Main Event Entertainment Group Limited (MEEG) expects the carnival season to drive its second-quarter recovery.
“We have our fair share of carnival work coming up,” CEO Solomon Sharpe told the Financial Gleaner. The financials added that “management is encouraged by the evidence from the entertainment industry of the apparent rebound at the start of the year”.
The optimism follows a punishing three months to January 2026, in which revenue fell by two-thirds to $211.5 million from $585 million a year earlier, as cancellations and postponements across the December high season rippled through the company’s event pipeline. It followed from the passage of Hurricane Melissa last October. During the quarter, MEEG reported a $65.6-million loss from a $73.7-million profit a year earlier.
The company is also moving to convert the recovery into cash more efficiently. Sharpe said MEEG will be “strengthening its contract terms to ensure that there is a reduction in delinquent and late payments” – a direct response to impairment losses on receivables rising 62 per cent to $8.4 million, reflecting tighter payment conditions across the economy.
The broader entertainment sector appears to be moving in the right direction. Kingston’s city council temporarily cut event fees by 20 per cent to support promoters through the storm’s aftermath.
Sharpe said the company continues to build out its own events and those with partners to drive margins. It’s “a key part of MEEG’s Innovation Pipeline”. Through the downturn, MEEG held its full staff complement and kept costs under control. Total operating expenses fell four per cent to $209.7 million, and the company maintained what Sharpe describes as a “zero-debt approach” – its only remaining bank loan, a Sagicor facility, now stands at just $7.4 million. That loan will be repaid this year.
“We have a cost-containment strategy being worked on and executed,” Sharpe said.
Cash ended the quarter at $97 million, down from $127.7 million at the start of the October financial year, while shareholders’ equity slipped 15 per cent to $811.7 million. Total assets fell 17 per cent to $1.08 billion.
neville.graham@gleanerjm.com
