Sagicor Financial Company (SFC) yesterday announced that it was increasing its quarterly dividend by 12.5 per cent from US$0.06 a share to US$.0.0675 (US$0.27 annualised dividend).
The quarterly dividend will be paid on April 17, 2025 , to shareholders of record at the close of business on March 27, 2025, said the company, which is headquartered in Barbados, but listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
In announcing the financial results for its December 31, 2024 year end, Sagicor president and CEO, Andre Mousseau, described the company's fourth quarter performance as "solid."
"In our first full year of earnings including our Canadian segment, we recorded core earnings to shareholders consistent with our guidance and reported net income to shareholders in excess of core earnings to shareholders," Mousseau said.
SFC reported net income to shareolder of US$97.5 million and core earnings to shareholders of US$90.9 million.
Mousseau said the insurance group continues to make meaningful progress on its strategic initiatives, including collaboration between its operating segments, refreshing its technology, and improving its access to and cost of capital, all with the aim to reduce costs, drive growth, and ultimately expand our return on shareholders' equity.
"We are also pleased to continue to expand our return of capital to shareholders. We repurchased 3 million shares in 2024 at a significant discount to book value, contributing to a 4 per cent net reduction in share count for the year. This helped drive our book value per share higher than the rate of our retained earnings.
"Our increased projected core earnings, robust capitalisation and liquidity, and reduced share count are all enabling us to provide our shareholders with a 12.5 per cent increase in our quarterly dividend. At this payment level we anticipate we will be at approximately the midpoint of our 30 per cent to 40 per cent target core dividend payout ratio range for 2025," said the SFC president.
He said the company is also issuing new guidance for 2025.
"While economic uncertainty may cloud certain macroeconomic variables, we believe our core initiatives will enable us to continue to grow our return on shareholders' equity (1) in 2025 and beyond."
Sagicor's core results for 2024 improved significantly over 2023, with 2024 being the first full calendar year consolidating ivari as our Sagicor Canada segment. Core earnings (1) to shareholders of US$90.9 million exceeded management's revised guidance from Q2 2024 of US$80 million to US$90 million , and new business CSM of US$166.3 million was within the provided range of US$160 million to US$180 million.
Sagicor Life, which includes the company's operations in T&T, reported net income to shareholders of US$38.5 million for 2024.
Sagicor Canada recorded net income to shareholders of US$96.2 million for the year, while the net income to shareholders of Sagicor Life USA was US$51.6 million for the year.
Sagicor's share of Sagicor Jamaica's net income to shareholders was US$31.3 million for the year. Sagicor Financial owns 49.1 per cent of Sagicor Jamaica, but financials are consolidated by SFC.
Sagicor delisted from the T&T, Barbados and London stock exchanges in the fourth quarter of 2019. The company's listing is now on the Toronto Stock Exchange.