Guardian Life Limited (GLL) will launch its first real estate development project in mid-June, a $6-billion initiative intended to speed up investment returns for the life insurance company, according to president Eric Hosin.
The residential development will be done in two phases over three years on property owned by Guardian Life at Musgrave Avenue in Kingston.
The company is building 238 residences targeted at the middle-income market.
Hosin declined to share the projected return on investment, but said the housing project promised higher returns than those currently being garnered from insurance.
Last year, New Kingston-based Guardian Life which ranks number two in the insurance market with $66 billion in assets, registered declining net profit. The company made $3.8 billion compared to $4.6 billion the year before. Its net results from insurance activities fall from $3.65 billion to $2.6 billion at year ending December 2016.
Guardian closed out 2016 with a cash hoard of $3.4 billion, down from $5.4 billion the year before.
As observed by Hosin in a letter describing the planned real estate project, “the Jamaican investment landscape has changed significantly over the last five years, making it more difficult for businesses like Guardian Life to make reasonable returns from traditional sources”.
That prompted the company to seek out more lucrative fields for investment.
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