Financial services giant Sagicor Financial Corporation is reassuring Barbadians and other residents throughout the region and the United States that the company remains committed and its recently proposed deal with Canadian-based Alignvest will not impact on its operations.
This assurance comes a month after the company announced that it had agreed to sell its shares, valued at US$536 million, to the special purpose acquisition firm Alignvest Acquisition II Corporation.
Once this deal is approved, Sagicor will delist from the stock exchanges of Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and London and list on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
In what seems to be a move to quell concerns, Sagicor said in a news release that it remained committed to creating value for is customers and shareholders.
“While this (transaction) is an important step for Sagicor, it has no impact on any of our operations either in the Caribbean or the United States. Your local executive team will continue to lead the company and your Sagicor policies, contracts, customer service representatives and financial advisors will remain unchanged,” said President and Chief Executive Officer of Sagicor Financial Corporation Ltd Dodridge Miller.
“This transaction will make our already strong competitive position even stronger, as we continue to focus on our objective of being the ‘insurer of choice’ in the regions where we operate. Sagicor remains fully committed to the region and having been your financial partner for over 175 years, we are looking forward to continuing this journey with you,” he added.
His comments comes two days after a breakfast meeting, which was initially set up for officials of Sagicor and Alignvest to meet with members of the media, did not materialize and instead turned into a press conference about Sagicor’s performance and plans for the Barbados economy.
In the news release Miller said the proposed arrangement between Sagicor and Alignvest would give Sagicor the ability to explore new opportunities and solutions, which would allow the company to provide even greater value to its customers.
“We have already begun to demonstrate this ability, through our recently announced, exclusive partnership with Bank of Nova Scotia, which will allow Scotia’s customers in Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago to access an enhanced suite of Sagicor products,” said Miller.
We appreciate that these announcements and transactions are often complex, and we are committed to providing as much information as possible to inform you of the merits of our decision. Further to the information available on our website, and subject to judicial approval under the Laws of Bermuda, we currently plan to provide Sagicor shareholders with an Explanatory Statement, in the course of February and we anticipate that a shareholders meeting will be convened by the end of March. Subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals, the transaction is expected to close by the second quarter (Q2) of 2019,” he added.