A new entrant with tentacles throughout the Caribbean formally announced that it was open for business from New Kingston on Wednesday, nearly five years after the Massy conglomerate disclosed its plans to become a player in the general-insurance market.
Forty-year-old Massy United Insurance is already present in 18 other islands in the English- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean.
The Jamaican operation, which has been in business since last November, is headed by Winsome Gibbs, a chartered insurer, who will also oversee the Cayman market from her New Kingston offices on the PanJam building.
Gibbs was formerly an executive with GK General Insurance Company, a rival operation owned by Jamaican conglomerate GraceKennedy Limited.
Both GraceKennedy and Trinidad-based Massy Holdings are formidable operations with international reach, but Massy is 10 years younger and nearly twice the size of GK, with book assets of TT$12.9 billion, or $246 billion when translated to Jamaican currency. GK’s assets total J$135 billion.
Massy United’s entry regrows Jamaica’s general-insurance market to 10 operators. The sector was last valued by regulator Financial Services Commission in June 2018 at $84 billion by assets.
Some of the top companies in the sector include Advantage General, BCIC, GK General, General Accident and ICWI.
At Massy United’s official launch, Minister of Finance Nigel Clarke said its market entry would be “good for competition” and, further, and a sign of Jamaica’s improving economy.
Massy, he said, was previously heavily invested in Jamaica and appeared to be returning to this track as economic conditions improve. The conglomerate also operates businesses Massy Gas, Massy Technology and Massy Distribution in Jamaica.
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