During the holidays, I had the pleasure of discussing many issues related to Jamaica at a family gathering and Air Jamaica was brought up.
One participant in the discussion at the gathering wanted my opinion on whether or not I thought that an initial public offering (IPO) with regards to Air Jamaica was a plausible way for the airline to raise money to continue operating without having to be sold to a foreign buyer.
Earlier this year, my letter regarding the case for privatising Air Jamaica was published, but I admit that I had not even entertained this option as a possibility.
I am not sure whether the new administration and specifically, Don Wehby, have considered the option of an IPO in which Jamaicans all over the World would be encouraged to buy shares in the airline in order to save it. But I think it has merit and should be considered BEFORE we assume that divestment is the ONLY option.
If an IPO were considered, then the Jamaican public is entitled to know what the results of the analysis were.
Jamaicans have complained about the London route being sold, about how important Air Jamaica is to the island and how much the name means. An IPO gives them a chance to put their money where their mouths are and help save our national airline while keeping it in Jamaican hands.
Most airlines in the United States are publicly traded and airlines around the world have used IPOs to raise money. Jet Airways in India used an IPO in 2005 to raise capital and JetBlue was able to raise US$158 million in April 2002 when it floated its IPO, even though it was a very young airline and not always profitable.
There are sufficient Jamaican institutions with experience of floating IPOs on the Jamaica Stock Exchange. Floating shares of Air Jamaica on the stock exchange would allow Jamaicans to show how much they support the airline.
I fly Air Jamaica every chance I get and I certainly would buy shares if it meant that we could ease the financial burden on the taxpayers of Jamaica AND keep the airline Jamaican-owned.
If the support for the national airline is anything to go by, I believe that there are many others who would do the same.
If an IPO turned out unsuc-cessful because of under-subs-cription, then surely the Jamaican people would have no one to blame but themselves for any sale and the Government would have a clearer mandate to divest (the clearest mandate of course would be a national referendum after providing a detailed cost/benefit analysis to the public since it is our money after all and we may want to keep subsidising the airline until it is profitable).
I would love to see more research done or previous research presented on the possibility of an IPO to raise money for Air Jamaica and Don Wehby certainly has the qualifications to oversee such an analysis.
Selling shares of Air Jamaica to the public would certainly be the ultimate embodiment of the 'Buy Jamaican' campaign that is so widely talked about. If buying Jamaican is so important, why not allow us to buy into Air Jamaica?
