Sygnus profit nearly triples after Lakespen asset revaluation

Sygnus Real Estate Finance Limited (SRF) reported a sharp jump in earnings after it reclassified and revalued holdings tied to Lakespen Industrial Park in its most recent quarter, lifting profit 193 per cent to $444.3 million.

Chief Investment Officer Jason Morris told shareholders on the firm’s earnings call that Lakespen produced a favourable gain of $806.9 million in the period.

During the quarter SRF moved $5.0 billion of land and infrastructure outlays linked to the Lakespen project at Cowpark, Caymanas Estate, out of investment property and into active development as work on the site advanced.

In its latest quarterly filings the company said the holdings are parcels now being prepared as saleable lots at Bernard Lodge, St Catherine. Construction began in March 2026, and development-in-progress balances reflect spending directly tied to that build-out.

The one-time revaluation surplus on the Lakespen acreage exceeded the quarter’s profit. For the three months ended May 31, 2026, SRF posted net profit of $444.3 million, against $151.7 million a year earlier, based on unaudited accounts published on July 15.

Morris said the uplift followed the start of construction in St Catherine. The $806.9 million is shown as a change in the fair value of investment properties. That left the investment-property book at $6.73 billion by period-end, down from $10.73 billion at the opening of the period after a $4.86 billion shift into development in progress.

He cautioned investors not to look for a repeat of that kind of gain on the same asset.

“This value won’t change until we are exiting at the end of the project,” Morris said. “So there won’t be any more favourable gains coming through due to the change in the accounting treatment for Lakespen. I want to highlight that.”

The briefing also underlined Morris’s long-running point about the “lumpiness” of SRF’s numbers. Because the firm backs and develops large real-estate projects whose values are reviewed only from time to time, quarterly profits can swing widely.

“Typically, due to SRF’s long-term nature,” Morris said, “what we would have is a quarter of the financial year being negative and the year-end being positive on the valuation.” He added that this quarter stood out because a major valuation event fell in the third quarter instead of at year-end.

How Lakespen feeds reported earnings going forward will therefore turn more on selling lots and completing exits than on fresh valuation uplifts.

Early buyer interest in the industrial park looks solid. Senior development project manager Jonnell Whervin said the sales drive has already drawn meaningful attention from the market.

“We have 55 acres with 34 lots available, ranging from 0.8 acres to 3 acres. And, as mentioned, the sales process is currently underway. We’re between reservations and under-offers, we’re approximately at 33 per cent,” Whervin told shareholders.

She said resilience and security are central to how Lakespen is being marketed. The park will use underground power lines to limit storm outages, plus perimeter protections such as an eight-foot boundary wall and armed-response cover.

Whervin also updated shareholders on other SRF holdings.

At Mammee Bay in St Ann, a coastal site along the tourism belt, the company is doing due diligence and planning work meant to release value from the land, which sits near several large hotel projects.

At the seaside Delphin site in Trelawny, management is still advancing planning and due diligence while it weighs development options. That property lies near major resorts and close to Sangster International Airport.

At One Belmont, SRF’s commercial project, a third tenant has started taking up space, and occupancy is expected to rise further in the weeks ahead.

Investors will now watch whether SRF can turn Lakespen interest into closed sales and cash. The quarter leaned heavily on a sizeable one-off valuation boost; management’s signal was that lasting results will hinge on delivery, successful exits, and converting value across the portfolio—not on another accounting lift from Lakespen.