Michael Lee Chin, chairman of Advantage General Insurance Company Limited, is flanked by, from left, Andrea Gordon-Martin, President, and Shamena Khan, Director, at the company's relaunch yesterday. Advantage was formerly known as United General Insurance. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

Susan Gordon, Business Reporter

Billionaire investor Michael Lee Chin relaunched his newest insurance acquisition under a new name Wednesday, Advantage General Insurance, giving a new face to the old United General Insurance (UGI).

Lee Chin, through AIC Barbados, paid Neville Blythe $750 million last April to secure 80 per cent controlling interest of Jamaica's largest insurance company, which had a reputation for dragging out claims settlements.

The UGI name was retired on February 19. The relaunch of the $6 billion company came a month later by Lee Chin, its new chairman, whose priority after the rebranding is to reshape the company's image, according to a director of the company.

"We want to be synonymous with speedy claims," Advantage director Shamena Khan told the Financial Gleaner.

Under its new maxim, 'Our reliability is your peace ofmind', Khan said the company would both aim to reduce the number of claims and their turn around time.

Advantage has a 17 per cent share of the general insurance market with some 80,000 policyholders. It's annual turnover is about $3 billion in gross premiums said Khan.

Income growth

Under Lee Chin, its new target is 15 per cent income growth per year. Nominally, its projected turnover for 2007 would be $3.45 billion.

Lee Chin, through his fund company AIC Limited, has bought up a number of assets in Jamaica and the Caribbean since 2002, his most notable acquisition being a 75 per cent controlling stake of National Commercial Bank Jamaica.

The bank's turnaround has been impressive and there are expectations that some of that success will be replicated at Advantage.

Negative publicity

Responding to questions of the likely impact of negative publicity surrounding his acquisitions, Lee Chin indicated that these are issues he has faced in the past and quite capable of handling.

Here in Jamaica, NCB is now before the court charged with failing to report six thres-hold transactions amounting to US$870,000 at a rural branch in 2003, a breach of money laundering laws.

Media reports out of Trinidad have also suggested that AIC's acquisitions there were per-forming poorly.

"It is not that we are not accustomed to turning over mediocre business or competing in a competitive market," said Lee Chin.

President of Advantage General, Andrea Martin, said that for the first time, the insurance company met and surpassed its regulatory solvency standards set by the Financial Services Commission and, coming from a loss position in 2005, had recorded a profit of $23 million in 2006. Gordon-Martin headed the company under the former owners.

Minority interest

Neville Blythe, Donovan Lewis and James Bramwell continue to hold minority interest in the company. Asked whether there were plans to acquire their combined 20 per cent, Khan, the board member, indicated that there was a willingness to buy them out.

"Our initiative is to own 100 per cent should they volunteer to sell," she said.

Advantage General is a subsidiary of AIC Barbados. Its board includes Robert Almeida, John L.M. Bell, Dennis Cohen, Andrea Gordon-Martin, Aubyn Hill, Shamena Khan, Peter Thwaites, Donovan Lewis, David Williams, Stephanie Cox Neita and Lee Chin as chairman.

The company, said Khan, has no affiliation with NCB, which has its own insurance arm, whose buiness is centred on a different market segment - group life and financial protection plans.

susan.gordon@gleanerjm.com