Nov 2008 Financial News

Sagicor maintains solid performance amid challenging times

Nov 10, 2008

THIS island’s largest financial services company is again reporting another solid performance in its third quarter even amid some highly challenging times.

According to Terrence A. Martins, Chairman of Sagicor Financial Corporation, another period of solid performance has come for Sagicor Financial Corporation, and the Sagicor Group of Companies.Martins, who has been the Chairman of the co-operation for the last year, noted that at the beginning of this year, he suggested that 2008 was going to be a challenging year for many of the countries in which we operate.

“As I report to you on the nine months ended September 30, 2008, the world economies are grappling with what has been described as perhaps the worst financial crisis of modern times. This crisis has thrown the financial markets into turmoil and is threatening to push world economies into recession,” said Martins. However, despite these circumstances, Martins contends that with the external environment, Sagicor has recorded a strong performance for the nine months under review.

In fact, net income for the period ended September 30, 2008 has increased. That amounted to US $74 million, compared to US $68 million for the same period last year. Moreover, the Chairman said these results are ahead of our expectations. Additionally, shareholders of this major financial firm could be much higher as net income to shareholders is also on the rise. Martins explains, “Net Income to shareholders amounted to US $55 million compared to US $50 million for 2007. All major subsidiaries within the Group returned strong results. He added, “Sagicor USA and Sagicor Europe, our newer operations, despite a slower than planned growth in revenue, performed well and combined to contribute US $8 million to net income. Sagicor Life Inc, our Barbados-based operations, and Sagicor Life Jamaica Limited both contributed to net income in line with expectations. Sagicor General, our Caribbean Property & Casualty subsidiary recovered from operational challenges in 2007 to contribute US $3 million to net income”.

But one of the biggest gains for the group has come with their total revenue. “Total revenue for the period amounted to US $705 million, up by 33 per cent over 2007. This reflects the impact of the revenue from Sagicor at Lloyds, which was acquired during the third quarter of last year”.However, benefits and operating expenses also showed significant increases over 2007. “Like revenue, these reflect the impact of the acquisition of Sagicor at Lloyds, but in addition, reflect our continued efforts to implement our business plan in the US and European markets”. Total assets of the Group reached US $3.9 billion, compared to US $3.6 billion at the end of 2007.


Source:
Stacia Browne
The Barbados Advocate
Monday November 11, 2008
http://www.barbadosadvocate.com/newsitem.asp?more=business&NewsID=354