Durrant Pate/Contributor

Regional technology company Productive Business Solutions (PBS) is reporting an oversubscription in its just closed preference share offer, which was handled by JMMB Securities as the lead broker and listing agent.

The offer was gobbled up by the market so much so that bids came in above the initial US$11-million that was on offer. 

The perpetual preference share offer was closed last Friday (September 9) at 3:30 pm, in accordance with the prospectus as published.

PBS operates in 19 countries with its regional headquarters in Guatemala, selling more than 100 global technology brands such as Apple, Dell, Google and Microsoft with a staff compliment of more than 2,200.

Some US$1 million in preference shares were offered at a price of US$10 per share and J$150,000 in preference shares, priced at $1,000 with an upsize option.

Revision to upsize option

The option to upsized the US-dollar preference share bloc by an additional 500,000 shares, plus J$150,000 in preference shares was preferred. However, this was revised based on an addendum that was posted on the Jamaica Stock Exchange last Friday.

The company reported that the Jamaican dollar preference shares could be upsized by an additional 350,000 preference shares. As such, the upper band of the preference share offer has moved to US$15 million and J$500 million.

The US-dollar preference share rate is fixed at 9.25 per cent while the Jamaican-dollar preference share rate is fixed at 10.50 per cent. The proceeds of the preference share offer will be used to fund the company’s strategic growth objectives, which include acquisitions and expansion into new territories.

In the meantime, JMMB Securities is now in the process of determining the basis of allotment and allocations, which should be announced sometime next week.

PBS intends to list the preference shares on the JSE’s Main and US-dollar markets.

In its half year financials for 2022, PBS’s revenue grew 53 per cent to US$157.59 million, with operating profit climbing from US$3.97 million to US$12.71 million. Net profit attributable to shareholders stood at US$2.32 million relative to the US$294,000 loss in 2021.