Cari-Med mulling IPO, engages NCBCap
Published:Wednesday | November 2, 2022 | 12:09 AM
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Distribution company Cari-Med Group is mulling an initial public offering of shares on the Jamaica Stock Exchange. The company has retained NCB Capital Markets Limited and the law firm MH...
Distribution company Cari-Med Group is mulling an initial public offering of shares on the Jamaica Stock Exchange.
The company has retained NCB Capital Markets Limited and the law firm MH&Co as advisers.
Cari-Med Chairman Glen Christian said the IPO was among a range of options under consideration.
“We’re thinking about it, but we’re looking at other options. We just finished a major distribution centre, so we’ll need some funds,” said Christian. “We’re looking at it and we’re talking to NCB, but we’re not there yet,” he said, while declining to disclose details regarding the indicative date for, or size of, the IPO.
Cari-Med is a leading pharmaceutical distributor in the Caribbean, as well as one of the key players in the fast-moving consumer goods sector through the Kendel brand. The company is in the final stages of building out a distribution centre that will double as company headquarters at Bernard Lodge, near Tamarind Farm in St Catherine. It will also house the warehouses and administrative offices of Cari-Med’s consumer goods division.
At the time of breaking ground in October 2019, Christian said the project would be done in two phases with a total investment of $6 billion. The completion date was set for December 2020 but was hampered by the pandemic. However, he said on Tuesday that while the cost of the phase one construction was still being tallied, the initial budget for the overall project has not changed, and that the company would soon proceed to phase two.
“The Bernard Lodge distribution centre is, for practical purposes, complete. We’ve already gone in and started operating – not fully yet, but we’re moving apace,” he said.
Cari-Med, which was established in 1986 by Christian, distributes a wide range of household, personal care, pharmaceutical and food products. The group comprises Cari-Med Distributors, Kirk Distributors, its export arm Cari-Med International, and Federated Pharmaceuticals, manufacturers of over-the-counter medications.