infonews.co.nz
INDEX
FINANCE

AIA Announces Another Excellent Set of Results 2013 Performance Shows Value of New Business Up 25 Per Cent

Monday 24 February 2014, 10:11AM

By Alexander PR

656 views

HONG KONG, 21 February 2014 – The Board of Directors of AIA Group Limited (stock code: 1299) is pleased to announce excellent results for the year ended 30 November 2013.

The highlights of AIA’s performance in 2013 include:
Record value of new business (VONB) – AIA’s key performance measure

• 25 per cent increase in VONB to US$1,490 million
• 24 per cent increase in annualised new premium (ANP) to US$3,341 million
• VONB margin increased to 44.1 per cent

Successful focus on sustainable value creation

• 14 per cent growth in embedded value (EV) operating profit to US$3,975 million
• EV Equity up 10 per cent to US$34.9 billion, including goodwill and other intangible assets

Strong IFRS operating profit and capital position

• IFRS operating profit after tax (OPAT) up 16 per cent to US$2,504 million
• Net profit of US$2,822 million including mark-to-market valuation of equity investments
• IFRS operating earnings per share up 16 per cent to 20.91 US cents
• Solvency ratio increased by 80 pps to 433 per cent on the Hong Kong ICO basis

The Board of Directors has recommended a final dividend of 28.62 Hong Kong cents per share, subject to shareholders’ approval. This brings the total dividend for 2013 to 42.55 Hong Kong cents per share, representing an increase of 15 per cent compared with 2012.

Commenting on the results, Mark Tucker, AIA’s Group Chief Executive and President, said:
“AIA had an excellent year in 2013. The strength of our financial results demonstrates our continuing growth momentum across all of our key performance metrics, including an increase in value of new business of 25 per cent. Our ability to achieve year-on-year growth of this magnitude demonstrates the power of AIA’s franchise, the resilience of our operating model, the consistent execution of our well-established growth strategy and the advantages of our exclusive focus on the Asia-Pacific region.

“Asia continues to provide one of the most attractive and resilient life insurance markets in the world. The demographic drivers in the region coupled with low levels of social welfare provision and the rapid expansion in the numbers of middle- and high-income households provide enormous growth opportunities and all of this is happening on an unprecedented scale.

“AIA is exceptionally well-positioned to capitalise on these opportunities given the quality and scale of our distribution platform, our depth of experience derived from our long history in Asia and our unrivalled financial strength. Our focus remains on the provision of high-quality products and services to meet the rapidly-increasing regular savings and protection needs of our customers throughout the region.

“The excellent results we are announcing today demonstrate once again the substantial progress we have made in delivering significant increases in long-term value for our shareholders. The Board has recommended a 16 per cent increase in our final dividend reflecting our strong performance and our prudent, sustainable and progressive dividend policy and we remain confident in AIA’s outstanding prospects for 2014 and beyond.”

Wayne Besant, AIA New Zealand’s CEO, said:
"These results again reflect the strength and depth of the AIA business, right across Asia and the Pacific.  From a New Zealand perspective, it's incredibly empowering to bring to our market a brand with such reach, experience and diversity."


- End -

About AIA
AIA Group Limited and its subsidiaries (collectively “AIA” or “the Group”) comprise the largest independent publicly listed pan-Asian life insurance group. It has operations in 17 markets in Asia-Pacific – wholly-owned branches and subsidiaries in Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Korea, the Philippines, Australia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Vietnam, New Zealand, Macau, Brunei, a 97 per cent subsidiary in Sri Lanka, a 26 per cent joint venture in India and a representative office in Myanmar.
The business that is now AIA was first established in Shanghai over 90 years ago. It is a market leader in the Asia-Pacific region (ex-Japan) based on life insurance premiums and holds leading positions across the majority of its markets. It had total assets of US$147 billion as of 30 November 2013.
AIA meets the savings and protection needs of individuals by offering a range of products and services including life insurance, accident and health insurance and savings plans. The Group also provides employee benefits, credit life and pension services to corporate clients. Through an extensive network of agents and employees across Asia-Pacific, AIA serves the holders of more than 28 million individual policies and over 16 million participating members of group insurance schemes.
AIA Group Limited is listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited under the stock code “1299” with American Depositary Receipts (Level 1) traded on the over-the-counter market (ticker symbol: “AAGIY”).