Good year for Sagicor Financial Corporation
Sagicor Financial Corporation Limited (SFCL) is reporting that 2016 has been its best performance since 2008 when the global economic crisis set in.
In a joint teleconference with journalists in Barbados and Trinidad, officials of SFCL indicated that within the last year they also successfully re-domiciled from Barbados to Bermuda. The impact of that move to Bermuda, Group President and Chief Executive Officer, Dodridge Miller said, has been a positive one in that the company has been able to remain above the sovereign ratings of the Caribbean countries; unlock new relationships; and work with independent agents in the United States, helping to grow the business there.
Giving a synopsis of last year’s performance and the outlook for 2017, Ravi Rambarran, Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Investor Relations said the company has continued to make the solvency standards significantly above the levels required in all the jurisdictions in which they operate.
“A point to note is that with the exception of Jamaica, the Caribbean does not have risk-based capital standards – we at Sagicor operate voluntarily under the Canadian risk-based capital standards and so when I speak about solvency standards above the required levels, it is above what is legally required,” he said.
The SFCL official went on to indicate that the company was able within the last financial year to maintain its international ratings with Standard and Poor’s of BB- Stable and AM Best of A- Excellent, despite downgrades in both Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.
He made the point while noting that the SFCL increased its assets from US$6.4 billion in 2015 to US $6.532 billion in 2016, group net income increased to US $109 million up from US $77 million, and he added, group debt also increased, though marginally from $360 million to $395 million. Meanwhile, he said the return on group equity increased from 11 percent to 15 per cent and the group solvency ratio and the risk-based capital standards decreased marginally from 301 percent to 291 percent.
Rambarran went on to tell the media that in respect of direct shareholders, excluding all minority shareholders, revenue increased from $1,104.2 million in 2015 to $1,134 million. He added that shareholder net income increased significantly from $34 million to $62 million, while dividends paid increased from $12 million to $14 million.
He added that together Sagicor Life Inc. which comprise of the operations in South Caribbean, the Dutch Caribbean, Belize, Bahamas and Panama; Sagicor Jamaica and Cayman; and Sagicor USA saw total segment income increase from $158 million in 2015 to $165 million in 2016. (JRT)