Andrew Pairman, chief executive of the Anbell group. - File

Andrew Pairman, the 40-year-old chief executive of the Anbell group, the local value added tele-communications and media services pioneer, is looking to take his business beyond telecoms with a foray into renewable energy generation.

Pairman hopes to finance the multibillion-dollar venture by floating his company on the junior stock exchange, which is to be launched in April.

Right now, however, he is playing his cards close to his chest declining to divulge specifics of the plan, including structure of the enterprise contemplated, timeframe, budget, partnership options or sales deals being explored.

"We are now doing the due diligence with respect to being a charter member of the junior stock exchange," he said in a Financial Gleaner interview.

"With the recent changes in the companies act and plans for the junior stock exchange, we see tremendous benefits and tax implications," he said.

Expansion

Anbell's bankers have, he said, been very helpful to his company over the two decades of the business' growth and expansion, but with interest rates on the increase, Pairman is now wary of taking on expensive debt.

"Debt financing is a not a feasible option. Equity is the way to go for now and the foreseeable future," he said.

Against the background of what he describes as areas of saturation in the mobile business, Pairman says Anbell is looking seriously at "a broad spectrum approach to providing alternative energy as a different model that will provide significant value and cost savings to households and businesses."

Not disclosing what the preliminary exploration of the venture is throwing up in terms of possible capital outlay, Pairman is prepared to say only that the project will require substantial investment.

"It will be capital intensive and we are mindful that the government will not be able to help much in terms of the subsidies. Some concessions that extend to duty waivers are already on the books and we would be looking to take advantage of those even as we look for other concessionary options," he said.

Diversification

Despite the plans being laid out for diversification beyond Anbell's natural comfort zone of media and telecommunications, the CEO is careful to point out that the business is not abandoning its base.

Anbell Agencies, the flagship entity, has been exclusive agent for mobile provider, Digicel since the Irish investors began operations here following the liberalisation of the telecoms sector in the late 1990s.

Anbell Agencies started out in 1990 as a mobile service and accessories distributor for then Telecommunications of Jamaica, the Cable and Wireless local operations, recently rebranded LIME.

"At the time Digicel's GSM technology offered more flexibility to our operation. They also came in with a solid business plan that showed how, as a distributor, we could grow with them. They were aggressive in their marketing and advertising," Pairman says of the switch to the rival mobile entity.

For Anbell, it has been a good ride with Digicel, with Pairman's outlets increasing more than threefold from three to 10.