Take a wild guess what the worst performing stock in Jamaica in 2023 was.  I’ll wait….

If you guess iCreate, you’re right!

Digital media company, iCreate was the biggest loser on the Jamaica Stock Exchange last year. The stock fell almost 71%.  It started the year at $1.77 and closed at just 53 cents. 

And it’s not hard to guess why.  2023 was rocky for iCreate, and there’s at least one issue that’s carried over into 2024.

Last year actually started off pretty promising for the company. They had just done a big capital raise to finance some new acquisitions, and they were planning a move to the Main Market.

But then they kept delaying their financial reports by a lot, and people started to notice.

Reports that were due in March and April still hadn’t been released in August, and the company asked for ANOTHER extension. That’s when the JSE stepped in and said nope. You can’t trade until the reports are published. So iCreate gave themselves around a month to get everything sorted but during that time, investors could do nothing with the stock.

Around that same time, founder and CEO Tyrone Wilson resigned citing health issues. 

All of that negative news definitely worried investors, and even though they couldn’t do anything with the stock during the suspension, it would have definitely been on their minds.

The day the stock resumed trading, it fell from $1.03 to 80 cents. And it kept falling from there.

Until… the company’s annual general meeting when Wilson made a surprise comeback. See, what had happened was, Wilson still had a majority shareholding in iCreate through his companies Kinytre Holdings and and E-Media Interactive.

So he was able to use that majority position to reelect himself as CEO of iCreate.

In the same breath, Arlene Martin, who had been acting as Interim CEO was removed from the position and as a company director. Three other directors, Ricardo Allen, Dainya-Joy Wint and Ivan Carter were also booted.  And Crichton Mullings and Associates was removed as the company’s auditors. 

With Wilson back at the helm, the stock rallied a bit.  Then Wilson announced a new partnership, and for a short while, it seemed like things might finally stablise.

Until… iCreate was placed in receivership on December 18. 

Sagicor Investments took over control and management of the company, citing missed payments on a bond (aka a loan) that iCreate took out in 2020.

The bond agreement gave Sagicor Investments, which arranged the bond, the right to assume control if iCreate didn’t make the payments. 

Now Sagicor did say that receivership was not their first option, but after extended dialogue with iCreate management they weren’t able to recover the full outstanding balance so they had to do what they had to do.

However, Wilson later lashed out on Twitter, calling out Sagicor Investments and Sagicor President, Chris Zacca, saying “saying some people and institutions position themselves as supporters of entrepreneurs when they are quite the opposite.”

Let’s see if iCreate can turn things around in 2024.

On January 6, Wilson tweeted, “We are starting this year fully flowing with our institute, GetPaid, Visual Vibe and Vertical Creative… #Disney of the Caribbean.

At least he’s optimistic.

And that’s the bottom line.