AIA (1299) posted a 27 percent jump in new business value in the first quarter, while pledging to boost share buybacks and acknowledging it used a broker that relied on unlicensed agents to sell insurance policies.
The measure of future profitability of new policies sold surged to US$1.3 billion (HK$10.14 billion) from US$1.05 billion a year earlier, the Asia insurer said in a statement yesterday.
The growth factors in exchange rate fluctuations.
The firm’s shares rallied on announcements of an additional US$2 billion in share buybacks, taking the total amount since 2022 to US$12 billion. The additional repurchase is expected to be completed in about 12 months.
It also set a fresh target to pay out 75 percent of its annual net free surplus generation, which will result in a higher distribution to shareholders.
Its shares in Hong Kong jumped over 6 percent yesterday after the results. Annualized new premiums jumped 23 percent to US$2.4 billion.
While the company acknowledged its usage of an unidentified broker raided by regulators recently, chief financial officer Garth Jones stressed that the firm only contributed about 3 percent of new business value for AIA’s Hong Kong unit in the first quarter.
Stripping out the effect of exchange rate fluctuations, new business value surged 31 percent while annualized new premiums rose 26 percent. Its Hong Kong business new business value jumped 43 percent, while in mainland China, the measure expanded 38 percent, on a constant exchange rate basis.
AIA operates in 18 Asia-Pacific markets while counting its home base of Hong Kong and mainland China as the largest contributors of new business and policy sales by a wide margin.
Hong Kong United Times丨香港聯合時報丨HKUT 