Having held back on giving its employees inflationary increases to their salaries, Jamaica Money Market Brokers’ (JMMB’s) executive plans to create a new pool of shares under the Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) to offer its team members rights to buy shares in the company at current trading price over the next three years.

Yesterday, JMMB, through its group marketing manager, Imani Duncan, said that it had arranged the ESOP to “purchase a block of shares for future distribution to the current team at the current low price”.

“Accordingly, ESOP has purchased shares from existing shareholders, some of whom are directors and team members who had indicated their willingness to sell a small portion of their shares at this current low price to facilitate this initiative,” said the release. “In the case of the directors, the amount sold represents approximately four per cent of their holdings.”

JMMB, last traded on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) at $4 a share — a price the share has hovered around since last September.

Duncan told the Business Observer that JMMB employees who have been with the company since April 1, 2009 should benefit from the ESOP once the market stabilises, given that the share is currently trading below book value.

JMMB’s average book value for the 12 months to December 31, 2009 was approximately $4.27 a share.