The Jamaican Government plans to start generating real-time data on the millions of persons entering the country by air and sea, using face scans and other biometric information that will be accessible by local and overseas law enforcement. It will...
Jamaica’s banking sector provides stability but might not be competitive enough, despite improvements in recent years. That, on the face of it, is the upshot of a new study done by Fair Trading Competition, FTC, of the $2.4-trillion commercial...
The merger of two conglomerates resulted in the enlarged Pan Jamaica Group Limited, PJG, earning “record” net profit at $3.7 billion, but the portion that’s attributable to stockholders of the company dipped year-on-year. The majority of the non-...
Wigton Windarm Limited announced the appointment of Michelle Chin Lenn as its interim managing director effective next month. The current head of the business, Earl Barrett, will demit office on March 31. The timeline coincides with the schedule...
Recent rains have led to nearly $500 million in lost coffee crops. Farmers lost up to 30 per cent of their beans, which were often too fat to hang on to the tree limbs after getting soaked by continuous downpours. “You couldn’t get pickers to go...
American natural gas supplier New Fortress Energy, NFE, racked up record profit of US$548 million year, bettering its previous annual outturn by 180 per cent. “This year was a record by all of our reported metrics,” said Wes Edens, NFE president...
Profit at Barita Investments Limited halved to $480 million in the December first quarter from $1 billion a year earlier due to reduced gains from real estate. Still, Barita’s outlook sees the securities dealer continuing its focus on real estate...
TECHNOLOGY FIRM Productive Business Solutions Limited (PBS), controlled largely by businessman PB Scott, made US$11.4 million (J$1.8 billion) in profit for its full year ending December, or one-third higher than a year earlier. Management described...
THE FALL in Jamaica’s labour productivity concerns the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ), which now sees inflation cooling down in 2025 towards the target range, rather than this year. “The domestic labour market remains very tight,” said BOJ Governor Richard...
UNITED STATES (US)-based Century Aluminum plans to invest up to US$15 million (J$2.3 billion) in the alumina operations at Jamalco in Clarendon this year, which doubles its investment a year earlier. The investments include new equipment, but also...
FINANCIAL CONGLOMERATE JMMB Group benefitted from a double windfall that resulted in the rocketing of its profit and capital. JMMB made profit of $15.1 billion for its December 2023 third-quarter, or 278 per cent more than the $4 billion it made a...
THE PHARMACY chain Fontana Limited bagged $341 million in record profit from its second quarter, which ended in the busy Christmas season. It resulted in a 5.0 per cent growth in profit, in line with the growth in consumer confidence in the period...
THE RESTRUCTURED telecom Digicel Group has officially announced its new nine-member board, led by Chairman Rajeev Suri and includes Jamaican Mariame Robinson. The board includes mostly new faces but continues to have the founder and former Chairman...
The Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) launched its Inclusive Growth Index Framework (IGIF) which will track the island’s social and sustainability progress annually, as a means of capturing new growth areas in the society overlooked by the main...
Former President and CEO of Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), Steve Berberich, was recently appointed to lead United States (US)-based renewable energy firm Onward Energy, for which he served as a board member in 2023. “I am grateful for the...
Express Catering Limited (ECL) will seek to raise up to US$12 million (J$1.8 billion) in a bond offer which will fund the completion of its new stores at the Sangster International Airport (SIA). The company already runs several restaurants in the...
Most in the financial sector expect interest rates to remain unchanged until at least March, which reflects a large shift among fincos, according to the latest Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) Inflation Expectation Survey. When polling ended in December, 75...
Parties in the stalled listing of United States (US)-based Music Licensing Inc have traded more statements ahead of pending litigation. Music Licensing Inc’s legal representation in this matter is Davy Karkason Esq from Transnational Matters law...
United Oil and Gas (United Oil) has valued the largest repository within its wider zones of oil exploration offshore Jamaica as being worth J$3.5 trillion, or US$23 billion, at current oil prices. It still, however, needs to prove that substances...
Light and power company Jamaica Public Service (JPS) plans to hire additional maintenance firms to manage its distribution system which includes high-power wires, transformers and over 300,000 poles. JPS operations are split between distribution,...
The Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) will by mid-year start offering ‘blue-green’ bond products as part of the island’s push to invest US$5 billion by 2050 to retard the effects of a hotter climate. The sustainability bonds are ‘blue’, which represents...
The Government plans to tackle low growth and worker output by enacting laws that target the reduction of violence. “Violence has a significant drag effect on our economy. Violence has an impact on productivity,” said Prime Minister Andrew Holness...
Having recently purchased a small number of shares that upped its stake in Seprod Limited to just above half of the manufacturing and distribution group, the Musson Jamaica conglomerate is making a takeover offer for more shares in line with market...
Jamaica now faces the challenge of resisting overspending during upcoming elections which could erode the gains of increased fiscal surplus and reduced debt levels since the pandemic. Local government elections are coming this year with general...
The National Water Commission, NWC, will seek to turn the tide on water wastage with a multiyear project aimed at conservation, and tapping into Jamaica’s thriving tourism sector and housing boom. It forms part of plans to reduce the water that...
