Project Star Administrators Looking to Raise $100M Through the Jamaica Social Stock Exchange

The administrators of Project STAR (Social Transformation and Renewal) are seeking to raise $100 million via an Initial Public Offering (IPO), which will be launched on the Jamaica Social Stock Exchange (JSSE) come June 22.

Project STAR is a social and economic transformation initiative created by the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) in partnership with the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF). It focuses on reversing poor social outcomes in beneficiary communities.

Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) Chairman, Julian Mair, said the prospectus will be available by the end of this week, adding that social shares will be offered at $1 per unit.

Mr. Mair was speaking during a press briefing at the JCF headquarters in Kingston on Wednesday (June 14) to provide an update on the project’s implementation and outcomes, to date.

“The minimum threshold will be $500, meaning that you can own as small as 500 shares each denominated at $1. It’s important that we put the threshold as low as that, not because we don’t need a lot of money, because we do.  It’s an ambitious project which requires a lot of money. But we do want to have extreme broad-based support and we do want people to understand that even if it’s only $1,000 or $500 or $10,000, each dollar goes towards its purpose and each dollar is a part of the transformative fuel for this project,” he said.

Ten communities have been earmarked for interventions under Project STAR over the next five years.

The initiative has already been rolled out in several east downtown Kingston communities, as well as Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, for seven and three months, respectively, while interventions recently commenced in May Pen, Clarendon.

Mr. Mair, who is also co-sponsor and Project STAR’s public funding lead advisor, said the IPO will ensure a very broad distribution of the ownership of the engagement.

“They’ll be reported to as any shareholder would in any publicly listed company. They’ll find themselves with quarterly reports coming into their inbox, [and] they’ll see their ownership of shares represented in the Jamaica Central Securities Depository, which will evidence the ownership of social shares in Project STAR in each investor’s account,” he explained.

Mr. Mair advised that investing in Project STAR will not provide investors with financial returns, noting that the dividends will be in the form of transformation and the achievement of the key performance indicators.

“The ambitious nature of this project is that we can make a difference in the trajectory of Jamaica by impacting human capital,” he said.

Project STAR is intended to facilitate the implementation of programmes that will enable target communities to become safer and more resilient with improved social outcomes and reduced levels of violence.