Mayberry reports turnaround in real estate investments
Published:Friday 12:11 AM
Mayberry Investments Limited, MIL, announced the completion of a second real estate development this week, an outsourcing office complex.
It’s “in the process of tenanting it up and looking to sell it”, said CEO Gary Peart.
From a profit perspective, MIL booked $974 million as a share of earnings from its real estate joint venture in the June quarter, compared to a loss of $29 million a year earlier, its financials indicate.
The development of real estate takes time from land purchase to development, which results in uneven revenue flows. These flows can also include cash from sales or non-cash flows arising from the revaluation of properties, MIL explained.
“A major property previously under development was completed during the quarter under review, and its revaluation to market value generated the gains to the joint venture for the period,” MIL said in its quarterly earnings report.
The property falls under its subsidiary Widebase, which was formed in 2016 as an investment holding company for the group, including stakes in real estate and privately held companies. Its largest investment property is on Chalmers Avenue within the Molynes Gardens area of Kingston, on which it has built complexes for outsourcing companies. Peart explained that five acres of the 33-acre property has been developed so far.
Outsourcing Management Company, which trades as itel, occupies the first Chalmers building. The property was developed by Chalmers Commercial Limited in which Mayberry Investments Limited and conglomerate Musson Jamaica are partners.
Widebase’s participation in the investment is via shares held in Cherry Hill Developments Limited. The Molynes Garden property was valued last in December at $7 billion.
At Mayberry’s annual general meeting on Wednesday, Peart said real estate reflected the further diversification of the group, which is heavily concentrated on the capital markets.
The Mayberry group includes MIL and its subsidiaries Mayberry Jamaican Equities, with 50.4 per cent ownership, and Widebase, which it owns 100 per cent.
Also on Wednesday, Mayberry got shareholder approval for its plan to create a streamlined group structure, largely for regulatory purposes. Some 99 per cent of the shareholders voted in favour of reorganising the group, which will result in the creation of a new holding company called Mayberry Group Limited, under which Mayberry Investments, Mayberry Jamaican Equities and Widebase will fall.
The court is expected to ratify the plan on September 28.