Massy to give shares to Jamaican workforce as centenary gift
Published:Friday | February 3, 2023 | 12:41 AM
Massy Group, a Trinidad-based investment holding company with businesses spanning the Caribbean and the United States, turned 100 years old on Wednesday.
Locally, it kicked off the celebration with an announcement that it would be gifting shares in Massy to 400 employees in its Jamaican workforce, who will each get 200 shares valued at US$100, the company said in a release.
Massy Holdings Limited has nearly 1.98 billion shares in issue that trade on the Trinidad & Tobago market, and lately as a cross-listed stock in Jamaica since January 2022. On the Jamaican market, the shares traded at $78.88 on Wednesday, valuing the gift to each employee at nearly $16,000, or around $6.3 million in total. It includes staff employed to Massy Distribution Jamaica and Massy Gas Products, which trades as GasPro.
“Though our group spans different countries and industries, on this momentous occasion we celebrate as one team, with one dream, and a unified mission: to be a global force for good,” said Janine Chen, vice-president and CEO of Massy Distribution Jamaica, as she made the announcement to staff.
The company noted that the gift lives up to a goal enunciated back in 1982 by then Chairman Sydney Cox, and reaffirmed last week at the Jamaica Stock Exchange’s annual capital markets conference in New Kingston by CEO Gervase Warner, for “all employees throughout the Caribbean” to become Massy shareholders. The group has a workforce of more than 13,000.
Founded in 1923, Massy’s business lines span integrated retail, gas products, motors and machines, financial services and real estate. Jamaica accounts for six per cent of its total business.
The company says it will be rolling out a series of events to mark the centenary anniversary, including a special celebration for employees and their families.
The Massy gift mimics a similar initiative by its Jamaican peer, GraceKennedy Group, which doled out shares to its employees globally as part of its centenary celebrations when it hit the 100-year-old mark in February 2022.