ON WEDNESDAY, Sagicor shareholders will decide whether it's time to offer investors a bigger share of their pie.

Shareholders attending this year's annual general meeting at Hilton Barbados will be asked to vote on a resolution put forward by their board of directors to remove the five per cent restriction on Sagicor share ownership.

Last June, former chairman Colin Goddard announced that shareholders would be asked to amend Sagicor's articles of incorporation, which stated that no shareholder would be allowed to "hold, be beneficially entitled to, or control, or have any other interest, directly or indirectly" in more than five per cent of the company's shares within the first five years of incorporation and, after that, no more than 20 per cent.

Given that Sagicor was incorporated in December 2002, the five per cent share restriction would no longer apply after December 2007 but, according to the former chairman, the board felt Sagicor was ready to make the move.

Goddard stated at the time that it was the board's view that Sagicor was well placed for future expansion and it needed to ensure its capital structure was flexible enough to enable it to raise capital to facilitate that expansion. (CH)