Shareholders of Sagicor Select Funds – Financial (class B shares) and Sagicor Select Funds – Manufacturing & Distribution (class C shares) on Tuesday, August 19, cast their votes in concurrent extraordinary general meetings (EGM) to determine whether their shares will remain as listed equities on the Jamaica Stock Exchange or converted to collective investment funds (CIFs), otherwise called unit trust funds.

In March 2025, Sagicor Investments Jamaica Limited (SIJL), the manager of the funds, applied to the Supreme Court of Jamaica to convene meetings of shareholders of both funds to vote on the proposed conversion through a scheme of arrangement.

“The proposed conversion seeks to resolve the issue of the SSFunds’ shares consistently trading at a significant discount to their net asset values (NAV) on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE),” SIJL explained in a disclosure to shareholders on the JSE website.

By converting, stockholders will receive units in the corresponding unit trust funds in exchange for their stock units in renamed funds. If the conversions are approved through a 75 per cent vote in support of each conversion, Class B shares will become Sigma Select Funds – Financial and Class C shares Sigma Select Funds – Manufacturing and Distribution.

In converting the shares to unit trust funds, the combined assets in the portfolios will be priced at their net asset value, which is higher than the current market-traded values of the portfolios.

Following the vote on Tuesday, auditing firm PricewaterCooper will calculate votes based on the stock units allocated by shareholders to determine the majority decision for both funds. Thereafter, SIJL will inform the Supreme Court of the respective shareholders’ decisions.

During the EGM, director Janene Shaw, standing in for Chairman Colin Steele, said the board of directors for the financial fund and the manufacturing and distribution fund support the conversion of the stock portfolios into unit trusts.

For 2024, Sagicor Select Fund – Financial generated a net comprehensive loss of $9.01 million, improving on a loss of $523.71 million in 2024. A major contributor to this improvement was the lowering of net foreign currency losses, which resulted in a positive net income of $18.77 million. While the fund’s total asset value dipped by $21.67 million, its cash position improved from $33.13 million in 2023 to $89.32 million.

Sagicor Select Fund – Manufacturing and Distribution fared better.

Net income for 2024 rose to $781.83 million in 2024 compared with $218.77 million a year prior. Fair value of assets in the portfolio increased from $80.68 million in the previous year to $629.43 million.

The fund’s total comprehensive income for 2024 was $748.40 million, up from $191.05 million.