Sterling Investment Limited (SIL) plans to hold a rights issue by March in order to raise capital.

It would represent the first public round of funding since the company went public last October.

“We haven’t determined the size yet, but it would be a non-renounceable rights issue of ordinary shares,” stated an SIL manager knowledgeable on the matter but who opted to speak on condition of anonymity because of company protocol.

Sterling listed by introduction its 4.01 million ordinary shares on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) at a price of $134 per share.

“It was a listing by introduction… and now we are doing the rights issue to raise capital for the first time since the public offer,” added the manager.

SIL previously raised cash in December 2012 with a private placement. It offered investors a $10-million minimum to buy-in the private placement.

SIL indicated that its investments in 2014 “outpaced the performance of local Jamaican dollar investment products”, yielding returns of 11.56 per cent up to September 2014. Other high-profile funds have yielded from 5.35 per cent to 8.2 per cent over the same period, it added in a release.

Sterling Asset Management Ltd (SAM) holds over $20 billion in assets under management. SAM manages SIL funds for a fee of some two per cent. The investment strategy primarily focuses on overseas financial instruments, primarily fixed-income securities that are traded on global capital markets.

Turning to opportunities in 2015, SAM chief executive Charles Ross noted that a ‘strong rally’ in US treasuries suggests that US interest rates may rise later than initially expected and that European economic weakness would persist, while commodity price declines could dampen inflation expectations.

“Attractively priced bonds provide good investment opportunities, and European Central Bank Quantitative Easing should bolster the market,” Ross commented while speaking at the company’s annual customer appreciation function last Thursday. “Our focus will be on bonds that offer the best risk-adjusted returns in the global marketplace.”

CAPTION

CHARLES ROSS, chief executive of Sterling Asset Management