Share purchase agreement already signed

Trinidad and Tobago conglomerate Massy Holdings is selling its insurance business in Barbados, Massy United Insurance, to the Coralisle Group for US$90.5 million (TT$606 million).

The decision to sell the insurance business was taken at a board meeting on August 30. On September 2, Massy Barbados entered into a share purchase agreement with the Coralisle Group.

In a regulatory notice, the conglomerate, which is publicly traded on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange, reported that Massy United Insurance was acquired as part of the Massy Group’s acquisition of Barbados Shipping and Trading in 2008. Massy said the group currently owns 100 per cent of the share capital of the insurance company, which is a registered entity in Barbados.

The principal activity of the company is the provision of property and casualty insurance products and services in the region. Massy United Insurance currently operates in the English and Dutch-speaking Caribbean territories of Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bonaire, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and the Turks and Caicos.

2020 financial performance of Massy United Barbados

In its 2020 financial year, Massy United Insurance generated revenue of TT$536.8 million (US$80 million) and profit before tax of TT$41.3 million (US$6.1 million). The insurance company held assets of $2.1 billion (US$313 million).

Massy said the sale of the successful business is consistent with the group strategy to focus its operations and future growth around its three main portfolios. The group added that the transaction represents its exit from the property and casualty insurance business line.

Trinidad Express published that, last month, Massy reported group third-party revenue from continuing operations of TT$8.6 billion and profit after-tax of $500 million, which represented an increase of 36 per cent over the same period in 2020. In its notice, Massy described the Coralisle Group as a leading multi-line insurance company with headquarters in Bermuda.

Coralisle has commercial operations in Bermuda, Barbados, the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, and Turks and Caicos Islands. It also operates in select international markets, offering property and casualty insurance, employee benefits for pensions and health and personal life insurance and investment products.

Reports out of Bermuda indicate that the Coralisle Group, once known as the Colonial Group International, acquired a 40 per cent stake in Beacon Insurance in 2018. Last November, rating agency AM Best affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings (Long-Term ICR) of “a” of the life/health (L/H) and property/casualty (P/C) operating subsidiaries of Coralisle Group Ltd.

AM Best said the Coralisle Group is a wholly owned intermediate holding company of Edmund Gibbons Limited, the Group’s ultimate parent company. The companies are domiciled in Bermuda.