NAME OF FEATURE | THE GLEANER | FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2023 14 R. DANNY WILLIAMS TRIBUTE well-timed and that Zacca is a good pick. “We shopped internally and externally. For the last two to three years, a committee of the board carried out a search. We looked at all the people who would be suitable to run a conglomerate like we have. We have very good people – Rohan Miller, Donovan Perkins ... . They were considered in the mix,” said Williams. “You wanted someone with as wide a financial experience as possible. You don’t necessarily want an insurance specialist. Chris got very good reviews. He was well recommended and he comes with a right skills set and a breadth of financial experience,” he said, explaining the selection. Williams alternated as chief executive and chairman of the enterprise since its formation in 1970. The financial meltdown of the 1990s which impaired the assets of several companies, especially banks, insurance and other financial houses, created the backdrop for the current complexion and structure of the business. RESULTS OF THE MELTDOWN The meltdown resulted in the Government pumping more than $3 billion into local insurance companies through share purchases through its bailout agency, FINSAC. In 2001, the Government’s stake in LOJ was bought by the conglomerate of Barbados Mutual and Life of Barbados, making it the owner of the single largest block of LOJ shares. The conglomerate rebranded to Sagicor Financial Group and LOJ was eventually rebranded Sagicor Life Jamaica in 2008. Sagicor Financial now owns 49 per cent of the entire Sagicor Group Jamaica, whose businesses include the flagship insurance business, a commercial bank, investment banking and property services. The other 51 per cent of the conglomerate is held by Jamaicans, with PanJam Investments owning 31.56 per cent. The stock trades on the local market. Williams credits Byles with having transformed the company from a life insurance sales outfit to a group operation. He is nonetheless nostalgic about the early days. “We started a complete Jamaicanisation of the insurance industry in 1970. We ran the business well and survived the usual start-up problems,” he recounted, recalling that in those days, the foreign insurance companies where simply branch offices of foreign firms that shipped their profits back to Canada and Scotland. Not even North American Life, the firm where he honed his skills in the industry would budge when he encouraged them to offer a stake in the company to the Jamaican public. Among the memorable high points of his near 50-year relationship with LOJ and its successor, was the joy of seeing all staff members acquire shares in the wholly Jamaican-owned firm started with $2.5 million in capital. The repercussions of the 1990s meltdown still stand out among the low points in his career. “Emotionally, it was the low point,” Williams says of the cataclysmic events of the era when poor management decisions by some firms compounded a policy environment of underdeveloped institutional framework, inadequate financial supervision and regulation, high interest rates and high inflation as the Government of the day pushed through a raft of economic liberalisation measures and privatisation of state assets. What is the salient lesson from this period, when LOJ, a company that was properly run by Williams’ account, had to be bailed out by Government funds? “Government must run a country properly,” he shot back. “The fact of the matter is that the meltdown of the 1990s was not the fault of the financial sector,” he insisted. “The meltdown was entirely the result of the circumstances in the economy. It is not possible for financial organisations to be subject to that kind of situation (where) interest rates were 80, 90, up to 100 per cent. The whole bad management (of the economy) led to meltdown and depreciation in assets. The only thing you can do in a case like that is get more capital to salvage the company, recapitalise and make it solvent.” The emotional pain for Williams was no doubt compounded by the fact that the Government at the time was being run by the political party for which he had served as a senator, minister of state and minister of commerce during the 1970s, when he took leave from LOJ admittedly to help then Prime Minister Michael Manley bridge a gap of misunderstanding with the local private sector. “Significant attempts were made to advise the Government before the meltdown. The advice was not taken,” Williams says. “It was depressing, but we never allowed it to depress us,” he added, confident that the conglomerate model with its many mergers and acquisitions has served his initial company well in recent years. Here again, he speaks effusively of the pivotal role Byles played in building the Sagicor Jamaica empire. “The whole expansion from an insurance company to a larger financial institution came largely during Richard’s tenure, and he must be given credit for that. When we merged with Pan Caribbean, it put us into the banking and securities investment business,” the chairman said. What’s next for Sagicor Jamaica? “The Sagicor X Fund has expanded quite heavily into the hotel R. Danny Williams during an interview at his Irish Town residence on April 10, 2017. FILE GUARD CONTINUED FROM 12 PLEASE SEE GUARD, 18
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