Mayberry Jamaican Equities Limited

What it is

Mayberry Jamaican Equities Limited (MJE) is a publicly listed investment holding company, wholly owned by Mayberry Group Jamaica Limited, focused exclusively on long-term equity positions in companies listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange across both its Junior and Main Markets. Its net asset value (NAV) is published daily, so investors can track the value of the underlying portfolio in real time — unusual transparency for any listed fund anywhere.

It offers a single, tradable share that gives exposure to a diversified basket of Jamaican stocks spanning financial services, manufacturing, retail, food distribution, and insurance. As of late 2025 it held positions in 24 companies listed on the JSE Main and Junior Markets.

Who owns it

Effective December 28, 2023, MJE became a 50.4%-owned subsidiary of Mayberry Group Limited (MGL) through a court-approved Scheme of Arrangement. Group CEO Gary Peart has described MGL’s stake in MJE as the main contributor to the group’s results — meaning MGL’s roughly half-ownership drives most of what consolidates into the parent’s books.

The remaining ~50% is public free float, traded on the JSE.

MJE was incorporated on June 23, 2005 in St. Lucia as a wholly owned subsidiary of Mayberry Investments Limited.

Its shares were listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange on July 31, 2018.

Who runs it

Christopher Berry is Chairman of the Mayberry Group and a director of MJE, with over 30 years of experience in Jamaica’s securities industry. Natalie Glitzenhirn-Augustin has served as Managing Director of MJE since 2010 — she signs the quarterly reports and is the public face of the company’s investment narrative.

At the group level, Patrick Bataille has taken over as CEO of Mayberry Investments Limited, the main operating broker-dealer within the group.

Mayberry Asset Managers Limited (MAM) was appointed as Investment Manager in 2017 and holds full discretion to invest and manage MJE’s assets, subject to stated guidelines. Day-to-day portfolio decisions therefore sit with MAM, a related party, rather than with MJE’s own board.

The money, in plain words

Total assets at December 31, 2024 stood at J$23.6 billion (~US$151 million), and shareholders’ equity — the owners’ net stake — was J$17.8 billion (~US$114 million). The NAV per share at that date was J$14.89, (US$0.10)yet the stock traded at J$11.86 (US$0.08)— a discount of roughly 20%, meaning buyers were paying 80 cents for every dollar of underlying value (price-to-book ~0.80×, our calculation).

That discount is a persistent feature of MJE’s trading history and reflects both the illiquidity of some portfolio positions and general JSE market softness.

For FY 2024, shareholders’ equity rose by approximately J$0.5 billion (US$3 mn) from J$17.3 billion (US$111 mn) to J$17.8 billion (US$114 mn) — signalling a modest net positive year after the heavy losses of 2023. The nine months to September 2024 showed a net loss of J$256 million (US$2 mn), sharply improved from a J$2.1 billion (US$13 mn) loss for the same period in 2023.

The full year recovered further into positive territory on the back of strong Q4 dividend income and fair-value gains.

What it is doing now

In 2024, MJE completed a J$3.37 billion (US$22 mn) bond issuance — the largest total raised and listed on the JSE’s Bond Market for the year — strengthening its capital base. That fresh firepower was deployed into the portfolio even as the equity market remained difficult.

For full-year 2025, however, the company swung sharply negative, booking a J$4.93 billion (US$32 mn) net loss, driven by a J$3.29 billion (US$21 mn) unrealised loss on its investment in associates and a J$1.22 billion (US$8 mn) unrealised loss on financial instruments.

The single biggest blow was an J$899 million (US$6 mn) unrealised loss on MJE’s Jamaica Broilers holding after that stock fell 53% in 2025. Jamaica Broilers’ collapse followed the discovery of accounting irregularities in its US operations, resulting in a restatement worth approximately J$46 billion (US$294 mn) and a J$7.22 billion (US$46 mn) net loss at that company.

By June 2026 MJE’s share price had fallen to around J$6.74 (US$0.04)— less than half the December 2024 NAV.

What to watch

• Concentration risk in Supreme Ventures (SVL). SVL alone represented 56.9% of the total value of MJE’s investments as of September 2025 — an extraordinary single-stock exposure that makes MJE’s NAV highly sensitive to one lottery and gaming company’s fortunes.
• Jamaica Broilers recovery. MJE steadily built its Jamaica Broilers stake from a 2% position in 2022 to 5% of that company’s shares by end-2025; any credible operational recovery at Broilers would materially lift MJE’s book value.
• Persistent NAV discount. The share price trading well below the daily published NAV is both a risk and an opportunity: buyers get underlying Jamaican equities at a markdown, but the discount will only close if market sentiment improves or MJE demonstrates a catalyst — a special dividend, a buyback, or a strong portfolio rebound.
• JSE market direction. Group CEO Gary Peart attributes the softness in MJE’s earnings directly to weakness in Jamaica’s equity market; any broad JSE re-rating lifts MJE’s portfolio almost mechanically.

This is news, not investment advice.