Mar 2017 Financial News

GHL profit up 18%

Mar 14, 2017

Guardian Holdings Limited (GHL) is reporting an 18 per cent year-on-year increase in profit attributable to shareholders for its financial year ended December 31st 2016.

The Westmoorings-based company profits jumped by $61 million to $396 million in 2016 from $335 million in 2015.

Across the group, the company saw declines in its net income position from insurance underwriting activities and brokerage activities, while net income from investing activities grew year on year.

Net income from insurance underwriting fell by $50 million, moving from $662 million in 2015 to $613 million in 2016, while net income from brokerage services declined by $3.8 million dollars year on year, moving from $7.8 million to $4 million in 2016. Net income generated from investing activities grew by roughly 30 per cent, moving from $788 million in 2015 to $1,028 million in 2016.

Commenting on this increase GHL deputy chairman Peter Ganteaume said: “Net income from investing activities for the year increased by $239 million, from $788 million in 2015, to $1,028 million, driven by improvements in all major categories of investment income due in the main to our measured deployment of liquid resources.”

Ganteaume noted that the decline in net underwriting income in 2016 was as a result of the removal of a one-off item that bumped up the net income position in 2015.

He said: “As explained in last year’s Chairman’s Report, there was a favourable non-recurring reserve release arising from a change in the taxation of insurance companies in Jamaica. Excluding the impact of this exceptional item, Net Income from insurance underwriting activities increased in our Life, Health and Pension segment.”

According to the deputy chairman, the decline in the property and casualty segment of the insurance business by $33 million was “primarily as a result of the loss reserve of $38 million established for claims arising from Hurricane Matthew which affected a number of territories in the North Caribbean during September and October 2016.”

GHL’s operating expenses also rose by approximately 12.6 per cent, moving from $886 million in 2015 to $998 million in 2016.

Remarking on this increase Ganteaume said: “Significant costs were incurred in connection with strategic investments made during 2016 directed toward enhancing group profitability. Recurring expenditure of all our group companies was confined to an increase of 3 per cent for the year.”

The company also registered a net gain of $23 million associated with “close-out adjustments” on legacy items from discontinued operations which, according to Ganteaume was “favourable due to the conservative positions taken when these were designated as discontinued.”

The group declared a total dividend of $0.66 per share for 2016, an increase of 8 per cent from the $0.61 per cent it declared in 2015.

In May last year, GHL announced that the sale of 29.99 per cent of the company to National Commercial Bank of Jamaica had been successfully completed, noting that “the transaction was a momentous event in the financial services sector in the Caribbean.”

The company also announced in October that it has acquired the property operating as the Courtyard by Marriott at Invaders Bay stating that it was “adding another solid foreign exchange earner to our investment portfolio.”

Source:
Trinidad Guardian A16
Tuesday March 14, 2017