3 months ago
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Having boosted its assets with the purchase of an operating business, MFS Capital Partners Limited has reaffirmed its goal of reaching $1 billion in revenue in two years.
CEO Dino Hinds said MFS Capital is looking towards its new subsidiary, Monolith Financial Services Limited, other acquisitions, and new revenue streams to reach the target.
The company is looking to further diversify its revenues even as it has only one active subsidiary in Monolith Financial Services, that is involved in money services. Hinds says the plan is to diversify income streams at the MFS Group through acquisitions and boosting the services offered by subsidiaries in the Group.
MFS Capital Partners is the rebranded operation of SSL Venture Capital Jamaica Limited, which was basically idle and was making no revenue when it was acquired by MFS Acquisition back in 2022.
MFS Capital is held 58 per cent by MFS Acquisition, which also has a 51 per cent stake in Postage Logistics; a 25 per cent stake in real estate company, Hickey Grant Property Masters; and a 50 per cent stake in Century Business Machines, which is a company that has been in operation for over 40 years and is involved in the sales of stationeries and office supplies.
MFS Capital Partners itself owns 100 per cent of Monolith Financial Services, which in turn owns 32 per cent of Capital Solutions, a licensed securities dealer. Monolith was formerly known as Micro Finance Solutions Limited, which was rebranded after the change of ownership.
Hinds says the aim is to leverage the similarities between the companies using a shared services model to promote efficiency.
“We’re designing a system that operates efficiently where services across our group that are like-minded, such as HR, marketing, finance, and so on, are shared and the cost is therefore more efficiently allocated across the group,” Hinds told shareholders at MFS Capital’s annual general meeting last Thursday.
“If we have excess cash, we buy stocks, we buy bonds, we’ll trade other financial assets, but what we’re looking for are fast-growing companies with revenues of over $100 million per annum and companies which can grow, and we can exit the companies within 24 months on the low side and 60 months on the high side,” he said. “So, two years to five years is our exit strategy.”
The exit strategy does not necessarily mean that MFS sell the company outright, he added.
At half-year ending December 2024, MFS Capital Partners Limited made a profit of $49.4 million, reversing losses of $17.6 million reported in the year prior period.
The December quarter itself produced a loss of $5.75 million. Revenue for the period was $89.5 million, compared to $360,000 in the October-December 2023 quarter.
Monolith Financial Services has two branches that are operational; one in New Kingston and the other at Portia Simpson Miller Square, at the heart of the Kingston industrial zone. The company was recently granted approval for another location at Windward Road in East Kingston.
Hinds said Monolith intends to aims to grow its branch network to about 10, through the acquisition of smaller financial services operators who are coming under operational pressure through recent changes in central bank rules related to money service companies.
“The Bank of Jamaica recently changed one of its rules in that compliance officers in Jamaica, in money services, need to have at least a first degree. Smaller money services companies won’t be able to pay compliance officers. That’s the real bottom line,” Hinds reported.
“So, we expect that there will be some consolidation; and larger money services companies, such as us, such as Lasco Financial, will be able to acquire these locations,” he said.
MFS is shaping itself as a boutique investment house that offers financial products and services to high net-worth individuals, while creating products and services that can be distributed across its money services network, Hinds said.
English (US) ·