Reading Time: 4 minutes

EBIDA advanced 101.0% to $354.8 million, as company returns to profitability

Durrant Pate/Contributor

Tropical Battery is on the hunt for more capital to sponsor its expansion plans whilst consolidating the operating gains achieved during its half-year ended March 31, 2026.

The company has been meeting with its financiers about completing a senior secured refinancing transaction, currently in advanced discussions to consolidate the Group’s existing US dollar-denominated facilities into a single, longer-dated facility. The objective is to extend tenor, reduce blended cost of capital, and align the Group’s debt service profile with the operating cash flow generation of the consolidated business. 

CEO Alexander “Zander” Melville reports that discussions with potential lenders remained constructive at the quarter-end, noting that the company’s issued ordinary stock units at the end of March 2026 climbed to 1,741,890,573, reflecting the issue of 8,971,800 stock units during the period, in respect of equity-settled share-based payments to key management personnel. This is coming from 1,732,918,773, as at September 2025.

The Group’s controlling shareholder, Dai Diverze (Jamaica), currently holds approximately 56% of the issued capital, with the top ten beneficial holders together representing approximately 82.95% of the share register, per the JCSD-certified register dated March 31, 2026.

New developments

Meville in his forward to the March quarter financials, reported on Tropical Battery’s Group-wide artificial intelligence and operating system initiatives, as well as the launch of its Amazon storefront, starting with the popular windscreen wash. Thereafter, the company plans to add other products, further extending our U.S. direct-to-consumer channel. 

The Amazon storefront marks an important step in broadening the group’s direct-to-consumer reach in North America and other markets. While the macroeconomic environment in the group’s principal markets of Jamaica, the United States, and the Dominican Republic remain broadly constructive, the company will continue to navigate input cost volatility, US dollar interest rate dynamics, and the timing of solar EPC project closings, all of which are monitored closely in integrated planning cadence.

Melville trumpeted that the Group has so far in the year demonstrated continued momentum across the principal lines of the income statement and renewed strategic clarity across each of its operating segments. “They also speak to the resilience of our team — across Jamaica, the United States, and the Dominican Republic — in delivering for our customers and for you, the shareholders, in a year that demanded steady execution,” he remarked.

Commendable financial performance

For the half year, Tropical Battery and its subsidiaries of Rose Batteries, Tropical Renewable Energy, Tropical Mobility, Tropical Finance and Kaya Energy delivered gross operating revenue of $3,263.8 million, a year-on-year increase of approximately 3.1% on the restated comparative period on gross profit closed on $1,275.1 million — a 22.5% improvement over 25 — at a gross margin of approximately 38.4%, up from 32.9% in the restated comparative period. 

Profit before depreciation, net finance costs and taxation (EBITDA) advanced 101.0% year-on-year to $354.8 million, as the Group converted a prior-period net loss attributable to owners of $100.3 million into a net profit attributable to owners of $24.4 million. This reflected a $124.7 million swing at the bottom line. 

Total comprehensive income for the period was $72.5 million, against a comprehensive loss of $114.0 million in the restated comparative. Other operating income for the half-year closed on $92.5 million, up from $5.4 million and includes a one-off non-cash gain of approximately $51.6 million arising on the fair-value remeasurement and extinguishment of the contingent consideration originally recognised on the January 2024 acquisition of Rose Batteries Company. 

Excluding this one-off item, recurring underlying EBITDA for the half-year would have been approximately $303.2 million, still representing year-on-year growth of approximately 72% over the restated comparative period. 

Melville articulated, “These results validate the strategic decisions taken during the financial year 2025, including our migration to the JSE Main Market on August 19, 2025, the consolidation of Rose Batteries Company into the Group following the January 2024 acquisition, and the disciplined operational re-engineering executed across the Jamaican core business.” 

Segment performance

The Group’s Energy Storage segment — which comprises the distribution, retail and service of automotive, industrial, marine and motive-power batteries across Jamaica and the United States — delivered half-year revenue of $2,895.6 million and operating profit of $226.8 million. 

The Renewable Energy Solutions segment — which comprises the design, supply and installation of solar and energy storage systems — delivered half-year revenue of $368.2 million and operating profit of $54.2 million, with revenue advancing 90.9% over the restated comparative period as the Caribbean solar EPC pipeline continued to convert. 

Within the operating-entity view, the Jamaican core (Tropical Battery) remains the largest contributor to Group revenue with Rose Batteries Company in California consolidated for the full comparative period for the first time in the 2026 half-year performance. Tropical Renewable Energy advanced sequentially in Q2, Tropical Mobility continued through its transitional phase, and Kaya Energy Group in the Dominican Republic delivered a turnaround in net income.