Sygnus Credit Investments Limited

What it is

Sygnus Credit Investments (SCI), which began operations in July 2017, is the largest listed private credit investment management company across the English, Dutch, and Spanish-speaking Caribbean. It does what banks typically do not: it lends to medium-sized firms across the Caribbean using private credit instruments such as bilateral notes, bonds, preference shares, asset-backed debt, mezzanine debt, and convertible debt.

SCI focuses on businesses with revenues between US$5m and US$25m — the “middle market” — and has deployed over US$317m in investment commitments since its inception, with total assets of US$199m. In February 2022, SCI acquired Acrecent Financial Corporation (AFC), one of the largest private credit companies in Puerto Rico — a US$100bn territory — which has since become the engine of its growth.

Who owns it

The investment assets of SCI are managed by Sygnus Capital Limited (SCL), a subsidiary of Sygnus Capital Group Limited. Sygnus Capital Management Ltd. holds one manager share carrying 51% voting rights — meaning the Sygnus Group, through its management entity, controls SCI’s governance regardless of ordinary-share holdings.

The largest single ordinary shareholder is ATL Group Pension Fund Trustees Nominee Limited, holding approximately 4.6% of total ordinary shares as at June 2021; no single external investor is dominant, and the remaining float is broadly dispersed among public investors.

Who runs it

The leadership trio behind the Sygnus Group is Chief Executive Officer Berisford Grey, Chief Operating Officer Ike Johnson, and Chief Investment Officer Jason Morris. All three, along with director Gassan Azan, are the co-founders of Sygnus Capital Management Limited, the parent entity that built SCI from a blank page.

Horace Messado serves as Chairman of the SCI board. A dedicated CFO for SCI is not disclosed in available sources.

The money, in plain words

For the year ended June 30, 2025 — SCI’s most recent full financial year — record total investment income reached US$15.39m, up 52.4%, while net investment income surged nearly 90% to a record US$10.02m. Net profit attributable to shareholders, however, fell to US$4.28m from US$6.03m in the prior year — meaning SCI kept about 28 cents of profit from every dollar of investment income earned (a net margin of ~27.8%, our calculation), with the drop caused by write-offs on two troubled borrowers rather than a weakening of the core business.

Core earnings remained robust: net investment income per share rose to 1.73 US cents versus 0.90 US cents in the prior year — essentially doubling the underlying income stream. The company rewarded shareholders for a 14th consecutive time, paying US$3.2m in dividends for the year, bringing cumulative distributions since 2018 to US$16.7m, equivalent to 27.4% of share capital.

The JMD-class share trades at roughly 9× trailing earnings — a price-to-earnings ratio of 9×, well below the Jamaican diversified-financial sector average of around 14×.

What it is doing now

SCI’s Puerto Rico subsidiary delivered US$4.67m in profits in FY2025, and SCI deployed US$87.7m across its regional platform during the year, funding businesses in infrastructure, energy, hospitality, telecommunications, and financial services. Looking ahead, SCI is advancing plans to participate in a dedicated asset-backed investment company in an English-speaking Caribbean territory alongside an international financial partner, and is pursuing access to more than US$100m in new financing, including an upcoming US$10m commitment from an international partner.

What to watch

• Write-off risk. The FY2025 profit decline was driven by charge-offs on two portfolio companies and higher impairment allowances on an asset undergoing restructuring — in a concentrated portfolio of mid-market borrowers, a handful of bad loans move the needle sharply.
• Puerto Rico momentum. The US territory is now SCI’s biggest profit engine; any slowdown there — or reversal of US federal support flows — would bite earnings quickly.
• Capital raise execution. SCI is seeking to raise up to US$30m via a perpetual preference share offering; proceeds would refinance US$11m in existing debt and expand the credit portfolio — whether it can close this at competitive terms is the near-term financing test.
• Valuation gap. Over the past three years, earnings per share has grown at an average of 153% per year while the share price has fallen 12% annually — a striking divergence that either signals deep undervaluation or investor scepticism about earnings quality.

This is news, not investment advice.