• A.S. Bryden& Sons Holdings Limited (ASBH) announced that it has acquired an additional 30.4% stake in Caribbean Producers (Jamaica) Limited (CPJ) in exchange for 94,871,379 newly issued ordinary shares of ASBH to the sellers of the CPJ shares.
• With this additional purchase, ASBH owns 75.3% of CPJ and CPJ is now a subsidiary of ASBH. Given that its increased ownership represents more than 50% of the issued share capital of CPJ, ASBH will be extending a Mandatory Offer to all remaining CPJ shareholders within thirty (30) days in accordance with the Jamaica Stock Exchange's General Principles relating to Take-overs and Mergers.
•  “ASBH's increased ownership of CPJ is consistent with our objective of purchasing additional shares we shared (sic) following the acquisition of our strategic stake in July. We will soon extend an offer to purchase shares from all CPJ shareholders on equivalent terms subject to CPJ remaining a listed company.” said Nicholas A. Scott, Director of ASBH.
•  “We are committed to becoming the leading distributor of food and premium beverages to hotels, resorts and restaurants in Jamaica and across the Caribbean. As a member of the Brydens Group, CPJ will now have access to greater resources and a regional platform.” said P.B. Scott, Chairman of ASBH.
• ASBH’s stock price has fallen 7.0% since the start of the year and closed Monday’s trading session at $30.80 per share. Market reaction has been relatively muted following Friday's announcement, with stock prices trending down slightly by 0.5%. At this price, the stock trades at a P/E of 15.9x earnings, which is above the Main Market Manufacturing & Distribution Sector Average of 13.2x earnings.

(Sources: JSE & NCBCM Research)

• The Ministry of Tourism is moving to position the hospitality sector to attract more luxurious developments similar to the US$450-million Montego Bay Pinnacle luxury lifestyle development currently under construction on the city’s western coastline.
• “We are now looking at how to enable more of this type of investment that LCH Developments has brought to Jamaica,” said Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett at a landmark conference on branded real estate development, hosted by the Pinnacle developers at the Montego Bay Convention Centre (December 4).
• “This for us, is a pivotal point, and whilst we are going to be continuing to build out the elements of tourism that drive the demand for more production in various areas of the economy, we’re going to be placing concerted focus on luxury tourism as a critical part of the differentiation of the Jamaican experience,” he added.
• Minister Bartlett said this was in keeping with the Blue Ocean Strategy for growth that the Ministry of Tourism and its public bodies developed in 2021. He posited that attracting this demographic in the tourism space would create more demand for goods and services from various sub-sectors, boosting consumption in both quantity and quality resulting in higher returns, which also offers more employment opportunities.
• He stated that: “we are going to have to zone our areas and develop specific areas for different types of products, St. Thomas is being positioned for luxury tourism development as well.”

(Source: Breaking Travel News)

• Guyana and Suriname have selected China Road & Bridge Corp. to build a $236 million bridge to link the two South American countries across the bordering Corentyne River, Guyana’s Public Works Minister Juan Edghill said Sunday.
• Mr. Edghill said construction would begin as soon as both countries finalise financing for the US$236 million project. The countries will split the $236Mn cost of the bridge equally and have sought financial backing from the Chinese government.
• Guyana and Suriname, which both enjoy long-standing fraternal relations with China, have approached that East Asian nation to finance the construction of the bridge that would hop from Moleson Creek to Long Island and then on to South Drain in the neighbouring former Dutch colony. However, sources indicate that Suriname has to be careful about its borrowing because its economic recovery programme has to reach certain global benchmarks.
• Still, Suriname’s Technical Assistant for Capital Infrastructure Projects had said the bridge would have a lifespan of 100 years and low as possible maintenance. The bridge caters for ships of 47,000 dead weight tonnes, a horizontal clearance of 100 metres and vertical clearance of 43 metres.
• The 1.1 kilometer-long (0.7 mile) bridge will take about three years to build; however, the start date will be linked to finalising the financing with China.

(Sources: BNN Bloomberg and Demerara Waves)

• Mexico is taking all possible measures to preserve its regional trade agreement with the United States and Canada, the country’s deputy economy minister said in an interview published Friday.
• The three neighboring nations, and major partners in commerce, have entered a trade tussle after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatened to slap tariffs on the countries to the north and the south if they did not clamp down on drugs and migrants coming into the U.S.
• Since Trump's tariff threat, Mexico has launched an offense on contraband goods from Asia coming into the country, and officials seized a record amount of fentanyl. They have also detained thousands of migrants, vowing to prevent them from making it north. 
• Mexico is looking to take a cue from the U.S.; however, in screening investments coming into the country, Gutierrez said. Mexico is looking to develop a process similar to the U.S.' Committee on Foreign Investment, he explained. When asked if that would affect Chinese automaker BYD's plans to build a factory in the Latin American country, Gutierrez responded that Mexico wants "to play with the same rules" as its trade allies.
• Trump had also threatened to put a 100% tariff "on every single car coming across the Mexican border" in response to BYD's plans, though the carmaker has repeatedly said its plant would serve the local market and not the United States.
• Mexico is considering doling out incentives to draw manufacturing investments, Gutierrez said, suggesting Mexico could produce batteries that the U.S. wants to be made regionally.

(Source: Reuters)

• Federal Reserve officials appear on track to cut interest rates this month after data showed the U.S. labour market remained strong but continued to cool in November, even as debate emerged over a possible pause to rate cuts in the new year.
• U.S. employers added 227,000 jobs last month, a rebound from a hurricane-impacted slowdown in October, but the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2%, the Labour Department's monthly employment report showed on Friday.
• A number of Fed policymakers speaking on Friday said they saw rates continuing to come down while injecting a note of caution on the pace. San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said the fresh figures show the labor market is in a good position.
• San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said the fresh figures show the labour market is in a good position. And while she indicated no discomfort with another rate cut this month, she said that once the policy rate is closer to where it will settle, she would take "a more thoughtful and cautious approach" on further rate cuts. Daly has previously said she views 3% as where short-term borrowing costs may need to end up. Those projections will be updated at the December meeting.
• A quarter-percentage-point reduction this month would bring the Fed's policy rate to the 4.25%-4.50% range, a full percentage point below where it was in September when the central bank began its easing cycle. On Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell repeated his prior comments that the central bank could be careful in managing the endgame of its roughly three-year fight against inflation. Powell's caution may come more into play next year, with many analysts expecting the Fed to pause the easing after delivering a cut on Dec. 18.

(Source: Reuters)

• China's consumer inflation hit a five-month low in November as fresh food prices pulled back while factory deflation persisted, suggesting Beijing's recent efforts to shore up faltering economic demand are having only limited impact. The world's second-largest economy is bracing for likely fresh tariffs from a second Donald Trump White House and still dealing with other headwinds, suggesting more policy stimulus will be needed to shore up fragile growth.
• The consumer price index rose 0.2% last month year-on-year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Monday, below the 0.3% increase in October and a 0.5% rise forecast in a Reuters poll of economists. CPI fell 0.6% month-on-month, compared with a 0.3% fall in October and a forecast 0.4% decline. NBS statistician, Dong Lijuan, said the faster monthly fall in CPI was mainly due to a weather-related 2.7% decline in food prices.
• The national average temperature in November was the highest for any comparable period since 1961, which supported the production and transportation of agricultural goods, helping bring fresh food prices down, Dong said in a statement. Core inflation, excluding volatile food and fuel prices, edged up to 0.3% last month from 0.2% in October.
• Chinese government advisers are calling for an economic growth target of around 5.0% for 2025, pushing for stronger fiscal stimulus to mitigate the impact of expected U.S. tariff hikes on the country's exports, Reuters reported.
• However, economists are still broadly gloomy about China's economic prospects, which face fresh trade tariffs from a new Trump presidency next year and a still shaky property sector. Fitch Ratings lowered its economic forecasts for China for 2025 to 4.3% from 4.5% and for 2026 to 4.0% from 4.3% on Monday, citing risks of even higher U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods.

(Source: Reuters)

• The Jamaica Stock Exchange e-Campus (JSE e-Campus) and the University of Technology Jamaica (UTECH) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on November 22, 2024, at the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) to collaborate to fulfil the training needs of the financial services sector.
• The MOU involves joint courses, progress reports, curriculum strengthening and articulation, staff and student exchange, human resource development, public education joint seminars, conferences, and publications, among others. It is expected to last for three (3) years with the option for renewal.
• Both JSE and UTech have agreed that within the context of a globalised environment, where it is imperative to collaborate to compete and make use of common resources successfully, there is a need for a coordinated, and rationalised approach to dealing with training issues affecting the financial services sector.
• Dr. Marlene Street Forrest, Managing Director of the JSE, stated “We know that coordination will be critical to our success, and as we are committed to the success of this relationship, we will find it through our Steering Committee… By working together, the JSE e-Campus and Utech will create opportunities for learners, at all levels, to contribute meaningfully to Jamaica’s human and economic development.”

(Source: JSE)

• Scores of local entrepreneurs, exporters and persons looking to enter the export market gained valuable insights and tools to expand or seize business opportunities, at a two-day Export Information Workshop hosted by The Trade Board Limited (TBL).
• Held in conjunction with the Ministry of Industry, Investment & Commerce (MIIC) and the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA), the free online sessions provided participants with critical knowledge on leveraging export opportunities and navigating international markets effectively.
• Day one featured a dynamic presentation and live demonstration of EXPORTJamaica, a groundbreaking digital platform that simplifies export procedures. Emphasising the platform’s ability to save time, improve efficiency and enhance the competitiveness of local exporters, the Manager of Systems Engineering and Programming at TBL, Jason Mills, said “EXPORTJamaica represents a key step in our mission to enable Jamaican businesses to thrive in the global marketplace”.
• The second day delved into the critical topic of ‘Leveraging Trade Agreements’, presented by TBL’s Senior Legal Counsel, Kanika Tomlinson, who outlined the significant advantages Jamaican businesses can gain by utilising trade agreements to access international markets with reduced or no duties.
• “Trade agreements provide manufacturers and exporters with a competitive edge, hence understanding and applying these agreements are key to unlocking preferential market access,” she said.
• Participants were also taken through the process of obtaining a Certificate of Origin, which grants exporters preferential treatment in international markets.
• Highlighting the success of the event, Executive Director of the JMEA, Kamesha Turner Blake, praised the collaboration, stating that “by uniting the strengths of MIIC, TBL, and JMEA, this partnership has empowered entrepreneurs with the tools, knowledge, and networks they need to thrive on the global stage”.

(Source: JIS)

• Developing countries spent a record $1.4Tn to service their foreign debt as their interest costs climbed to a 20-year high in 2023, the World Bank’s latest International Debt Report shows. Interest payments surged by nearly a third to $406Bn, squeezing the budgets of many countries in critical areas like health, education, and the environment.
• The financial strain was fiercest for the poorest and most vulnerable countries – those eligible to borrow from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), the data show. These countries paid a record $96.2Bn to service their debt in 2023. Although repayments of principal decreased by nearly 8% to $61.6Bn, interest costs surged to an all-time high of $34.6 billion in 2023, four times the amount a decade ago. On average, interest payments of IDA countries now amount to nearly 6% of the export earnings of IDA-eligible countries – a level that hasn’t been seen since 1999. For some countries, the payments run as high as 38 percent of export earnings.
• As credit conditions tightened, the World Bank and other multilateral institutions became the main lifeline for the poorest economies. Since 2022, foreign private creditors have received nearly $13Bn more in debt-service payments from public sector borrowers in IDA-eligible economies than they disbursed in new financing. Over the same period, the bank and other multilateral institutions pumped in nearly $51Bn more in 2022 and 2023 than they collected in debt-service payments. The World Bank accounted for a third of that sum – $28.1Bn.
• “Multilateral institutions have become the last lifeline for poor economies struggling to balance debt payments with spending on health, education, and other key development priorities,” said Indermit Gill, the World Bank Group’s chief economist and senior vice president. “In highly indebted poor countries, multilateral development banks are now acting as a lender of last resort, a role they were not designed to serve. That reflects a dysfunctional financing system – except for funds from the World Bank and other multilateral institutions, money is flowing out of poor economies when it should be flowing in.”
• In 2023, borrowing abroad became considerably more expensive for all developing economies. Interest rates on loans from official creditors doubled to more than 4%. Rates charged by private creditors climbed by more than a point to 6% – a 15-year high. Global interest rates have since begun to subside, although they are expected to remain above the average that prevailed in the decade before COVID-19.

(Source: Caribbean News Global)

• During the event “La Semanal con La Prensa,” President Luis Abinader emphasized that economic forecasts predict continued robust growth for the Dominican Republic through 2025.
• Reflecting on 2024, he celebrated the nation’s progress in reducing poverty and sustaining economic expansion. Economic growth has positioned the country as a Latin American leader, with poverty rates improving from 26% in 2019 to an estimated 19% by year-end 2024.
• “We are the beacon of light for Latin America,” Abinader declared, underscoring the strong performance of key economic sectors despite global challenges. He acknowledged ongoing national issues but highlighted his administration’s efforts to address public needs and deliver meaningful results.
• On corruption, the president reaffirmed his government’s dedication to transparency and justice, asserting that impunity is no longer tolerated. He pointed to legal actions against corrupt officials as evidence of the administration’s commitment to accountability and ethical governance.

(Sources: Dominican Today)