PARAMARIBO, Suriname, CMC - Assuria insurance company has acquired the Trinidad and Tobago-based Gulf Insurance Ltd in a move the company says will solidify moves to expand its operations into the Caribbean. The cost of the sale has not been disclosed, but Assuria’s general manager Stephen Smit told shareholders that the Central Bank of Suriname (CBvS) had granted permission to buy the Trinidadian company and that the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago had approved the sale months ago. The acquisition of Gulf gives the Surinamese company a strong Caribbean foothold, through Gulf’s branches in Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Turks and Caicos, Cayman Islands, Grenada, St Kitts, St Lucia, St Maarten and the US Virgin Islands. Trinidad and St Maarten are Gulf’s strongest markets.