Michael Lee-Chin and his Portland Private Equity firm to raise $10 million from IPO

Michael Lee-Chin’s Portland Private Equity Limited intends to list a special-purpose entity called PJX on the Jamaica Stock Exchange by April this year, based on legal advice on a transaction executed with local pension funds last fall.

The stock market listing aims to raise US$10 million and will form one of the final tranches of funds for Portland’s Caribbean Fund II.

“PJX is planning an initial public offering (IPO) in April of this year,” said Portland partner Mariame McIntosh Robinson, in the final of a series of interviews with the Financial Gleaner. “The plan is to raise US$10 million from the Jamaica Stock Exchange,” she said.

PJX, a company incorporated in St. Lucia, raised J$1.5 billion (US$12.45 million) from 25 Jamaican-based pension funds in October for Caribbean Fund II. Consequently, the Jamaica Stock Exchange listing forms part of their legal obligation to list.

According to the venture capital unit at the Development Bank of Jamaica, listing the PJX on the stock exchange would avoid any possible ambiguity in the legal interpretation of the Pension Act, which limits the investments that pension funds can make in entities that are not listed on the market.

Outside of the pension funds, the other investors in Portland’s Fund II were the Development Bank of Jamaica, IFC, Export Development Canada, the European Investment Bank, the German Development Bank, Caribbean Development Bank, the Inter-American Investment Corporation, and other investors from North America.

Portland Private Equity Limited has nearly completed raising funds for Fund II, which should range between US$150 million to US$200 million. So far, Portland Caribbean Fund II has invested in CVBI – a spin-off holding company from the technology merger of Cable & Wireless and Columbus Communications. It also invested in Penonome, the largest wind farm in Panama.

Portland investments

Investments made by Portland Private Equity Limited in its Fund I included Advantage General Insurance and Columbus Communications, which operates as Flow, Las Olas, Moya Supervisiones y Construcciones, InterEnergy Holdings and World Food. As context, Portland Private Equity Limited invested in National Commercial Bank of Jamaica (NCB) through an earlier entity prior to launching Fund I.

The company raised US$225 million for Fund I.

Michael Lee-Chin is also the primary owner and chairman of the NCB. If the PJX initial public offering is successful, the equity outfit would join NCB as a listed company on the Jamaican Stock Exchange.

PJX will allow Jamaican pension funds to add diversification to their portfolios with regional investments. Fund II expects to invest in 6 to 8 companies over the fund’s 10-year life, ending around 2024.

Fund II will ideally seek out businesses with the potential to achieve near-term revenues and earnings (EBITDA) in excess of US$10 million and US$100 million, respectively.

Source: Jamaica Gleaner