Seasonal mortality, US$49 million in market losses, and one-time charges have resulted in a US$34.4 million first-quarter net loss for Sagicor Financial Company Ltd shareholders, but the group has reaffirmed its core financial targets for 2027 and 2028.
The financial services provider, which operates in the Caribbean, Canada, and the United States, announced its results for the three-month period ended March 31 last week.
Andre Mousseau, president and chief executive officer, said: “While our underlying business is sound, our quarter-one financials delivered seasonally soft core earnings and a loss due to a combination of asset price movement and certain one-time items.”
Core earnings to shareholders were US$25 million at the end of the first quarter.
Mousseau said that figure included “US$8 million of negative core insurance experience, predominantly due to seasonal mortality in our North American segments. Absent that mortality, we would have hit a core return on shareholders equity of approximately 13 per cent.”
The quarter was also impacted by market-related losses.
“Quarter-one was adversely affected by US$49 million of market experience losses related to lower asset prices in the US and Canadian fixed income and equity markets, partially offset by the mitigating impact of liability revaluations,” Mousseau said.
He cautioned investors against reading too much into the quarterly volatility, explaining: “While these values create significant volatility in our reported net income from quarter to quarter, we expect these gains and losses to trend to approximately nil over time.
“We remind our investors that our market experience has been net positive in aggregate since the current accounting standard that drives this volatility was implemented in 2023.”
The Sagicor boss added that “quarter-one was also affected by certain one-time charges related to our Sagicor Life segment as we prepare to merge our Caribbean subsidiaries”.
Despite the quarterly results, the CEO was optimistic about the group’s. strategic direction.
“Seeing through this noisy quarter, we continue to make excellent progress on our strategic initiatives to drive return on equity expansion and future growth, and we reiterate our 2027 and 2028 targets for 14 per cent and 15 per cent core returns on shareholders’ equity, respectively,” he said. (SC)
