Jamaica Money Market Brokers Limited (JMMB), in a first time move for the money market pioneer, barred the press from its annual general meeting Wednesday, saying share-holders were complaining that they had to be competing with the media for CEO Keith Duncan's personal attention.

"It's what the shareholders want," said Imani Duncan-Waite, manager group marketing and corporate solutions at JMMB while politely barring the Financial Gleaner from covering the meeting.

JMMB has some 10,287 ordinary shareholders who hold a combined 1.46 million issued shares.

But 40 per cent of the brokerage is now under state control - from Trinidad - after share-holders Colonial Life Insurance Company Limited (CLICO) and its subsidiary CLICO Investment Bank, were swept up by the Patrick Manning administration in a rescue of the CL Financial Group.

Those turn of events came three months behind CL's agreement to purchase JMMB's 45.5 per cent stake in CMMB, a Port-of-Spain-based brokerage that the two financial groups owned in common.

The more than $2.3 billion that JMMB booked under that deal was at the time welcomed as capital to buttress its balance sheet, and finance future growth.

At the same time, JMMB's restructuring efforts gathered pace, even as the company consulted on how to calm investor nerves after disclosing that it took a $3.6 billion hit on impaired financial assets that were exposed to the Lehman Brothers collapse.

The company cut staff by 14 per cent to cut expenses, wracking up a bill of $57 million for the terminations, and announced a new marketing and sales programme for its under-performing insurance brokerage that would, Keith Duncan said in late January focus on general insurance products.

Duncan-Waite said there would have been no update on those matters at Wednesday's meeting, though their currency would explain why shareholders would have wanted to commandeer the attention of her half-brother and boss.

Relationship building

Duncan-Waite suggested the issue was one of relationship building and access.

"We did a survey and based on shareholder response they are not getting enough time to interact with the company's executives," she told the Financial Gleaner at the door to the meeting room at the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel in Kingston.

This, Duncan-Waite contends, is because the media dominates the executives' time conducting interviews and asking clarifying questions, leaving shareholders feeling deprived.

Earlier she said the various issues had already been addressed.

But JMMB's annual report at yearend March 2009 suggests that the company's attempt to regain its financial footing is not over.

From $203 million a year ago, JMMB is now $9.2 billion in debt, with $1.12 billion due for repayment this year, its net worth dropped from $6.66 billion to $5.3 billion, while its balance sheet which grew to $111 billion, was chiefly skewed to repos, amounting to $90 billion.

The size of the repo portfolios carried by securities dealers has grabbed the attention of regulator, the Financial Services Commission, which is urging firms to diversify their product base to bring down their exposure.

On its profit and loss accounts, JMMB's financial position, at first glance at the bottom line, appears to have strengthened - growing from $1 billion to $1.1 billion - but a portion was in foreign exchange gains in a market where the local currency tumbled 13 per cent last year.

Together securities trading and foreign exchange gains added $3.1 billion to operating revenue, up $1.8 billion over 2008's outturn of $1.5 billion.

On Wednesday, Duncan-Waite recommended that the Financial Gleaner consult a power-point presentation by the CEO for information on what unfolded at the meeting, and issued a press release on a new initiative that was also launched at the AGM, the JMMB Mobile Branch.

The 'branch-mobile' will go after business in rural townships nationwide.

"It's an innovative way of going to people at their doorstep bringing them different investment opportunities," said Duncan.

The release quoted an unnamed but "excited shareholder" saying that being the first to hear "felt like family" and that the initiative was reminiscent of how JMMB founder, the late Joan Duncan, operated.

The mobile branch or concept is not new. LIME Jamaica rolled out its bus several months ago in a new 'go to market' strategy.

JMMB's mobile branch, an $870,000 investment, is equipped for opening and tracking of accounts and processing financial transactions.

The brokerage says it plans to grab business away from the banks,

"When you look at deposits with commercial banks and the rate of return É then these saving accounts can be transfer into investments accounts," said Duncan.

JMMB says it hopes to capture at least 2.5 per cent of the savings held with commercial banks within the first year of the mobile branch operation. The rollout starts September in Christiana.

business@gleanerjm.com