Left: Marlene Street-Forrest, general manager of the Jamaica Stock Exchange.   Right: Damien King, chairman of Dyoll Group. - File photos

Ashford W. Meikle, Business Reporter

The cash-strapped Dyoll Group, unable to pay its annual listing fee, was suspended from trading on the Jamaica Stock Exchange Thursday.

"It is in the best interest of shareholders and all stakeholders in the stock market to suspend trading in the company's shares at this time," said JSE General Manager Marlene Street-Forrest in a statement.

The suspension also follows notice to the JSE by Dyoll three weeks ago that it had no funds to pay staff nor to audit its books.

Its last suspension was in 2005, then resulting from charges that a subsidiary, the now defunct Dyoll Insurance, did not provide material information to the JSE in keeping with the Exchange's policy statement on timely disclosure. The issue related the insurance company's inability to cover claims arising from Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

Speaking with Financial Gleaner yesterday, Street-Forrest said that the exchange has the discretion to look at the financial demise of a company and determine if it is necessary to suspend trading activity in that company's stocks.

"The suspension is really on two levels," said the JSE manager.

"The company has been unable to submit its financial statements; this coupled with its own notification to us that they are unable to retain an auditor to prepare these audited statements."

Earlier this month Dyoll's chairman, Dr. Damien King, in a letter to the JSE, noted that the company had been experiencing severe cash flow problems since mid-December.

In fact, so cash-strapped is Dyoll that it is unable to pay is staff, its statutory obligations and commercial debt.

According to Street-Forrest "the Stock Exchange has had dialogue with King who has indicated that the company will be working to ensure an early lifting of the suspension."

There is market scepticism that Dyoll can pull it off.

"In the absence of the auditors, who knows when Dyoll will be able to produce its fourth quarter (December 2006) numbers, much less its annual figures?" said one analyst speaking with the Financial Gleaner on condition of anonymity.

The February 15, 2005 suspension was not lifted until eight months later, in October of that year.

It has been a rocky road for the group, which is a shell of its former profitable insurance and coffee operations.

With its property and motor vehicle business wiped out - particularly in Cayman - it was discovered that the company had a deficit of $1.2 billion.

The Financial Services Commission assumed control of Dyoll Insurance Company in March 2005 and sold its business to Jamaica International Insurance Company Limited, a GraceKennedy subsidiary. The regualtor then sought an application from the Supreme Court to wind up the insurance company.

Last year, Dyoll sold its 51 per cent stake in Dyoll Wataru Coffee Company for $25 million and had ambitious plans to refit itself as a property company once the sale of Drax Hall Estates - its sole major asset - was completed. But that sale has not yet materialised.

Dyoll's last financials, its unaudited nine month results to September 30, 2006, indicate a net loss of $4.5 million on operating revenue of $680,000, consisting of management fee from a subsidiary and rental income.

ashford.meikle@gleanerjm.com