United Insurance Company Limited has announced a name change to Massy United Insurance Ltd. as part of a regional rebranding exercise conducted by its parent company, the Massy Group formerly Neal & Massy.
This rebrand is a part of the group’s strategy to optimize growth across its 60 businesses, with a new vision to be a “force for good” as the most responsible and profitable investment holding/management company in the Caribbean Basin.
Mr. Howard Hall, chief executive officer of Massy United Insurance Ltd. Has assured stakeholders that this change will not affect current policy coverage with the company.
He added: “As always you can trust us to protect your home, vehicle, business and other prized possessions. We continue to boast an A.M. Best International rating of A- Excellent for the tenth consecutive year which is an indication of the company’s financial strength and continued stability.”
Massy United Insurance said it will continue to provide ”the same excellent service on which our reputation in the industry was built. United Insurance Agents (Saint Lucia) Ltd. has been representing our interests and will continue to serve our policy holders in St. Lucia.”
The Massey Group is playing Pac Man with the best-performing business assets in the region just like CLICO did. The hope is that its management does not take the region to the rocks as CLICO has done.
This conglomerate is not too big to fail.
Scale (size) does not represent any type of guaranteed immunization whatsoever, from failure, as the US Kodak company and CLICO (Trinidad) have bitterly shown.
Our governments have continued to fail to awake to the need for greater vigilance and relevant legislation, regarding (M&A) Merger and Acquisition activity in these parts. That may be so because of incredibly shuddering ignorance, stupidity, or abnegation of responsibility regarding M&A activity’s socio-economic impact.
There is just too little attention being paid to whether: 1) government is satisfied that such Mergers and Acquisitions would substantially lessen competition creating near monopolies and inflation; 2) those activities will not prejudice consumers, economic development and the well-being of Saint Lucians; and 3) they will or not negatively affect the public interest.
After the devastating CLICO experience which is still having a knock-on ripple effect in some countries, it appears that nothing at all has been learned. We are not a learning and continuous improvement society. (We put for example, fuel pricing mechanisms in place and do not monitor them for effectiveness, hoping that they will self-adjust.)
Saint Lucians, nationalistically speaking, must not be placed as sacrificial lambs, on the altar of the chimerical notions of regionalism.
Just too many people in the region have be burnt already since that CLICO financial meltdown, for any self-respecting sitting national government to blissfully ignore the economic implications and ramifications of this new PAC MAN.