Durrant Pate/Contributor

Publicly listed information technology company tTech Limited is going private having applied for delisting from the Jamaica Stock Exchange’s (JSE) junior market.

This move follows the complete takeover by the Florida-based majority owner, Simply Secure Limited on January 6, with 90 tTech shareholders tendering a total of 16,555,727 ordinary shares for sale.

When these shares are transferred to Simple Secure, it increases their equity holding in tTech to 84.7 per cent. 

Consequently, tTech which went public in January 2016 through a successful initial public offer (IPO), no longer meets the listing requirements of the JSE.  Pursuant to a board resolution, and in accordance with the JSE Junior Market Rule 505 (14) (b), tTech has applied for its ordinary shares to be delisted.  

Company secretary Lesley Cousins anticipates that the effective date of the delisting will be no later than February 28. The take-over offer of tTech with its registered office located on Harbour Street, in downtown Kingston, was made in compliance with the JSE’s Take-Over Rules.

The formal takeover offer by Simply Secure was to acquire 32,770,777 of the issued and outstanding shares in the Jamaican company having already acquired 73,229,223 shares amounting to 69.1 per cent of tTech’s 106,000,000 issued ordinary stock units. This was executed through a series of acquisitions at a price not exceeding J$2.20 per share, thereby acquiring majority control on November 16, 2024. 

In July last year Simple Secure, which is a managed security services provider, acquired from ttech major shareholders, Edward ‘Teddy’ Alexander and Christopher Reckord 52,012,834 tTech shares, representing 49.1 per cent of the company’s equity. 

Two months later, Simply Secure increased its equity in the Jamaican IT firm, acquiring a further 20 per cent equity or 20,719,366 shares, making it the majority owner.

Simply Secure is owned by Kevin Gordon and Rob Mayo-Smith.