Phillip Armstrong, Pan Caribbean vice-president, says the next dividend consi-deration will be in October. - File

Pan Caribbean Financial Services Limited will be sharing $356 million or more than a quarter of the $1.2 billion profit made last year, with stockholders.

The dividends, 65 cents per share, were to be paid Tuesday to stockholders on record at March 14.

Philip Armstrong, senior vice-president of the financial company, said the payouts were being made against 2007 net income.

At the end of December 2007, the company posted a nine per cent increase in profits amounting to $1.2 billion against the $1.1 billion generated at the end of 2006.

Pan Caribbean's dividend policy allows 40 per cent of earnings to be paid out to shareholders.

Late-year payout

"The next dividend will be around October or November when we have a better idea of what the company earnings for the year look like," said Philip Armstrong, senior vice-president of the financial company capital market operations.

Life of Jamaica (LoJ), a major shareholder in Pan Caribbean, was also due to pay out $900 million this week, but said the distributions were being made against projected profit for 2008.

Together, Sagicor Financial Corpora-tion and LoJ control approximately 468 million shares in Pan Caribbean, which means the lion's share of the dividends - approximately $305 million - will flow to those two companies.

Sagicor is the ultimate parent of LoJ and Pan Caribbean.

sabrina.gordon@gleanerjm.com