Miller: Sagicor pushing head

SAGICOR FINANCIAL CORPORATION makes no apologies for its aggressive expansion policies outside the region despite its British subsidiary taking a major financial hit.
Sagicor president Dodridge Miller said: “Just because you got a bloody nose stepping forward does not mean that you should turn around and run. You have to determine whether this is the right thing.”
During a teleconference held simultaneously with the Press from Trinidad and Tobago, Dodridge said: “We sit here every day wondering how we are going to earn foreign exchange. We are 166 square miles and we are expected to sell all types of things to the rest of the world. We just don’t have the capacity to do it.
“Financial services is the area that we can actually perform well in and Sagicor has done so to this day. And I don’t see why we should just turn around and run because we have had a bloody nose in a greenfield area.”
The Sagicor president said his team at the financial services company would “remain focused and realise that . . . we will have some ups and downs in the performance but generally speaking, the long-term trajectory of the group is positive”.
Miller said when Sagicor started to implement its expansion process in 2008, soon after, “the whole world turned upside down”.
According to him, “Most of the financial institutions in the developed world were able to avail themselves of capital from their governments to continue their strategy. We have had to manoeuvre through this environment using our own resources and the occasional short-term borrowing to stay on course and produce results, yet we remained a solid and financially strong institution.”
Miller said Sagicor should be viewed as an example of the way forward in this respect.