Durrant Pate/Contributor

Trinidad-based distribution company AS Bryden and Sons Holdings has seen its share price surge by 82 per cent on the Jamaican stock market.

This comes after just eight months of the 100-year-old company being listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE).

In making the announcement,  AS Bryden CEO Richard Pandohie is pointing to the significant appreciation of the company’s share price on the local stock market.

On November 10 last year, AS Bryden officially listed its ordinary shares on the main market of the JSE and its Class A preference shares on the JSE USD Equities Market. Trading commenced at a price of J$22.50 on the main market but when the market closed last Friday, the share price rose to J$40.89, marking an 82 per cent increase from its original listing price.

Speaking to the T&T’s Sunday Express Business, Pandohie said the shares have been “really well received” on the JSE acknowledging that there has not been a lot of trading because not many shares are available. “But the price has appreciated significantly since we listed it,” Pandohie confirmed.

AS Bryden seeking to list on TTSE

Pandohie has disclosed that the company is pushing to be listed on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange (TTSE). Initially, it was hoped that ASBH would have also been listed on the TTSE last year.

However, according to Pandohie, who is also the CEO of AS Bryden’s parent company, the Jamaica-based manufacturing and distribution conglomerate, Seprod Group, “We have also committed to getting listed on the Trinidad Stock Exchange, so we are behind schedule on that. We are working with the Trinidad SEC (Trinidad and Tobago Security and Exchange Commission) to find a way to get that done. We definitely want to be listed before the year is done.”

The listing of AS Bryden was one of the goals for Seprod when it acquired 60 per cent of the shareholding on June 6, 2022, which was valued at the time at TT$267.9 million (J$6.09 billion). 

Apart from being listed, Pandohie says AS Bryden is poised with an acquisition mindset to build out a regional structure. Last week, the company completed the acquisition of Caribbean Producers Jamaica (CPJ) when more than 492 million CPJ ordinary shares were purchased for US$32.82 million on the JSE.

Pandohie reports that the acquisition was a good fit.