Mayberry swings to $1.57bn quarterly profit on stock market rebound

Mayberry Group Ltd returned to profit in the September quarter, posting $1.57 billion attributable to shareholders against a loss of $751.4 million a year earlier, as Jamaica’s recovering stock market and firmer property values lifted the carrying value of its holdings.

“The stock market has rebounded, our real estate portfolio has also rebounded, and our traditional foreign exchange, bond trading, etc, is back on track,” Chief Executive Officer Gary Peart told the Financial Gleaner. “So the core income is up, our equities portfolio is up, our real estate portfolio is up, and we believe that will continue.”

The US Dollar Equities Market and Main Market on the Jamaica Stock Exchange are up 37 per cent and 21 per cent from January to October. The Junior Market, however, has declined 5.0 per cent year to date.

For Mayberry, the quarter was strong enough to pull the investment group into the black for the year to date. Nine-month profit attributable to shareholders reached $585.8 million, reversing a $2.4-billion loss in the corresponding period of 2025 — though those figures imply the group was still some $984 million in the red at the half-year, and the September quarter did the work of digging it out

The composition of the earnings is the question. Of $3.04 billion in net revenue over the nine months, 76.8 per cent came from unrealised gains on financial instruments, investment properties and associates rather than from completed transactions. Fair-value gains on associates contributed $1.63 billion, gains on financial instruments $401.9 million, and revalued investment properties $297.5 million.

Peart pushed back on that framing. “When I book unrealised losses, they burn me out. When I book unrealised gains, they say, ‘Oh, that is unrealised’,” he said, arguing that shareholders should take gains and losses on the same basis. “Give me the benefit of it, because guess what? I cannot buy your house less than $35 million ... So my unrealised gain, just like your unrealised gain, is actually real.”

The balance sheet strengthened alongside the earnings. Total assets rose 9.3 per cent to $66.1 billion at September from $60.5 billion at the December year end, on growth in loans, investments and associates. Investment in associates rose $2.71 billion and investment securities $1.67 billion. Equity attributable to shareholders stood at $12.5 billion.

Peart expects the trend to hold, and named two holdings. “We project that Broilers over the next year will move towards $30,” he said of Jamaica Broilers Group, which traded around $14 at the quarter’s end — an implied gain of more than 110 per cent. He put Supreme Ventures’ intrinsic value nearer to $23 or $24 a share, above its prevailing market price.

Both are positions Mayberry holds, and Peart serves as executive chairman of Supreme Ventures, so the valuations come from an interested party.

neville.graham@gleanerjm.com