West Indies Petroleum is listing on the Jamaica Stock Exchange on December 23… but they’re NOT doing an IPO.
So, there had been rumblings earlier this year that bunkering and fuel distribution company, West Indies Petroleum (WIP) was planning on doing a massive IPO.
We even interviewed CEO Charles Chambers in October and asked him straight up.
“We always assess the market and the desire for our offerings. There are several offerings that we have out in the market in terms of bonds and preference shares. We’ve raised capital in the markets before. I think that an IPO is an incredibly important point in any company’s life,” Charles said.
“It creates a tremendous opportunity. And so we constantly assess, you know, if this is the right move for us and when is the right time,” he added.
So, it wasn’t shocking to hear that the company pulled the trigger and is coming to market. It’s just not the way most people thought.
WIP Terminal, which is the Jamaican arm of the company, is listing on the Main Market by introduction.
The company will list just over 11 billion ordinary shares at 50 cents each. That gives it a total market value of J$5.6 billion.
Listing by introduction means the company is putting its existing shares onto the stock exchange without raising new money from the public. Rather, the focus is on making the shares more tradeable.
That’s different from an IPO, where a company creates and then sells new shares to the public to raise money.
On December 23, WIP shares will start trading publicly, and you will be able to buy them on the open market. You won’t have to apply for an IPO, or wait on refunds or anything like that. Simply buy the stock the same way you buy any other listed stock.
According to WIP Terminal, the listing will give existing shareholders a tradeable market – meaning a place to buy and sell their shares. It will also raise the company’s profile and make it easier to do things like rights issues or offers later on.
If you wanna learn more about WIP and whether this may be a good investment for you, check out this video on our YouTube channel.
And that’s the bottom line.
