After reporting their best year on record in 2023, Caribbean Assurance Brokers Limited (CAB) will be expanding through several new lines of business to be enhanced by several new key executives.

The 19-year-old insurance brokerage company has charted a new three-year strategic plan to grow its business to new heights. This will be centred on entering new niche markets, deploying some of its products to other Caribbean markets, and adding new team members to grow its existing business lines.

The company started its expansion process by opening a new branch at Courtleigh Business Centre in New Kingston in March, which is headed by Executive Branch Manager Shamar Clarke. This branch will have its own sales team focused on the life and health lines for the local and international markets, while CAB’s head office, on 94 Hope Road, will continue to focus on group, employee benefits, and general insurance.

“We see great opportunities from the general [insurance] side. Just recently, the Jamaica Exporters Association has stated that you will need export insurance to export from Jamaica to the rest of the world. That’s new. With the data protection law, every single company should have a cyber insurance policy that’s on the general side. It’s to find the little pockets the niche insurance that’s needed, and there are quite a bit of them, but the opportunities look more aligned to the general side,” said Sheraley Bridgeman, CAB’s third CEO, at the company’s fourth annual general meeting held on Wednesday at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel.

CAB is a local insurance broker and facultative placement broker which means that they help individuals and companies find the best place to meet their insurance needs with life, health, and general insurance companies. CAB is, in turn, paid by those insurance companies for placing the business with them.

The company has added new executives to its ranks this year with Renee Edwards joining as chief financial officer (CFO) in January, and Donna Brown becoming CAB’s first chief operating officer (COO) in October 2023.

This is in addition to the recent addition of Sales Coach Andrew Grant and Business Development Manager Stewart Cockburn earlier this year.

CAB is also moving to automate several of its processes to improve efficiency and streamline its operations to make its business more receptive to a younger demographic that prefers e-commerce channels to interact with companies.

“The COO joined in October 2023 and her key role then was to look at all procedures that was in CAB at the time. Currently, I can say we’re about 90 per cent to changing some of the procedures through automation for more efficiencies and streamlining a lot of things. For both the internal and external customer, it’s easier to do business at CAB,” the CEO explained.

Bridgeman went on to mention the potential for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to further improve its operations.

These areas will be key for the company as it plans to rejuvenate its brand and hit the streets to facilitate more clients to access different insurance products.

She gave a highlight of how intrigued some persons were to hear about the value of insurance at a party in downtown, Kingston.

Among the moves to be taken, CAB will be creating a YouTube series on different topics and becoming more involved on social media.

When asked about the progress of reaching different Caribbean markets, founder, chairman and majority shareholder Raymond Walker noted that there were some regulatory hurdles to deploy its international health insurance programme (ICHIP) product.

ICHIP is an international insurance product that the company exclusively distributes to clients seeking worldwide health insurance coverage for various conditions and patient expenses.

“We will work with partners in those different territories to do the actual sale on the ground. Our involvement in the process will be one of back-office operations, where we simply do the claims adjudication and the underwriting of the business,” Walker added.

The expansionary focus has resulted in CAB’s revenue rising by a third from $215.29 million to $287.71 million for the six months to June. However, it has brought about a 53 per cent increase in expenses to $297.03 million, which meant that the company swung from a net profit of $18.07 million to a net loss of $12.17 million.

Despite this relative reduction in profitability, the company expects strong third and fourth quarters from the growth in new revenue streams.

Total assets were $1.12 billion for the six months period with $567.44 million in shareholders’ equity.

CAB closed Thursday at $3.47, which left the stock up 57 per cent in 2024 with a market capitalisation of $911.88 million. Shareholders of the company on record as of August 15 will receive a dividend of $0.1411 per share totalling $37.04 million to be paid on September 16.

Joyce West-Johnson, Raymond Walker and Dr Leo Walker were re-elected directors of the company, while Bridgeman and Kevin Donaldson were elected directors of the company. All other resolutions were approved.

Rion Hall resigned as a director on June 30.

“On behalf of the leadership team, I extend my sincere gratitude to our dedicated staff, our board members and shareholders for your dedication and unwavering confidence over years. We look forward to your continued support in 2024 as we chart a course towards sustainable growth that enhances shareholder value. As we say at CAB: One CAB!’” Bridgeman closed.