Insurance provider Sagicor Group Jamaica is now the largest company on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE), having displaced a local financial group that had been at the top for more than a decade.
The company, best known for life and health insurance and its subsidiary Sagicor Life, has displaced the National Commercial Bank, which had been in the top position since 2009.
According to analysis from David Rose at the Jamaica Observer, Sagicor now makes up just over 12.5% of the JSE index, with the index valued at J$1.76 trillion (£9.14bn). A minnow by global standards, the JSE isn’t without significance as in 2019 Bloomberg reported that it was the fastest growing stock market in the world.
“It doesn’t take much investment to make a tiny market boom and the total value of the 37 stocks in the main Jamaica index is less than US$11bn, smaller than the valuation of Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc,” said Bloomberg at the time.
The JSE (not to be confused with South Africa’s larger Johannesburg Stock Exchange) has not grown much since then. In fact, according to Rose’s analysis, the JSE Index declined by one tenth in 2022, and has continued to decline in 2023.
But the new position of Sagicor is representative of changes taking place in the Jamaican and perhaps Caribbean economy.
Sagicor Group Jamaica, which is valued at about J$222.27bn (£1.18bn) is a subsidiary of the Barbados-based Sagicor Financial Corporation (SFC). The company recently celebrated its 53rd anniversary, but the history of Sagicor goes back to 1840.
Sagicor employs more than 1,500 people and operates in 22 countries across the Caribbean, Latin America and in the UK and the USA. Sagicor Group Jamaica is a full-service financial institution offering a wide range of products and services, including short and long term life and health insurance, annuities, pensions, real estate, banking and investment needs.