Black Immigrant Daily News

Sagicor Group says its subsidiary, Sagicor Investments Jamaica Limited, has completed the purchase of the securities dealer book of business of Alliance Investment Management Limited (AIML).

This follows the completion of the purchase of 100 per cent of the shares in Alliance Financial Services Limited (AFSL) in April 2022.

The purchase consideration includes an initial cash consideration of $2.6 billion and contingent cash consideration of up to $3.4 billion, based on specified performance criteria, it was disclosed in Sagicor’s financial report for the second quarter ended June 2022.

Total goodwill and purchased intangibles arising from the Alliance acquisition was $3.49 billion.

Commenting on the purchase of the securities dealer book of business of Alliance Investment, Sagicor CEO Christopher Zacca said: “This client portfolio purchase expands the business of Sagicor investments, offering an opportunity to serve a wider client base.”

Zacca added that Sagicor is delighted to “welcome our clients to the Sagicor family and look forward to giving them stellar service, personalised attention, sound financial advice and diversified investment products and services to meet their investment goals.”

Meanwhile, Sagicor said Alliance Financial is showing encouraging revenue growth in its remittance and cambio segments.

Sagicor Group, in its recent financial report, noted that the Alliance Financial acquisition represents a move into a new business segment and affords the group an opportunity to expand its product offerings to its customers.

The company reported stable results for the six-month period, producing net profit attributable to stockholders of $6.04 billion, a 25 per cent increase over the prior year.

The individual life insurance segment continued its exceptional performance and was supported by growthin the employee benefits and commercial banking segments.

Sagicor Group’s results were generated from total revenues of $46.88 billion, which included year-over-year growth in revenues from core operations, being net premium income, net investment income andfee income.

Arising from the AFSL acquisition, new business for Sagicor includes cambio, remittance, and microfinance.

AFSL, which is now fully enabled on the international MoneyGram platform, recently entered into an agreement with Unicomer Jamaica.

The partnership allows MoneyGram customers to pick up their money transfers at Courts stores island-wide and will see Alliance’s agent network expand by almost 50 per cent.

“We are excited about this new development because it means our clients can conveniently collect their money at additional locations,” said Omar Brown, CEO of Alliance Financial Services.

“Partnering with Unicomer means that in addition to our over 52 sub-agents and five Alliance offices, these 28 Courts stores island-wide will greatly expand our network,” Brown said.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

DEAR EDITOR:

It’s unfortunate that the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Airport Authority has resigned on account of policy differences with higher authority. Has she left to take up a better job offer? CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHATSAPP GROUP FOR NEWS UPDATES.

The job of the CFO is to keep good accounting and make recommendations to higher authorities. But, if her recommendations are not considered, that, by itself, is not a good reason to resign. As you can see, the workers took industrial action because they did not receive the promised salary increases.

When it comes to the APUA Minister, Sir Robin Yearwood, he is the best APUA Minister ever. As an auditor representing an international audit firm, I audited his books when he was Accountant of Horizon’s Hotel at the same time when he was campaigning for his first seat in Parliament in the 1970’s. And, I can tell you, he was a damn good Accountant: my audit did not result in a Management Report being issued, because Sir Robin Yearwood was the cleanest Accountant I ever audited and the first and only audit job I performed in my entire auditing career spanning forty years that was not followed by a Management Report.

I subsequently worked for him as Accountant with APUA, with responsibility for the Water Division for eighteen (18) months during 1981-82, and, I can tell you, he is the damn best Minister of Public Utilities Antigua and Barbuda could ever have, in the past or in the future. Sir Robin will not be removed from APUA. Maybe they can give the Airport Authority to a different Minister if they want.

While I audited Sir Robin’s books at Horizon’s Hotel and he told me about the Election Campaign during our lunch breaks, I never told him that I was a supporter of the then opposition Progressive Labour Movement (PLM). Sir Robin and I always retained our respect for each other: now, I can say that we are friends for life. Don’t point your dirty fingers at Sir Robin Yearwood.

Roy R. Jackson

CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHATSAPP GROUP

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Black Immigrant Daily News

News

Moruga dancehall artiste Daniel Hamilton-

Moruga dancehall artiste Daniel Hamilton spent the last moments of his life chatting and laughing with a “close friend.”

Then the unthinkable happened.

The police believe the friend shot Hamilton dead before getting into a car and driving away.

The 26-year-old Hamilton lived with his father at Poui Road in St Mary’s Village. He died in the yard of the family’s home at around 8.30 pm on Monday.

Relatives told Newsday Hamilton was in the house with his girlfriend, got a phone call and walked outside.

The friend walked into the yard, and they were heard talking and laughing. A relative saw them chatting, but paid no mind until gunshots were heard about 15 minutes after the friend arrived.

People then heard a car screeching as it headed towards the Moruga Main Road.

Unaware that Hamilton had been shot dead, his father and girlfriend went outside to see what was happening and found his body. He had wounds to the head and face.

Hamilton worked as a scaffolder.

About three years ago, he started a singing career, under the name was Daniel. The Protect My Life singer was not married and did not have children. He was his father’s only child.

An eyewitness who asked not to be named said on Tuesday, “It was only when we heard his girlfriend screaming that we recognised that Daniel was shot.

“The place was dark, so we did not see anything. We heard about six shots, and he collected four,

“He was a cool person. He did not like drinking. Sometimes we had to beg him to drink a beer with us.”

No one else was injured.

Hamilton’s cousin Kershon Hamilton and other relatives and friends gathered at the roadside and shared memories of him.

Kershon, who was not present when Hamilton ws killed, said, “I opened Maddawg Entertainment studio at my home about a year ago, just to record him – I am a mixing engineer. We did a lot of work. Daniel was popular in the community and was hoping to make it big in the industry. I would be releasing his music sometime.

The police do not yet have a motive for the killing.

Kershon Hamilton said, “He hardly used to leave his house. He was never in trouble with anyone. He never had an altercation with anyone.”

ASP Persad, Insp Ribeiro, PC Latchman and other police from the Homicide Bureau Region III as well as ASP Bertie, Insp Phillip, Sgt Haitool and other Southern Division police, visited the scene.

The killer was still at large on Tuesday.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

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On Monday August 15, 2022 the Ministry of Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs received a report of a total of 37 new cases of COVID-19 from samples processed from Friday August 12, 2022 to Sunday August 14, 2022.

This is from a total of 232 samples, of which 207 samples are from the Ezra Long Laboratory and 25 samples from the Laboratory Services and Consultations Limited.

These samples were collected from August 10, 2022 to August 13, 2022. This number of positive cases makes up 15.9% of all the samples processed on these dates. These new cases bring the total number of cases diagnosed in country to date to 28, 379.

Confirmation was also received of the recovery of 39 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19. This brings the number of active cases in country to date to 106. Currently, there are six positive cases of COVID-19 admitted at the Respiratory Hospital, of which one is critically ill.

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To date, a total of 54, 671 individuals have been fully vaccinated. Another 5, 209 are partially vaccinated and 7, 758 have received their booster shot.

Vaccination will take place at various Wellness Centres as per the published COVID-19 vaccination schedule. Vaccination will be available from 9am to 4pm.

The Ministry of Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs will continue providing frequent updates to the public as new information becomes available.

Source: Ministry of Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Italy’s worst drought in decades has reduced Lake Garda, the country’s largest lake, to near its lowest level ever recorded, exposing swaths of previously underwater rocks and warming the water to temperatures that approach the average in the Caribbean Sea.

Tourists flocking to the popular northern lake Friday for the start of Italy’s key summer long weekend found a vastly different landscape than in past years.

An expansive stretch of bleached rock extended far from the normal shoreline, ringing the southern Sirmione Peninsula with a yellow halo between the green hues of the water and the trees on the shore.

“We came last year, we liked it, and we came back this year,” tourist Beatrice Masi said as she sat on the rocks.

“We found the landscape had changed a lot. We were a bit shocked when we arrived because we had our usual walk around, and the water wasn’t there.”

Northern Italy hasn’t seen significant rainfall for months, and snowfall this year was down 70%, drying up important rivers like the Po, which flows across Italy’s agricultural and industrial heartland.

Many European countries, including Spain, Germany, Portugal, France, the Netherlands and Britain, are enduring droughts this summer that have hurt farmers and shippers and promoted authorities to restrict water use.

The parched condition of the Po, Italy’s longest river, has already caused billions of euros in losses to farmers who normally rely on it to irrigate fields and rice paddies.

To compensate, authorities allowed more water from Lake Garda to flow out to local rivers — 70 cubic meters (2,472 cubic feet) of water per second.

But in late July, they reduced the amount to protect the lake and the financially important tourism tied to it.

With 45 cubic meters (1,589 cubic feet) of water per second being diverted to rivers, the lake on Friday was 32 centimeters (12.6 inches) above the water table, near the record lows in 2003 and 2007.

Garda Mayor Davide Bedinelli said he had to protect both farmers and the tourist industry.

He insisted that the summer tourist season was going better than expected, despite cancellations, mostly from German tourists, during Italy’s latest heat wave in late July.

Drought is a fact that we have to deal with this year, but the tourist season is in no danger,” Bendinelli wrote in a July 20 Facebook post.

He confirmed the lake was losing two centimeters (.78 inches) of water a day.

The lake’s temperature, meanwhile, has been above average for August, according to seatemperature.org.

On Friday, the Garda’s water was nearly 26 degrees Celsius (78 degrees Fahrenheit), several degrees warmer than the average August temperature of 22 C (71.6 F) and nearing the Caribbean Sea’s average of around 27 C (80 F).

For Mario Treccani, who owns a lakefront concession of beach chairs and umbrellas, the lake’s expanded shoreline means fewer people are renting his chairs since there are now plenty of rocks on which to sunbathe.

“The lake is usually a meter or more than a meter higher,” he said from the rocks.

Pointing to a small wall that usually blocks the water from the beach chairs, he recalled that on windy days, sometimes waves from the lake would splash up onto the tourists.

Not anymore.

“It is a bit sad. Before, you could hear the noise of the waves breaking up here. Now, you don’t hear anything,” he said.

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