The takeover of Sagicor Financial Corporation Limited (SFCL) by Alignvest Acquisition II Corporation (AQY) has been finalized.
The companies made the announcement in a joint release on Thursday evening, while pointing out that Sagicor’s registered office will remain in Bermuda and the head office in Barbados.
However, the deal has resulted in the delisting of Sagicor shares from the stock exchanges of Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and London. They will be listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The shares are expected to start trading under the new symbols SFC and SFC.W, commencing on or about December 9, 2019.
As a result of the closing of the transaction, approximately 147.8 million common shares of Sagicor will be issued.
Sagicor and Alignvest had agreed to a value of US$1.75 per Sagicor common share.
Each SFCL share not exchanged for cash will be exchanged for Sagicor shares based on an exchange ratio of 0.231023 per share or 4.328 SFCL shares per common share of Sagicor.
Shareholders who opted not to sell their Sagicor shares may have to open brokerage accounts in Canada if they wanted to trade their stocks on that stock exchange.
“For Sagicor shareholders who will receive shares as per the share exchange terms, a Director Registration System (DRS) statement will be issued by the TSX Trust within 30 business days of the December 5, 2019 closing date,” the company said.
“Shareholders will be able to transfer their shares to a qualified broker of their choice if they wish to trade their shares. Details with respect to processes or shareholder matters including the facilitation of the opening of brokerage accounts that will allow Sagicor shareholders to trade on The Toronto Stock Exchange will be available on Sagicor’s website at www.sagicor.com in the shareholder section of the investor relations platform as information becomes available,” the statement explained.
For those who had elected to receive cash at the time of the June election deadline, the payment of such cash should be mailed to them on or before December 16, 2019.
Sagicor said as a result of the closing of the deal, it will retain over US$440 million of net cash and will be exceptionally well capitalized, adding that it expects to utilize the cash for growth and for capital optimization purposes.
“The completion of this transaction represents a transformative milestone in our long history. We are excited and prepared to have global exposure with our listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange,” said Dodridge Miller, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sagicor Financial Company Ltd.
“We are pleased to welcome our new shareholders and look forward to their ongoing support,” he added.
Timothy Hodgson, current Chairman of AQY and the newly-appointed Chairman of Sagicor, said: “Sagicor has been a true industry leader in the primary markets in which it operates. We’re looking forward to working with the incredible talent at Sagicor to continue to create value for our shareholders.”
