(Trinidad Express) Sagicor Financial Corporation is in a strong financial position, the company’s president said last week following concerns raised about the financial institution after it issued more than 11.7 million new shares in a private placement in Barbados.

Sagicor president Dodridge Miller, in a statement from his Barbados office, said Sagicor’s 2009 business plan included capital raising by way of new equity to be issued in Barbados, Trinidad and the United Kingdom.

After several months of working on the plan, Sagicor and its adviser formed the view that market conditions at that time were not appropriate to raise capital, Miller said.

Following discussions with institutional investors in Barbados and Trinidad, there was a private placement of 11,766,705 shares at a price of Bds$3.325 per share to the National Insurance Board of Barbados.

Miller admitted that the private placement of shares to the Barbados NIB reduced the percentage of ownership of existing shareholders and diluted existing shareholders’ shares by four per cent of their previous holdings.

He maintained that the laws of Barbados allowed the private placement without shareholder approval.

Miller said there was no pressing financial issues that required Sagicor to do the private placement and the company was in sound financial health with capital up to September 30, 2009 at US$661 million.