President and CEO of Sagicor Group Jamaica, Christopher Zacca (4th left), with his leadership team (from left), Senior Vice- President – Group Human Resources and Corporate Services, Karl Williams; CEO – Sagicor Investments, Kevin Donaldson; CEO Sagicor Bank, Chorvelle Johnson; Executive Vice-President – Sagicor Life Individual Life Division, Mark Chisholm; Executive Vice-President – Sagicor Life Employee Benefits Division, Willard Brown; Senior Vice-President – Legal Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Janice Grant Taffe; and Executive Vice-President – Group Finance, Ivan Carter.

In a media briefing on Monday, President and CEO Chris Zacca announced that Sagicor Group Jamaica had become the Jamaica Stock Exchange’s second most profitable listed company, with increased profits of $14.23 billion on total revenue of $70.66 billion, or 18 per cent above the $12.07 billion net profit recorded in 2017, moving it up from third and continuing its long run of increasing annual profitability.

This was despite an $875 million impairment provision against their investment in Government of Barbados bonds, and the general cost of implementing the new forward looking Expected Credit Losses (ECL) methodology following the adoption of the new IFRS 9 accounting standard in their 2018 calendar year.

Stockholder’s equity had increased by nine per cent to $74.34 billion, after the distribution of $1.20 in dividends per share in 2018, and an interim dividend of 79 cents per share will be paid on May 9, up from 66 cents per share last year.

Earnings per share increased by 17 per cent to $3.65, giving a very healthy return on equity of 20 per cent. Total group assets at December 2018 were $394 billion, up from $352 billion.

Zacca re-introduced his management team, and observed that in their core business, Sagicor Life, they remained the market leaders in individual life insurance (around 65 per cent), group health (around 68 per cent), group life insurance (over 50 per cent), and pension fund management (over 30 per cent), and were actually continuing to grow market share, resulting in a combined $9 billion in net profits.

He emphasised that Sagicor Bank had also had a very good year, with a 60 per cent increase in profits to $2.85 billion for 2018, all on a 14 per cent increase in revenues to $12.4 billion, with no increase in fees, driven instead by double-digit growth in loans and credit cards, and the introduction of two new products aimed at improving financial inclusion — namely SWYPE (a mobile point of sale that fits in a pocket) and MYCASH (a prepaid card partnering with Digicel using internationally accepted mastercard).

Zacca advised the bank also has two more products in this space awaiting central bank approval. Sagicor Bank CEO Chorvelle Johnson described her strategy as listening, focusing on clients “pain points” and training team members to address these areas.