Proven Investments Limited has made an early closure of its Additional Public Offer (APO), based on the overwhelming public demand for the shares on offer.

The APO, which was opened on January 8 and scheduled to close this Friday, January 29, actually closed three days earlier. The APO was officially closed at 4:00 pm Tuesday (January 26).

In a notice published on the website of the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE), Proven reported that, “in accordance with the terms and conditions of the APO, as set out in the prospectus, the company decided to exercise its right to close its APO ahead of the originally scheduled closing date.”

Proven stated that the details and basis of allocation of shares will be communicated to the equities regulator separately in accordance with the timetable set out in the prospectus.

In the meantime, the private equity and real estate development company thanked the investing public for its enthusiastic response to the APO.

APO upsized last week

Last week, Proven announced its decision to upsize the APO based on the growing number of subscriptions being received. Pursuant to the prospectus dated December 23, 2020, Proven enforced the option of upsizing the APO in excess of the 89,416,037 new ordinary shares by an additional 45 million shares to a maximum of 134,124,037 new ordinary shares.

The 10-year-old outfit is seeking to raise US$30.3 million (J$4.4 billion). The proceeds from the APO will be used by the company to build its capital base and pursue expansion and acquisition opportunities.

Given the anticipated APO success, Proven would have achieved its US$150-million capital base one year early and grown its asset base to US$650 million. The APO initially came on the market in March last year but was suspended days later on March 13 due to the emergence of the novel coronavirus in Jamaica, which saw contemplative and uncertain market conditions.

Proven’s original March 2020 APO offer was priced at US$0.28 /J$38.64 with the new APO being priced from 18 to 21 per cent lower to US $0.23/J $33.50.