BOARD CHAIRMAN of Life of Jamaica Limited (LoJ), J. Arthur Bethell, reported a creditable performance for the year ending December 2002 at the company's 32nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on Wednesday, July 30, at the LoJ Auditorium.
The Chairman outlined company performance which saw LoJ registering $830 million profits attributable to shareholders representing an impressive growth of 258 per cent over the $231 million achieved in 2001.
He said, "This positive performance and significant earnings growth in 2002, resulted from strong investment performance, tight expense management and the favourable claims and persistency experience".
Reporting on areas of the financial statement showing decreases, the chairman explained that the decreases in premium income were by 30 per cent. Falloffs in gross income and policyholder benefits and police reserves were as a consequence of the sale of the group's Bahamian operations.
Total assets of the Group reached $6.8 billion at year-end, up 24 per cent over total assets of $5.5 billion, the previous year. Mr. Bethell added that total assets under management for the Group still grew from $21.3 billion in 2001 to $23 billion at the end of 2002.
Basic earnings per share arrived at by dividing the net profit attributable to shareholders by the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue during the year was $0.50 compared with $0.14 for 2001. Shareholders' funds grew by 170 per cent to $1.2 billion and the performance for the year reflects a return on equity of 64 per cent, up from a return of 51 per cent in the previous year. LoJ recorded gross premium income for the year 2002 of $2.41 billion. In addition, he noted that at the end of 2002, the Minimum Continuing Capital and Solvency Requirement (MCCSR) for LoJ, which is a measure of the company's capital strength, was calculated at 175.6 per cent exceeding the target set by authorities of 100 per cent for that period.
With the changes at LoJ including the acquisition of Island Life Insurance, the administration agreement with First Life Insurance in Employee Benefits management and the selection of the most qualified staff from the integrated companies (Island Life/LoJ), Mr. Bethell declared LoJ a leaner, stronger company.
Four directors were re-elected to the Board of LoJ at the session, namely, Michael Fraser, Deputy CEO - LoJ, Marjorie Chevannes-Campbell, Jeffrey Cobham and Philip Osbourne, CFO - Sagicor Group.
Life of Jamaica began operations in 1970 as the first Jamaican owned life insurance company to be listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange.
In late 2001, the ownership of LoJ changed when 76 per cent of the company and its subsidiaries was purchased by a consortium led by Barbados Mutual Life Assurance Society and Life of Barbados Limited. This had been previously held by FINSAC as part of a capital restructuring agreement effected during the previous year.
In June 2002, The Barbados Mutual Life Assurance Society (BMLAS) acquired majority shares of Life of Barbados (LoB) . By the end of the year BMLAS acquired the remaining LoB shares. The Barbados Mutual Life Assurance Society demutualised in December 2002 and converted to a company with share capital. That company took the new name of Sagicor Life and incorporated a holding company known as Sagicor Financial Corporation.
