New storage firm explains procedures for sale of shares |19 May 2017

Potential investors and the public in general on Wednesday gathered at the Seychelles Trading Company’s (STC) conference centre to learn about the objectives, shares and conditions of the Central Common Cold Store (CCCS) storage company.

The aim of the meeting was to rally strategic partners to support this investment and also explain how the sale of shares will be conducted.

In conjunction with the Blue Economy concept the government is promoting, Seychellois now have another opportunity to invest in CCCS. The project will be a 12,600 tonness of common cold storage facility on zone 14 located on Ile du Port.

The CCCS project will open its share offers to different categories of Seychellois investors (51%) as well as foreign potential partners (25%) that have operational interests and links to the Seychelles tuna industrial sub-sector. A total of 12,000 shares will be made available for locals to buy at the cost of US $1,000 per share where they can buy one to ten shares each. Sale of shares will start as soon as all the CCCS facilities and logistics are in place.

Present at the presentation were Vice-President Vincent Meriton; Maurice Loustau-Lalanne, Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine; partners in the project Société Seychelloise d’Investissement (SSI) chief executive Rupert Simeon; CCCS chairman Peter Sinon; general manager of Ile du Port Handling Services Ltd (IPHS), Arthur Bretagne; and Jacques de Chateauvieux, chief executive and chairman of Jaccar Holdings.

In his address Minister Loustau-Lalanne said this project is aimed at extending, revitalising and diversifying the tuna industrial sub-sector and unleash latest potentials of this industry, the greater input and involvement of Seychellois stakeholders and partners.

“Ile du Port has long been designated as the area of extension of Seychelles tuna industrial sub-sector for the production of value-added products of more than 200,000 tonnes of fresh tuna that land in our lovely Port Victoria,” said the minister.

He said the annual general landings are consistently over 90% of all the tuna fish caught in the Indian Ocean.

“This, in itself, informs us of the blatant potentials that we have to sustainably increase the variety of products from Port Victoria other than canned and fresh tuna. While remaining the main tuna transshipment hub of the Indian Ocean, its potential to be transformed into one that ventures into higher value products other than canned tuna, cannot be under-estimated,” he said.

But however, he said, our quest to develop higher valued products within the precinct of the ever-extending Port Victoria can only be fulfilled with the provision of the necessary infrastructural support that are credible for its success. And that government is aware of the requirement of all the infrastructure needed on Ile du Port and works have been carried out to accomplish these.

In his presentation, Mr Chateauvieux said CCCS will offer a central and common cold store which is an innovative solution to provide efficient infrastructure for the benefit of the fishing company and improve their profitability and their long-term standing.

The total project cost is US $35 million and will be financed by a capital share issue of US $12 million and by bank loans for US $23 million. Jaccar Holdings as the main promoter of the project will drive the CCCS share issue to reach the US $12 million contemplated equity. CCCS being the issuer will be led by a steering committee including CCCS existing board chaired by Mr Sinon, Mr Simeon and representatives of the government, principal secretaries Rebecca Loustau-Lalanne and Garry Albert. The target shareholding structure has been defined as follows for a total equity of US $12 million: Founders Investors 24%: JACCAR Holdings 20% and IPHS 4%. Seychellois Investors 51%: Individuals 10 to 20% and companies up to 41%. Foreign investors will be 25% of the cost A Seychellois individual will be allowed to buy from one to ten shares at $1,000 a share. It is the 51% share of SSI that will be sold among Seychellois public.