Shareholder files against Sagicor

OPPRESSIVE AND PREJUDICIAL – this is how one shareholder of Sagicor Financial Corporation, West India Biscuit Company Limited (WIBISCO), has described the private sale of 11.76 million of Sagicor’s shares to the National Insurance Board in December 2009.In an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on Monday, in support of a civil claim by WIBISCO against Sagicor and the National Insurance Board, the biscuit manufacturer said, “Consequently, the private placement has had a deleterious effect on the shareholders of [Sagicor] (except NIB), in that their aggregate shareholdings have been diluted, the prices of shares in [Sagicor] have plummeted and the market for those shares has virtually dried up.”The document made under oath by WIBISCO’s company secretary Elaine Gill said the sale of the new shares to the National Insurance Board by private placement increased the overall shareholding of the social security agency to 18.95 million or 6.8 per cent and “had the effect of diluting the shareholdings of the other shareholders of [Sagicor], including [WIBISCO], by approximately 4 per cent”.The affidavit added, “This has been compounded by the fact (gleaned from my analysis of the daily trading reports published by the BSE) that, since the private placement was effected at a discount, the trading prices of the shares in [Sagicor] has significantly declined, moving from $3.50 per share at the close of trading on the BSE on the last trading day immediately prior to the private placement, to $3.05 as at the close of trading on June 9, 2010.“Overall trading volumes in the shares of [Sagicor’s] issue have also declined: the average volume of shares traded on the BSE for the period June to December 2009 was $5 164 shares at an average price of $3.45; this is to be contrasted with the averages for the period January to June 2010 of 3 258 shares at an average price of $3.05.”The first hearing of WIBISCO’s claim is set for June 29, 2010. WIBISCO is being represented by Garth Patterson QC. (SR)