Mar 2009 Financial News

Guardian Holdings spends $1.5 million so far in share buyback

Mar 10, 2009

Guardian Holdings Ltd (GHL) spent at least $1,579,200 up to last Friday to acquire 80,000 shares as part of its share buyback programme to boost the value of the company shares on the T&T stock market. The company said in a statement last Friday that it had gone into the stock market every day since the programme started on February 18,2009, buying the full amount of 8,429 shares permitted under the rules of the stock exchange. “The GHL share repurchase programme commenced on February 18, 2009, and has been proceeding according to plan. We are in the market every day, but under the rules of the T&T Stock Exchange, the company is only allowed to purchase 8,429 shares daily. So far, GHL has acquired approximately 80,000 shares,” stated Maria Rivas-Mc Millan, group vice-president, corporate communications, via e-mail.

GHL’s closed the day at $19.74 on the T&T Stock Exchange on Friday. At that price, GHL would have spent at least $1,579,200 on its share buyback programme. The company intends to buy back 8,091,221 shares in the programme which will run until August 18. Group director Selby Wilson has said the move was GHL’s attempt to use its spare cash to sustain its share price, which had declined by almost 50 per cent from its peak in 2008.
GHL chairman Arthur Lok Jack informed shareholders last month that GHL plans to spend more than $100 million to repurchase investors’ shares. “We have determined that given the nature of the investment environment, the very best use of available funds is to invest in Guardian itself, the market price of which we feel is definitely undervalued,” Lok Jack said in a published notice.

GHL had planned to begin its buyback programme in January, but this was postponed due to a requirement by the Jamaica Stock Exchange that the company give 21 days’ notice. The company planned to bid for no more than four per cent of its issued ordinary shares, the limit set by regulators at the T&T Securities and Exchange Commission (TTSEC). It would be the first corporate share buyback plan on the T&T Stock Exchange. GHL saw unrealised losses on its investment portfolio jump to $400 million in November 2008 from $143 million in September of the same year. The company, whose core business is in life and health insurance as well as pensions and asset management, declared $563 million in profit in the first nine months of 2008, up from a $68.1 million loss for the same period in 2007.


Source:
Sandra Chouthi
Trinidad Guardian
Tuesday March 10, 2009

http://guardian.co.tt/business/business/2009/03/10/guardian-holdings-spends-15-million-so-far-share-buyback