Coconut company preparing to list on Guyana Stock Exchange

Planting coconut trees at the Pomeroon  estate (Pomeroon Trading website)
Planting coconut trees at the Pomeroon estate (Pomeroon Trading website)

Two years after its establishment, Pomeroon Trading, a coconut growing and processing agribusiness, is preparing to be publicly traded on the Guyana Stock Exchange.

A press statement from the company yesterday stated  that it will list all of its shares and will issue 133,333 new shares at a price of USD 7.50 per share to any new investor willing to invest in their operations.

Investors wishing to participate in the listing, via the company’s Agent, Guyana Americas Merchant Bank, may receive copies of management presentations and materials while there will also be open-house sessions with company management held at Cara Lodge in Georgetown on Thursday 12th and Wednesday 18th September from 5pm to 6.30pm.

With this listing Pomeroon Trading will become the third Guyanese company to be listed on the Guyana Stock exchange in 10 years and the first agribusiness.

“This announcement changes everything, making history.  With the company open to public investors, management demonstrates to the Guyanese people that the company is aligned with the country for the long term…the management hopes that this timing, allied to the economic growth that Guyana is now enjoying, will help encourage many others to follow in our footsteps-and deliver good returns to new shareholders,” the statement noted.

According to Chief Operating Officer, Jared Kissoon, the company’s IPO gives the Guyanese Stock Exchange its first float in a decade and its first ever listed agriculture company.

“We are building a regional coconut champion for all of Guyana to be proud of,” he stressed.

David Lammy, UK Parliamentarian and adviser to the copy is quoted as expressing the hope that Guyanese will be excited by the initial Public Offering.

“At a time of huge and understandable focus on the oil and gas industry, it is proof that the country’s Green State Development Strategy is serving in parallel to attract investment, expertise and responsible practise to the agriculture industry,” he said.

Pomeroon Trading began operations in Guyana in 2017 with a vision to build a sustainable agriculture company: vertically integrated and focused on exports, but with a strong social mission and respect for the natural environment. Two years on, a 700-acre estate has been developed on what was formerly the Stoll Estate, an area flanked by the Pomeroon River and the Atlantic Ocean.

Zena Bone, the owner of the Stoll Estate in the statement described Pomeroon Trading as the perfect partner to turn her family land into a world-class business by processing and adding value to what is grown and successfully trialling new crops.

 “I grew up on the Stoll estate and my parents planted it… I hope others will join us on this journey, investing in and then benefiting from the work of Pomeroon Trading,” she said.

The company said that from its main asset – a prestigious 700-acre estate in the Pomeroon River region of Guyana, it is  helping the local coconut industry grow. It said that the estate rehabilitation programme includes replanting with more efficient coconuts varieties, building a coconut nursery for seedlings and implementing an intercropping programme spanning bananas to ginger.