Jermaine Robinson | When Jamaica business governance fails, the country pays

The losses at Derrimon and Jamaica Broilers are not merely corporate stories. They are a warning about the cost of weak governance to every Jamaican.

In twelve months, two of Jamaica’s most recognised listed companies reported combined losses exceeding J$9.7 billion, triggered trading suspensions, and issued one of the most alarming audit opinions in recent history on the Jamaica Stock Exchange.

Derrimon Trading Company Limited closed 2025 with a group net loss of J$2.58 billion, after cumulative inventory write-offs of approximately J$3.77 billion spanning three financial years. Its audited statements arrived 92 days late. The JSE suspended trading in its shares.

Jamaica Broilers Group reported a J$7.2 billion net loss after accounting irregularities in its United States operations forced a J$46 billion restatement, eliminating stockholders’ equity entirely and triggering covenant breaches on approximately US$120 million in debt. Its external auditor, with more than two decades of service, issued a qualified opinion, a designation indicating it could not obtain sufficient evidence that the investigation was complete. It was a whistleblower, not the auditor, who first surfaced the problem.

The explanations offered describe symptoms. They do not describe the condition. The condition is a governance gap, and the cost is borne not only by shareholders but also by Jamaica’s retirement savers, capital market, and credibility as an investment destination.

The Losses did not stop at the company gate

Jamaica Broilers’ share price fell 53 per cent in 2025. The company erased J$22.45 billion in market capitalisation in a single year.

Mayberry Jamaican Equities, which had built a 5 per cent stake in Jamaica Broilers over several years in good faith, absorbed the consequences directly. MJE booked an unrealised loss of J$899 million on the position and reported a net loss of J$4.9 billion for 2025. Its net asset value per share fell from J$14.89 to J$10.12, a one-third reduction in a single year. MJE’s own share price fell 26.2 per cent.

Mayberry’s chairman said publicly that he was shocked, still did not understand how the irregularities went undetected, and called it a great tragedy for Jamaica and for the exchange.

At Derrimon, the book value per share nearly halved from J$0.94 to J$0.41.

These are not balance sheet abstractions. They are the retirement accounts and savings of Jamaicans who trusted the names they had known for decades.

Ordinary Jamaicans are absorbing what governance should have prevented

Jamaica’s approved retirement schemes managed approximately J$800 billion in assets at the end of 2024. A growing share is invested in domestic equities. Pension fund managers rely on audited financial statements and regulatory disclosure frameworks to make those decisions.

When a listed company’s statements arrive 92 days late, when its two-decade auditor issues a qualified opinion, and when the full scale of an accounting problem surfaces through forensic investigation rather than routine audit, those pension trustees were acting on a financial picture that did not match reality.

That is not an investment failure. That is a governance failure being absorbed by ordinary Jamaicans saving for retirement.

The question for the Financial Services Commission and the Jamaica Stock Exchange is not whether existing rules were followed. It is whether those rules, including a 90-day overdue window before suspension, no mandatory audit rotation, and no required disclosure of internal audit structure, are adequate for the complexity of the companies now trading on Jamaica’s market. 

What this costs Jamaica beyond the numbers

Jamaica has made real progress on fiscal consolidation and macroeconomic stability. That progress is used to attract foreign direct investment and long-term capital.

International investors and credit rating agencies use the Jamaica Stock Exchange as a proxy for corporate governance quality in Jamaica. A J$46 billion restatement, a qualified audit opinion, and a covenant breach on US dollar debt at one of the country’s most prominent companies are visible to every fund manager considering a Jamaican equity allocation. They do not separate the company from the market on which it lists.

Jamaica cannot build a world-class capital market on a governance framework that confirms problems after they have compounded, rather than preventing them before they escalate.

The standard Jamaica must now set

Both companies pursued growth before their governance systems could support it. The companies that avoid this outcome follow a different sequence: stabilise the operating foundation, standardise controls and reporting across every subsidiary, and only then scale. Companies that build in that order rarely need a market notice or a whistleblower to tell them something is wrong. The system surfaces problems first.

Mandatory audit rotation with a defined tenure ceiling. Staged filing enforcement with required market disclosure at 30 and 60 days before suspension at 90. In-house internal audit for companies with material foreign operations. These are not radical proposals. They are the minimum standard a mature capital market applies to the companies that trade on it.

The defining test of leadership is not the ability to make an enterprise larger. It is the ability to make a larger enterprise governable. Jamaica needs both the companies and the regulatory framework to meet that test.

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Jermaine Robinson, MBA, CSCP is a supply chain and enterprise transformation leader and author of the Stabilise, Standardise, Scale™ framework for governed enterprise growth. He can be reached at jermainerobinson.com.