AXA UK reports positive start to 2010
AXA UK has made a positive start to the year, with underlying earnings increasing 34% in the first half of 2010, compared with a year earlier, to £151 million.
However, in the UK and Ireland, General Insurance and Healthcare underlying earnings decreased by 18%, to £63 million, although this was mainly due to a favourable reserve development in the first half of 2009.
Earnings were also adversely affected by severe weather events in January, an increase in reinsurance costs, investment in the group’s international healthcare business and lower investment income.
Revenues for UK General Insurance (excluding AXA Ireland and Healthcare) increased 1% to £1.07 billion and the insurer experienced strong growth at its Personal Direct unit, where rising motor sales helped boost GWP by 19%.
Combined motor policy numbers grew by 37%, to 890,000, and following the successful launch of AXA Car Insurance, in January, over 100,000 policies have been sold, making it one of the fastest-growing products in the UK market.
The gains were offset somewhat by a decline in the group’s Commercial Lines business, where revenues were down 18% but AXA is continuing to focus on the large SME market and has appointed a number of specialist underwriters prior to the launch of a management liability product, later this year.
Household products saw revenue growth of 5% due to new partnerships and the launch of a green M&S Household product, allegedly the first of its kind in the UK.
AXA has also announced the appointment a new UK chief executive officer: Paul Evans is replacing Nicolas Moreau, who is moving to become AXA France chief executive officer, effective 1st October.
Category: Axa Insurance News, Employment News, Financials
Visited 1574 times, 1 so far today
Comments (0)
Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed
There are no comments yet. Why not be the first to speak your mind.