Sagicor going after new opportunities

THE Sagicor Financial Corporation will be going after new opportunities to maintain growth as well as returns for its stakeholders. 

 

This will be done in spite of the challenging economic environment in the markets where the Sagicor Group operates. 

 

CEO of Sagicor International, Ravi Rambarran, put the case for the top Caribbean financial services firm during a teleconference on Monday, at which he reviewed the Group’s performance for last year and during the first quarter of 2016.

 

He said that in the prevailing environment Sagicor will be maintaining its investment thrust.

 

“So we continue to seek out opportunities where we will be diversified by countries, by lines of business and customer segments, and we still believe  that there are many opportunities for growth both organically and inorganically,” according to him.

 

The Sagicor International CEO said that for 2016 they anticipate weak economic growth both globally and regionally.  

 

According to him, we expect that countries both regionally and globally will continue to have fiscal challenges. However, we further expect that the Caribbean economies, because we have limited buffers in terms of foreign exchange reserves and the capacity to  borrow, will have further other challenges. Also anticipated are increased regulation oversight and capital standards for financial institutions.

 

Rambarran maintained that from a Sagicor perspective, within that environment “we recognise we do have a negative exposure by virtue of operating in these markets”, which is part and parcel of a risk that the group naturally assumed.

 

However, believing that they do have positive exposure to manage the environment, Mr. Rambarran stated that they have a strong brand risks in terms of financial strength, and that Sagicor is number one in all markets, with the exception of Trinidad and Tobago where they are number two.

 

“We have the products that span the lifestyle from cradle to grave, we have the capital distribution, a very strong brand and if there is a rising interest rate scenario, it will be positive on our performance,” he declared.

 

Rambarran pointed out that the environment in 2015 was characterised by anaemic economic growth regionally as well as high fiscal deficits and debt stocks, and social challenges. He said that there was low growth internationally in addition to volatility in the international capital market, particularly in the latter part of last year.

 

However, he noted that Sagicor “experienced improved shareholder results, we were successful in raising a new corporate bond to finance our debt, our solvency standards were above the required levels and we maintained our AM Best Rating and our Standard and Poor’s rating”. 

(JB)