Nov 2009 Financial News

Guardian Holdings declares $655m loss

Nov 12, 2009

Despite generating a strong third quarter profit of $241 million, losses from discontinued operations pulled down Guardian Holdings Ltd’s overall performance to a net loss of $655 million to September 30, 2009. According to a release issued yesterday, Guardian Holding Ltd has already started to restructure the investment portfolio of Group companies in order to reduce exposure to market volatility, control cost and improve performance. “This has produced positive results, as on a comparable basis, investment income increased by 13 per cent to $674 million. At the same time we succeeded in recapturing the prior period’s fair value losses of $141 million with reported gains of $156 million.” The financial services group noted that the write off of Zenith Insurance, Guardian Holdings’ life insurance business in the UK will have no spill over effects on the core businesses which operate independently from Zenith.

“Our core companies Guardian General, Guardian Life in Jamaica, Guardian Asset Management and Fatum in the Dutch Caribbean continue to hold reserve capital and reserves in excess of all regulatory capital requirements.” The release also said that insurance sales have done very well. “In the current difficult economic climate where many businesses are experiencing reduced revenues, our insurance sales performed very well and on the adjusted basis our net insurance premium increased by 6.5 per cent.” Guardian Holdings also said that they are still one of the strongest financial groups in the Caribbean despite the failure of Zenith and the current economic conditions.

“It is important to note to all customer, shareholders and other stakeholders that Guardian is a financial powerhouse that is big enough and financially robust enough to take this hit yet still remain one of the strongest financial institutions in the region.” The release said they expect continued market improvements into the last quarter of the year since the last quarter of the year has traditionally been a strong quarter for life insurers.


Source:
Trinidad Guardian
Thursday November 12, 2009

http://guardian.co.tt/business/business/2009/11/12/guardian-holdings-declares-655m-loss