Innovative Energy parent sells five per cent of listed company

Jamaica Observer | 2025-12-03 | Original Article

INNOVATIVE Energy Group Limited (IEG) has returned to compliance as its parent company, IEC Energy Company Limited, has reduced its ownership stake below the 80 per cent threshold. IEG updated the market last Thursday revealing that IEC sold some of its ordinary shares on November 21 via the open market. There were two share trades for 35 million shares each at $0.98 each for a total value of $68.60 million and 100,000 shares traded for $101,000. Those 70 million ordinary shares equate to 5.33 per cent of IEG’s issued ordinary shares. “These transactions follow a series of smaller transactions executed over the past two weeks priced between J$1.20 and J$1.00. As a result, ENERGY meets the requirements for a minimum public free float of 20 per cent of the issued ordinary share capital,” IEG stated. IEC initially acquired 393,732,417 ordinary shares or 72.1122 per cent of IEG (formerly Ciboney Group Limited) in June 2023 for $19.69 million or $0.05 per share from entities controlled by FINSAC Limited. IEC received 727,004,907 new ordinary shares in IEG at $1.24 per share in May 2025 as partial consideration for the November 2024 acquisition of Innovative Energy Company DBA IEC SPEI Limited for $2.83 billion. This pushed IEC’s stake in IEG increased to 83.931 per cent or 1,104,800,000 ordinary shares in May 2025. However, that breached the JSE’s Main Market rules which requires at least 100 shareholders to own at least 20 per cent of a company’s issued shares. IEG indicated in July that its parent company would offer 51,740,704 ordinary shares or 3.931 per cent of the company’s shares for sale on the open market to restore balance. This process was expected to be completed within six months. With this sale, IEC’s stake in IEG should decrease to 1.035 billion ordinary shares or 78.61 per cent which meets the JSE minimum requirements. Investors will learn who purchased the shares from IEC in less than two months when the company’s second quarter report (September to November) is released by January 14. That is the same day IEG will hold its annual general meeting which will be held in a hybrid format with the physical location being the Caymanas Golf Club, Caymanas Estates, St Catherine. The core IEG company was inactive for the recent May 2025 financial year as its new subsidiary continued to expand its operations. Dr Conrad Miller was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of IEG on April 14 which currently has distributorship contracts with Huawei Technologies as it relates to future revenue. Innovative Energy Company continues to work on completing its two major PV solar and plus Battery Energy Storage projects with the National Irrigation Commission and MBJ Airports Limited. These contracts, which are valued at more than US$14.5 million, experienced some client delays but were projected to be completed by March 2026. The status of these projects following the passage of Hurricane Melissa is unknown. Innovative Energy Company is also gearing up to take advantage of future request for proposal projects related to renewable energy and battery energy storage systems in the future. It also made headwinds in the first quarter (June to August) where its budding electric golf cart business segment delivered results, which included a major order to be delivered in the third quarter (December to February). The subsidiary secured a dealership with Tara Electric Vehicle, an electric golf cart manufacturer, in February 2025 to distribute electric golf carts in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean. “With a focused sales team, active participation in public and private tenders, and targeted social media marketing, we are encouraged by the results of our sales activities and remain optimistic about IEG’s future. We are satisfied with the sales trajectory of our diversification strategy and will continue to expand our regional market presence,” IEG stated in its first-quarter (Q1) report. IEG had consolidated revenue of $51.62 million during Q1 where it generated $8.14 million in operating profit and $4.69 million in net profit. IEG (company) had no revenues in the previous period and had a net loss of $1.61 million. Innovative Energy company contributed $325.86 million in revenue and $99.60 million in net profit for the November 2024 to May 2025 period. IEG’s total assets as of August 31 was $3.27 billion with $2.62 billion in intangible assets and $463 million in current assets. Total liabilities and shareholder’s equity were $2.25 billion and $1.02 billion, respectively. IEG’s stock price closed November 27 at $1.03 with a market capitalisation of $1.36 billion. IEG expects to have its Employee Share Ownership Program (ESOP) in place during its Q3. Infiniti Capital Limited remains the second-largest shareholder in IEG with 2.379 per cent or 31,319,213 ordinary shares which it received during the Innovative Energy Company acquisition. Infiniti Capital is the name of a firm connected to former IEG Director Whycliffe “Dave” Cameron. Operor Actus Limited is the third-largest shareholder with 24 million ordinary shares, half of which were received in the recent acquisition. Operor Actus is connected to Marc Ramsay, chairman of Aspiresec Limited.