GRACEKENNEDY has completed its acquisition of Scotia Insurance Caribbean Limited (SICL) and has announced it will rename the entity GK Life.

“The entity will be in 12 markets across the region,” Don Wehby, CEO of GraceKennedy, told the Jamaica Observer. A 13th market, St Martin, will be added shortly, Wehby added.

GK Life currently serves seven Caribbean markets namely Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines. It will now also offer credit protection insurance in the five territories where SICL operated namely Barbados, Belize, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and the Turks & Caicos Islands. There will be no changes to existing customer policies associated with the acquisition.

The creditor protection will be done in collaboration with Haven Technologies. Wehby said the product offerings will be wider, subject to regulatory approval.

“This is another bold step towards the fulfilment of our strategy to grow GK’s insurance business in the Caribbean, as we continue to expand the footprint of our financial group in the region. The addition of these five new territories to GK Life, means that we have grown GK’s life insurance business to 12 new markets in less than two years,” Wehby added.

Wehby continued, “M&A [mergers and acquisitions] continues to be a key strategic driver of growth for our group as we move towards achieving our 2030 vision. Our M&A Unit is in discussions regarding several M&A transactions locally and internationally, and we are looking forward to what the future has in store.”

In August 2022, GK announced that they had come to an agreement with Scotiabank to acquire 100 per cent of Scotia Insurance Caribbean Limited (SICL), with the associated transaction being subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.