BRADY

The Jamaica Stock Ex-change (JSE) has given Castelo Holdings BV, a Curaçao company that last year bought up 79.66 per cent of listed company CMP Industries Limited, has until February 6 to make its mandatory offer to minority parties.

The JSE on January 16 advised Castelo Chairman Harold Brady that his company would have had three weeks to act.

Castelo purchased CMP at the end of August 2007 and should have made the offer within 10 days of the deal being executed.

Penalties loom

Brady was said to be attending to a phone call when the Financial Gleaner requested comment on whether he could meet the Ash Wednesday deadline.

"If they fail to make the offer, we will decide on the appropriate action," general manager of the JSE Marlene Street-Forrest, told the Financial Gleaner, but did not say what penalties would be applied.

Based on the sale, Castelo owns more than 16 million of the more than 20.3 million listed units. The transaction placed CMP's stock market value at $86.4 million based on its trading price of $4.25 per unit around the time of the transaction.

susan.gordon@gleanerjm.com