Date: July 1, 2019
Sagicor Group Jamaica (SJ) held its Annual General Meeting today, July 1, 2019, in the Auditorium, R. Danny Williams Building, 28-48 Barbados Avenue, Kingston 5. After the opening remarks by the Hon. R.D. Williams, the proceedings was then handed over to the President and CEO, Mr. Christopher Zacca.
Mr. Zacca expressed, “our experience is tried and true, our future is disruptive and new. Standing still is not in our favour.” He highlighted that they have seen 19 years of consistent growth. The CEO then highlighted the following deliverables for 2018 below:
- “X-Fund Property Limited changed from being accounted for as an associate to a fully consolidated subsidiary in October 2018 due to the fact that they took greater control of the company by the appointment of two additional directors.
- Jamziv Mobay Jamaica Portfolio acquired 20 million shares in Playa Hotels and Resorts which are traded on the Nasdaq exchange.
- Received upgraded ratings in Sagicor Life from two independent agencies. A.M. Best rating agency rated SLJ to a Financial Strength Rating of a B++ (Good) and a Issuer Credit Rating bbb with a stable outlook. Caribbean Information and Credit Rating Services (CariCRIS) rated SLJ with the highest creditworthiness rating of jmAAA following a review in February 2019.
- TC (2017) Limited, a joint venture with the Guardsman Group, is a micro-finance entity that Sagicor Group will be holding out a full public plan for.
- Launched two new technologies in the Commercial Banking Sector: SWYPE (Mobile Point of Sale) and MYCASH prepaid card in June 2018 and August 2018 respectively.
- The Net Promoter Score for the Group increased to a record-breaking 51%, among the best in the world in financial services as well as awarded numerous awards in customer service.”
Notably, SJ recorded revenues of $70.66 billion for FY2018, a 1% increase from $69.73 billion in 2017. This according to Mr. Zacca was due to, “a pension plan with Red Stripe in 2017 that was not repeated in 2018”. Net Profit for FY2018 was $14.23 billion which is 18% above 2017’s $12.07 billion attributable mainly to the Employee benefits, individual lines, Sagicor Bank and Sagicor Investments segments. Also, Mr. Zacca stated that “market share for Group Health was 67% and Group life was 68%,” while in terms of market capitalization, “in 2018 SJ remained 3rd behind NCB and BNS of all companies listed on the stock exchange.”
SJ’s primary areas of strategic focus for 2019 are as follows:
- “Growth: various business development and growth strategies
- Culture : drive a culture of one Sagicor to engage the clients
- Talent: develop leadership through training
- Clients: always be client-centric
- Acquisition: look at new opportunity for acquisitions like
- SJ are in discussion with Scotia local Life Insurance Portfolio
- Acquisition of Advantage General Insurance Company
- Innovation: improve on digitizing
- Expansion: expanding Sagicor Investments and Wealth Management services by establishing a subsidiary in Cayman
- Technology: expanded use of data analytics and governance
- Sales: focus on boosting revenue.”
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