Pan Caribbean details on their recent preference share offer.
Offer opened – January 31, 2008
Offer Closed – February 29, 2008
Subscription volume – 6,300,825 units
Subscription value – $ 1,260,159,700
Following on the release of audited profits of $1.213 Billion for the year ended December 31, 2007, Pan Caribbean is reporting another success.
The company announced that its recent preference share offer, which opened January 31, 2008 and closed February 29, 2008, raised $1.26 Billion, 152% over the minimum target set of $500 Million.
The commenting on the strong subscription levels for the offer, Pan Caribbean’s President & CEO, Donovan H. Perkins indicated that “The commitments received in the first two weeks of the offer were close to $1 Billion. We had to step down our marketing efforts to hold our take up to just under $1.3 Billion. This is yet another indication of the strength and attractiveness of our Brand”.
Senior Vice President – Capital Markets, Mr. Phillip Armstrong, the executive charged with managing the successful offer explained that Pan Caribbean, Life of Jamaica and Sagicor (their parent company) recently went through a series of credit rating exercises and all now enjoy national and regional investment grade ratings, with Sagicor carrying a Standard & Poor BBB+ rating.
According to Mr. Armstrong, the Sagicor Group decided not to exceed the equivalent of US$18 million in this fund-raising exercise based on its objective of maintaining consolidated debt to equity targets, consistent with its credit rating expectations.
The preference share subscriptions came from a broad mix of corporate and individual investors from across the island who expressed confidence in Pan Caribbean and the attractive returns embedded in the offer.
Pan Caribbean has now reported seven consecutive years of increased profits with its audited financials statements reflecting Net Income growth of 9% in 2007.
