AIA Group posts 37 per cent rise in first-half new business growth
AIA Group Ltd, the world’s third- largest life insurer by market value, reported a 37 per cent rise in new business for the first half of the year, driven by strong sales in its key markets, Hong Kong and China.
AIA’s value of new business, which measures expected profits from new premiums and is a key gauge for future growth, surged to US$1.26 billion in the January- June period, up from US$ 959 million a year ago, the company said.
The insurer’s operating profit after tax posted growth of 14 per cent in the first half to US$1.96 billion, up from US$ 1.80 billion in the year- ago period, AIA said in a statement to the stock exchange on Thursday.
AIA, which listed in Hong Kong in 2010 after a spinoff from bailed- out US insurer AIG, said in the statement that Hong Kong delivered VONB growth of 60 per cent to US$ 537 million in first half of 2016 benefiting from growth in the Hong Kong domestic market and a substantial uplift in new business from mainland Chinese customers.
First hal f new business growth for China saw an increase of 56 per cent compared with the first half of 2015 to US$ 278 million.
China and Hong Kong together account for about half of new business growth globally at AIA, originally founded in Shanghai nearly 100 years ago and the first foreign insurer to be granted a license in China.
Besides these two markets, the insurer’s presence in Asia include Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea.
AIA has been focusing on increasing its reach of agency and distribution channels and expanding and improving its range of products, amid slowing economic growth in China, the world’s secondlargest economy.
AIA was among insurers considering bids to buy at least 49 per cent of the US$ 3 billion insurance unit of Thai lender Siam Commercial Bank, people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters in May. — Reuters