The Jamaican conglomerate GraceKennedy Limited yesterday announced its acquisition of a 30 per cent stake in Barbados-based general insurer, Trident Insurance Company, deepening its foray into the regional insurance business.

Don Wehby, the deputy head of the parent group and CEO of GK Investments - which controls GraceKennedy's non-food business - said that not only has Grace bought into a profitable company but one with "significant growth potential in Barbados and the region".

It's the company's second acquistion in a week, behind its $3 billion purchase of WT Foods, a company with annualised sales ?60 million in a market valued at ?1.3 billion - giving WT Foods just under 5 per cent share.

The conglomerate Grace used GraceKennedy Financial Holdings, its newly formed umbrella group for its financial services investments, as the vehicle for the US$1 million acquisition in Trident from Cooper Gay (Holdings), one of the world's leading independent insurance and reinsurance intermediaries.

STAKE

It was part of Cooper Gay's sell off of its 40 per cent stake in the company, including 10 per cent to the new majority shareholder, Barbados' privately-held Leacock Group, which now holds 55 per cent.

The remaining 15 per cent of Trident is held by the Barbadian property company, Fergus Group.

Algernon Leacock, who, with his brother David, control the Leackcock Group, will continue to manage the 30-year-old Trident Issuance, which has estimated gross premium income of US$11.5 million (J$770.5 million).

Leacock said his group and GraceKennedy shared same ideals and hinted that there might be plans for a fairly aggressive expansion of the company.

"The Leacock Group is extremely happy to be associated with GraceKennedy Financial Holdings and looks forward toan extremely rewarding relationship as we expand Trident through Barbados and the CSME (the Single Market and Economy being developed by Caricom countries.

ACQUISITIONS

GraceKennedy has recently been particularly aggressive in extending its position in financial services, including the insurance business, where it has made a series of acquisitions. Its Jamaica International Insurance Company (JIIC) is the island's third largest with annualised premium income of $3 billion, helped by last year's purchase of the Jamaican portfolio of Dyoll Insurance crumbled under the weight of claims from Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

Two years ago, GraceKennedy also bought 30 per cent of the St Lucia-based EC Global Insurance Company, sharing a partnership with the Bank of St Lucia, a commercial bank in the East Caribbean island.

GraceKennedy is listed on the Jamaica, Barbados, Eastern Caribbean, and Trinidad stock exchanges. The stock traded down $1.78 to $58.21 on the Kingston exchange Tuesday. Its price to Monday on the other exchanges was BBD$1.80, EC$4.25 and TT$6.

business@gleanerjm.com