VM Investments Limited

What it is

VM Investments is a Jamaican investment and financing company that offers margin loans, lease financing for equipment, corporate loans, and underwrites public and private securities; it also does stock and investment broking and money market dealing.

Its wholly owned subsidiary, VM Wealth Management Limited, handles wealth management, security trading, investment advisory, and corporate solutions — the client-facing engine of the group.

Who owns it

As of February 2023, VM Investments is 80% owned by VM Financial Group Limited, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of VM Group Limited — the umbrella holding company that grew from Jamaica’s historic Victoria Mutual Building Society, founded in 1878.

The remaining roughly 20% trades as the public free float on the Jamaica Stock Exchange; the total shares in issue are 1,500,025,000.

Who runs it

Rezworth Burchenson is CEO of VM Investments Ltd. and VM Wealth Management Ltd., appointed in January 2019 after serving as Deputy CEO of both entities and as CEO of VM Pensions Management Limited.

The board includes directors Michael McMorris and Matthew Wright, who were re-elected at the 2024 AGM, alongside newer additions Maria Evelyn-Robinson and Frederick Williams, both appointed in early 2025. Chairman details are not separately disclosed from VM Financial Group’s parent board in available sources.

The money, in plain words

In the year ended December 31, 2024, interest income came in at JMD 1.72 billion (≈ US$11.0 million), and after paying its own borrowing costs, net interest income surged 125% to JMD 107 million (US$684 k) — the spread between what it earns on loans and what it pays to fund them widened sharply.

Gains from trading and investing in securities jumped 64% to JMD 1.42 billion (US$9 mn), while fee and commission income — the steady revenue from brokerage and advisory — was JMD 918 million (US$6 mn).

Bottom-line net profit for the year hit JMD 532.24 million (≈ US$3.40 million), a 168% rise from 2023’s JMD 199 million (US$1 mn) — meaning for every JMD 100 (US$0.64)of income, it kept roughly JMD 22 (US$0.14)as profit, a net margin of ~22.4% (our calculation).

For every JMD 100 (US$0.64)its shareholders have invested, it earned back about JMD 17 (US$0.11)during the year — a return on equity of ~16.9% (our calculation), respectable for a small-cap financial firm. Earnings per share for 2024 came to JMD 0.35, (US$0.00)up from JMD 0.13 (US$0.00)in 2023.

The company paid two dividends for FY 2024: an interim of JMD 0.032 (US$0.00)per share in July and a final of JMD 0.053 (US$0.00)per share in December, totalling JMD 0.085 (US$0.00)per share — a dividend yield of ~3.6% at the then-prevailing stock price (our calculation).

The balance sheet closed Q3 2024 with total assets of JMD 30.03 billion (≈ US$192 million), driven largely by JMD 19.92 billion (US$127 mn) in investment securities.

What it is doing now

VM Investments has partnered with London-based Actus Partners to form a private equity fund targeting up to US$100 million for investment in Caribbean companies — the Jamaica Actus Small and Medium Enterprise Fund 1 (JASMEF 1), the most significant strategic move in its recent history.

In the nine months to September 2025, net interest income improved 58% to JMD 186.59 million (US$1 mn), though other operating income fell 15% to JMD 1.61 billion (US$10 mn) because a one-time gain from selling its Carilend stake in 2024 was not repeated. Its subsidiary VM Wealth is also consolidating its branch network, closing three physical locations as client adoption of its digital portal reached 50% and email requests were phased out in January 2025.

What to watch

• Fund-raise execution: The JASMEF 1 is live, and VM Financial Group’s own preference share offer recently closed at JMD 10.6 billion (US$68 mn) — well above its JMD 8.53 billion (US$55 mn) target — signalling strong local appetite for VM paper. Whether VMIL can deploy the private equity capital productively is the core question.
• Bond maturities: VMIL faces JMD 2.03 billion (US$13 mn) in bond maturity in June 2026 and JMD 1.93 billion (US$12 mn) in December 2026; parent VM Financial Group also has a JMD 7 billion (US$45 mn) preference share maturity in April 2026. Refinancing those at acceptable cost matters.
• Earnings quality: The 2024 profit surge leaned heavily on one-off investment gains; watch whether 2025 and 2026 results show the recurring fee and interest-income base growing on its own.
• Stock price volatility: VMIL’s share price has been highly volatile compared to the broader Jamaican market, with weekly volatility rising from 12% to 18% over the past year — a liquidity risk for investors in a thin market.

This is news, not investment advice.