More Sagicor shareholders sell

More Sagicor shareholders in Barbados have been cashing in on the opportunity to sell their stock to local entity Barbados Stock Trading Company LLC (BSTC).

The company, which says it specialises in the purchase of shares in public companies from shareholders resident in the Caribbean, where the shares are not listed on a local exchange or where arranging the sale may be challenging, is targeting more. 

However, anyone selling their shares to BSTC is doing so at a significant discount based on the financial services group’s share price on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), where it trades exclusively.

In September last year, BSTC regional operations manager, Andrew Chiam said that the company paid 68 Sagicor shareholders here about $1 million to acquire 130 000 of their stock.

Last week, he reported that the company had now bought 420 000 shares from 300 of the Barbados-based shareholders, paying them $2.7 million.

BSTC took out a whole-page ad in the last MIDWEEK NATION in an effort to reach 626 Sagicor shareholders in Barbados to whom it sent an offer to purchase their shares.

“Each of those offers was unable to be delivered owing to outdated postal details,” Chiam said.

The regional operations manager said that overall his company’s cash offer to purchase Sagicor shares “has continued to be popular”.

BSTC’s offer to stockholders sought to buy 500 000 Sagicor shares from them at US$3.75 (BDS$7.50) per share. At the time it contacted shareholders, this cash offer was below the CAD$7.63 (BDS$11.06) closing price of the shares on the TSX on March 24, 2025.

On Friday on the TSX, Sagicor’s shares closed at CAD$9.15 (about BDS$13.18).

“The offer may be attractive to those shareholders who do not have an account with a stockbroker,” the company said in its offer to Sagicor shareholders here.

“While shareholders may receive more cash by selling their shares on the TSX than by accepting the offer, the offer provides a relatively easy way to sell their shares, if they wish to do so.”

Chiam said: “As it stands, BSTC has purchased shares from over 300 shareholders, all of whom have received payment by electronic funds transfer to their local bank account.

“A total of $2.7 million has been paid to shareholders. Where a person’s shares have not yet been transferred to BSTC or if we have written to them requesting further information or documents, those shareholders will be paid in due course.,” he added, urging shareholders with enquiries to contact BSTC, which has an office at One Welches, Welches, St. Thomas.

Sagicor, which has 135.4 million issued and outstanding common shares, has been cautioning its shareholders about the BSTC offer, calling it “an unsolicited mini-tender offer”.

“Sagicor is in no way associated with BSTC and does not recommend or endorse acceptance of this unsolicited offer,” the group stated.

“The unsolicited offer represents a discount of approximately 36.32 per cent below the closing price of Sagicor’s common shares on the TSX on September 4, 2025, the last trading day before the mini-tender offer was commenced, and a discount of approximately 36.29 per cent to the closing price of Sagicor’s common shares on the TSX on October 17, 2025.”

Sagicor, which owns and operates insurance companies in the Caribbean, United States, and Canada, said that mini-tender offers were “designed to seek less than five per cent
of a company’s outstanding shares, avoiding disclosure and procedural requirements applicable to most bids under Canadian and US securities regulations”.

“Securities regulators have expressed serious concerns about mini-tender offers. Shareholders should carefully review the BSTC offer documents and current market price for Sagicor common shares and consult their investment advisors regarding any offer they may receive and review with their advisors all options for their investment in Sagicor common shares,” it advised.

“According to BSTC’s offer documents, Sagicor shareholders who have already tendered their common shares can withdraw their shares no more than 14 days after the date of delivery of their tender form to BSTC by following the procedure described in the offer documents.”

One shareholder in Barbados who received the BSTC correspondence said that while Sagicor’s shares no longer traded on the Barbados Stock Exchange and individuals who wanted quick cash may find the offer attractive, “I will hold on to mine to get full value”.

A stock market observer, while questioning BSTC’s motives, noted that even if the company acquired 500 000 of Sagicor’s shares, as indicated in its most recent offer, this was “a mere
0.37 per cent of Sagicor’s overall common shares listed on the stock market in Toronto, in other words, a mere drop in the bucket for a group with more than $50 billion in assets”.

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