a price of $1.00 per share. Edufocal raised over J$428.42 million from the offer. However, the value of the IPO was for J$129.69 million.

The company now has a total of 2,415 shareholders and will begin trading under the symbol LEARN at a price of $1.00. In her address during the listing ceremony, JSE Managing Director Marlene Street Forrest noted that EduFocal is the third Junior Market company to be listed since the start of the year, noting that “even now at March we would have equaled the number of junior market company listing for 2020 and 2021. This signals that the market which was highly active in respect to the performance of the index is now experiencing an uptick from issuers”.

She added that the success of this offer is not without the efforts of the brokers, who have worked tirelessly during the two intense COVID years to encourage companies to remain focused on their goal of listing.

Street Forrest acknowledged and congratulated Mayberry, which has taken EduFocal to market.

Forward to more listings this year

She is looking forward this year to other listings from Mayberry and other brokers bringing more companies from across Jamaica and the Caribbean and globally to list on the main, junior, bond, private or US$ denominated markets of the JSE.

Speaking at the event, Mayberry Chairman Christopher Berry told the audience that, “20 years ago I had a vision that the Stock Exchange would be the engine of growth for the economy, and I can say today my vision has been realised with the total capital raised by the companies listed on the Junior Market now at $13.36 billion”.  

A total of J$745 million has been raised year-to-date from the three IPOs, which is more than encouraging. The total market capitalization of the company is J$648.45 million increasing the market capitalisation of the junior market to J$189.09 billion and the overall market capitalization of the combined markets to J$2.12 trillion.