Guardian Holdings records $237m in profit

GUARDIAN Holdings Ltd continued to maintain a positive momentum in its third quarter, reporting $237 million in profit attributable to equity shareholders for the three months ended September 30.

This represented a 20 per cent or $40 million increase from the previous year's corresponding profit of $197 million.

In its consolidated financial statements, Guardian Holdings said a key contributor to the increased profit was growth of its core insurance operations across the English-speaking, Dutch Caribbean and the Netherlands markets.

In his chairman's report, Robert Almeida said the group will remain firmly focused on sustainable, long-term value creation supported by operational efficiencies, disciplined cost management and favourable market dynamics.

Almeida also highlighted the group's key successes achieved in the quarter.

This included a strong performance ratio, increased earnings per share (from $2.58 to $5.52) and a 28 per cent increase in return on equity.

Guardian Holdings also prepaid and refinanced its $1.02 billion bond by issuing a $1.05 billion secured multi-tranche bond.

Additionally, on October 3, credit rating agency CariCRIS reaffirmed the assigned ratings of CariAA- on the regional rating scale and jmAAA on the Jamaican national scale for Guardian Holdings with a stable outlook.

"The group remains sufficiently capitalised and compliant with regulatory ratios," Almeida said.

For the quarter, insurance revenue grew by $109 million, from $1,479 million in 2024 to $1,588 million in 2025.

Other operating expenses that were not attributable to insurance portfolios also increased by $37 million from $207 million to $244 million.

"Your group remains focused on its journey to perfect and protect our core, which remains at the heart of our operations," Almeida said.

He added that the board has proposed a third quarterly dividend of 23 cents per share.

Total dividend payments for the year-to-date are 66 cents per share, exceeding the prior year’s interim dividend payment of 23 cents by 43 cents.

For the nine months ended September 30, the group reported $1,281 million in profit attributable to equity shareholders, exceeding the prior year’s results of $598 million by $683 million or 114 per cent.

The group said this increase was mainly attributed to the first quarter gain on the sale of 100 per cent of the shares of Thoma Exploitatie BV on January 24.

Excluding profit from discontinued operations after taxation of $651 million, the group recorded profit attributable to equity shareholders on continuing operations of $630 million, ahead of the prior year’s results of $587 million by $43 million or 7%.

"Our core insurance operations remain robust, as insurance service results for the current nine-month period outperformed the same period of the prior year by $207 million or 34 per cent," Almeida said.