FosRich Company Limited (JSE: FOSRICH) is at again!
On December 19, 2017, the company officially listing on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) junior market after a successful public offering led by Jamaica’s second oldest brokerage house, Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL).
The lighting, electrical and solar energy products company led by managing director and founder, Mr Cecil Foster, was oversubscribed by $100 million and closed within a minute after opening. The aim was to raise over $200 million at $2 per share with an offer of 20% of the company or 100,455,111 shares. The intended use of the proceeds was to expand the industrial electrical and energy solutions divisions which leads one to speculate that talks of becoming a manufacturer may be in that area.
At the recent monthly Mayberry Investor Forum, Mr Foster was tight-lipped about the product they will be manufacturing however he had this to say, “We are going to be engaged in local manufacturing of a certain product line that is used every day in Jamaica”.
At this point, your guess is as good mine as to what that may be. This bold step to venture into the manufacturing industry is a part of FosRich’s three-year growth plan.
According to Mr Foster, the company “lose about 30 – 35% from not manufacturing it here, so that alone puts us in a spot to approach the market. The market is $20 billion to $30 billion and all we want to do within the first year and a half is get 3% of the market. I cannot tell you what it is now, but we eventually want to export to the Caribbean”. With hopes to start as early as next year, Mr Foster made it clear that financing the expansion will be done in a “unique way”.
Despite fierce competition, FosRich is determined to shine bright and grab a niche in the market segment for itself. The plan to go all out in the sale of industrial cables, wall and floor panelling will see the company going up against competitor giants led by the Chinese, Spanish and local developers who service large projects.
But they have done well for themselves and undertaken projects which includes a partnership with financial institutions to helping homeowners go green through renewable energy solutions. FosRich served as the local contractor to supply floodlights at Sabina Park in Kingston and supplied the Jamaica Public Service Company Limited (JPSCo) with LED energy saving smart streetlights among others.
As FosRich continues on its successful path, it saw profit going up 153% at $10.4 million the third quarter of the year when compared to $4.1 million of the same period last year. Revenue also grew to $353 million when compared to $232 million.
In spite of this incredible performance, Mr. Foster stated that “We feel if we strengthen the core business at FosRich, then we can do numbers that don’t look like baby numbers. We are positioning ourselves to be that preferred credible person in the market”.