Durrant Pate/Contributor

The Supreme Court of Jamaica has directed that a meeting be held on August 19, 2025, for shareholders in Sagicor Select Funds Limited to vote to convert its two funds into separate unit trusts.

The two funds are the Sagicor Financial Select Fund and the Sagicor Manufacturing and Distribution Select Fund, which are both traded on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE). The meeting is to be held in hybrid format, starting at 12:30 pm with the physical venue being Sagicor Auditorium, R Danny William Building, 28-48 Barbados Avenue, Kingston 5.

All shareholders are requested to attend to consider and, if thought fit, approve (with or without modification) a Scheme of Arrangement proposed to be made between themselves and the company, which filed an application with the Supreme Court on March 17, 2025, seeking an order to convene the meeting of shareholders.

The Financial Services Commission has confirmed that it has no objection to the conversion of the two Funds into unit trusts registered under the Securities (Collective Investment Scheme) Regulations, 2013.

Purpose of the Scheme of Arrangement

The objective of the Scheme is to convert the Sagicor Financial Select Fund and the Sagicor Manufacturing and Distribution Select Fund into separate unit trusts to be registered as collective investment schemes under the Securities (Collective Investment Scheme) Regulations, 2013. 

In the process, shareholders will receive units in the Corresponding Unit Trust in exchange for their stock units in the relevant Fund. 

Thus, holders of B “Shares” in the Sagicor Financial Select Fund would receive a corresponding number of units in the Sigma Select Financial Fund, and holders of C Shares in the Sagicor Manufacturing and Distribution Select Fund would receive a corresponding number of units in the Sigma Select Manufacturing and Distribution Fund.

In the case of the Financial Select Fund, the trading price over the last 12 months reflects a discount to Net Asset Value (NAV” ranging between 11.9% and 38.3% and in the case of the Manufacturing and Distribution Select Fund, the discount is even greater, ranging over the same period between 19.5% and 51.2%. 

Investors not getting full value for their shares 

This means that investors are not getting full value for their shares when they are sold on the JSE. One reason for this, the company explains in its court petition, is that the market in the Shares of both Funds is relatively “thin” and the Shares are not actively traded. 

Thus, a shareholder wishing to “cash out” is forced to discount his asking price to attract buyers. JCSD Trustee has agreed to act as the first trustee of the Sigma Select Financial Fund and the Sigma Select Manufacturing and Distribution Fund. 

Sagicor Investments has also agreed to act as first manager of the Sigma Select Financial Fund and the first manager of the Sigma Select Manufacturing and Distribution Fund. Both JCSD Trustee and Sagicor Investments have signed the Trust Deed, and Sagicor Investments has also signed an investment management agreement setting out the terms and conditions under which it shall manage both unit trusts.