Barita reports progress on real estate agenda
Published:Friday | September 5, 2025 | 12:07 AM
Barita Investments Limited is reporting progress on its real-estate activities, saying it has assembled a team and secured funding for a couple projects.
“Subject to approvals, we will be building in 2026, and we have identified two sites,” said CEO Ramon Small-Ferguson. “We’ve made progress on talent, planning, and the securing of funding for a couple of these developments,” he said during the company’s quarterly investor briefing.
In May, at the previous investor briefing, Small-Ferguson indicated plans to develop light-warehousing and a mixed-use complex. Late next year, the company will also decide whether it will develop “another two” properties.
The real-estate portfolio, held through MJR Real Estate Holdings, comprises “eight properties across seven sites”, said Small-Ferguson. Barita had previously signalled plans to begin development this year, but Small-Ferguson said real estate can be a complex undertaking and the company was still building out the team to manage this future revenue stream.
In the April-June quarter, Barita reported 30 per cent growth in revenue to $2.7 billion, and a nine-per-cent increase in profit to $1.1 billion. Profit growth was tempered by a decline in real estate-related revenues, which had surged in the prior year due to valuation adjustments, the company noted.
The company now holds capital of $37.5 billion, having grown exponentially from a boutique firm with a net worth of $3 billion at its acquisition by Cornerstone Holdings seven years ago to a large outfit – utilising equity and debt raises to fuel its expansion.
Its most recent fundraising via the stock exchange secured $8 billion from a bond IPO at the end of May.
“It has allowed the company to position itself along a few strategic lines,” said Small-Ferguson.
The funds have already supported debt refinancing, investment banking execution, and additional float for the trading desk, he said.
Meanwhile, Barita executives are expressing concern about the disconnect between the performance of listed companies and market valuations. The JSE Combined Index sits just below 328,000 points — about 3,000 points above its pandemic lows.
“The revenue and earnings of most companies have returned to pre-pandemic levels, yet stocks still trade at almost distressed valuations,” said Barita’s Vice President of Asset Management and Wealth, Richardo Williams.
“This is in contrast to the US market, often seen as more efficient than ours,” Williams added.
For instance, the Nasdaq Composite has surged by roughly 210 per cent since March 2020, climbing from 7,000 points to around 21,700.
The subdued performance of the JSE is reflected in Barita’s Capital Growth Fund, which is heavily weighted toward local equities.
“If we look at the recent quarter, all the JSE indices were down,” said Williams. “It represents the continuation of underwhelming performance relative to other indices globally since 2020.”
“We do not expect a sharp rebound in the fund until the relative attractiveness of US dollar assets changes compared to Jamaican dollar-type assets,” he said. “Once the cycle changes, the fund will actually change.”