SINGAPORE (July 25): Great Eastern Holdings reported 2Q17 earnings surged 2.7 times to $279.5 million from $102.2 million a year ago, bringing 1H17 earnings to $497.4 million from $199.1 million a year ago.
The increase in 2Q17 earnings was due to higher operating and non-operating profit, as well as higher profit from investments of shareholders’ funds.
Operating profit from insurance business rose 20% to $157.4 million while non-operating profit from insurance business swung to $73.4 million from a loss of $33.1 million. Profit from investments from shareholder’s funds surged nearly nine times to $51.3 million.
Great Eastern’s Total Weighted New Sales (WNS) and New Business Embedded Value (NBEV) growth for the first half of 2017 was strong at 17% and 20% respectively.
The group continued its sales momentum through 2Q17, driving growth in TWNS and NBEV which increased by 6% to $255.7 million and 17% to $121.1 million respectively over the same period last year.
TWNS growth was due to strong contribution from the agency channels in our core markets and bancassurance channel in Singapore. TWNS for 1H17 and 2Q17 rose by $76.3 million and $13.6 million respectively from a year ago, driven by an increase in sales across all channels.
NBEV, a measure of long-term economic profitability, recorded a 20% growth in 1H17 over 1H16. Higher sales and NBEV margins in our core markets contributed to the group’s NBEV growth.
Great Eastern has declared an interim one-tier tax exempt dividend of 10 cents per ordinary share for the financial year ending Dec 31, to be paid on Aug 31.
Khor Hock Seng, Group Chief Executive Officer, says, “The Group has achieved robust growth for the first half of the year. We continued the business momentum to deliver a strong set of operating results in the second quarter of 2017. The improvement in operating performance is a result of the significant contribution from our multi-channel distribution by our agents and bancassurance partners.”
Shares in Great Eastern rose 40 cents to close at $24.90 on Monday.
