Lisa Gomes, general manager of Guardian Asset Management. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer Ashford W Meikle, Business Reporter
Lisa Gomes is the first to admit that Guardian Asset Management (GAM) has largely remained beneath the radar, maintaining a low profile in its five years of operation in Jamaica and existing in the shadow of sister company, Guardian Life Limited.
"It's a Trini thing; we don't walk around with a PR person," said Gomes, a Trinidadian. "We want people to know about us, but we won't blow our own trumpet."
GAM handles the in-house proprietary funds - life, pension and health - of its parent company, the Port of Spain-based Guardian Holdings Limited, and provides wealth management and portfolio planning services for local investors.
But, in an increasingly competitive financial services industry with a plethora of products from which investors can choose, Gomes concedes that there is work to be done to establish her company's marquee.
"We are not out there and the truth is we are not comfortable not being out there," she told the Financial Gleaner.
"Our focus this year is to target the high net worth people who only know about Guardian insurance. Our focus will be to meet them wherever they are and tell them who we are."
But, to carve out its niche, GAM must first distinguish itself from Guardian Life, which is run by a Jamaican, Earl Moore.
"When we say we are from Guardian, everyone thinks it is Guardian insurance and we would love for the message to get out there that we are an investment company with an investment licence that provides investment advice," stressed the CEO.
"In the first couple years the association with Guardian helped because we were building our identity - and Guardian did a good job of establishing its brand - but we think we have maxed out that identity now. This year we want to distinguish ourselves."
Part of that strategy involves advertising GAM's people more to lift their profile.
But, notwithstanding its Cinderella existence, Gomes has built a financially strong outfit from her New Kingston base.
The company's asset base has grown from $6.1 billion at the end of December 2003 to $12.7 billion by the end of 2006 while, in the same period, shareholders equity has jumped from $181 million to over $1 billion.
"We are really, really, proud of what we have done for the five years of our existence," she said.
"It is worth remembering that this has been achieved in an environment which was highly competitive and sometimes very volatile and unpredictable."
GAM contributes less than one per cent to Guardian Holdings' $50 billion revenue stream, but Gomes insisted that the parent company takes the Jamaican operations seriously.
"Guardian Holdings realises that this is a growth area," she said.
" Twenty years ago when I just started in the business, people just put their money in a fixed deposit; now they want options, they are prepared to take more risks - they want to buy bonds, hedge funds and so on. The average investor is becoming a little bit more sophisticated."
Frustrated by embargo
Her plans to grow GAM's suite of products and services - particularly in the lucrative stock brokerage field - have been somewhat frustrated by regulatory embargo.
Its stockbrokerage licence, applied for two years ago, won't be issued until the Jamaica Stock Exchange completes the demutualisation of its operations.
"We are disappointed because we want to provide a total financial service for our clients," said Gomes.
"But, you know, the truth is we probably have too many brokerage licences in such a small territory as Jamaica. In Trinidad, we have about four or five."
Jamaica currently has 11.
Gomes is now scouting to buy a brokerage house.
"We have spoken to a number of companies, telling them to give us a call if they are interested in selling," she said.
"We have spoken to practically everybody who we think is eligible but, for the most part, Jamaicans want to own their own business and that is something I quite admire."
ashford.meikle@gleanerjm.com
