Caribbean Flavours Shoots For $50.6 Million In JSE Jr Market IPO

Caribbean Flavours and Fragrances (CFF) aims to raise $50.6 million through an initial public offer (IPO) of up to 22.5 million ordinary stocks, a 25 per cent stake in the company, on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) Junior Market on September 25, 2013.

A local manufacturer of a wide variety of flavourings and colourings for the food and pharmaceutical industries, and scents for cleaning and body care items among others, CFF has set a price of $2.25 per share for the IPO which opens on Wednesday. The proceeds of the IPO will go towards increasing manufacturing capacity and improving existing plant and processes, according to the company prospectus.

More specifically, CFF boss Anand James told Caribbean Business Report last week that cash will go towards building a chill room that will stock juices and installing redundancies for equipment to reduce downtime and maintain product quality.

“This new revenue stream — combination of juices and flavours will be sold to our customers, it’s not to compete with them,” James said.

CFF was incorporated in October 2001, after James purchased its business and assets from prior owner Bush Boake Allen Jamaica Limited when that entity voluntarily wound up its Jamaican operations in 2000 after some 40 years in business, the prospectus said. James was part of the management team at BBA.

Based on Spanish Town Road in Kingston, CFF claims to be one of the largest businesses of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean. It supplies Caribbean food and beverage manufacturers in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Barbados, St Kitts, Guyana, USA and Canada, including J Wray & Nephew, Grace Canning, Pepsi Cola Jamaica Bottling, Wisynco, Nestle JMP, Banks distillers in Barbados, Trinidad and St Kitts, as well as DDL Guyana.

Source: Jamaica Observer