Underlying earnings for the first six months of 2013 improved by 33 per cent to £89 million (H1 2012: £66 million).
Total AXA Wealth sales increased 68 per cent to £2.5 billion*, increasing assets under management 21 per cent to £24.3 billion.
Property and Casualty (P&C) insurance revenues remain flat at £2 billion, with disciplined underwriting delivering an improvement in the combined ratio of 2.3 points to 98.7 per cent (H1 2012: 101.0 per cent).
Commenting on the results, Paul Evans, UK and Ireland Group Chief Executive said:
“I am very pleased with the results that we have reported for the first half of this year, particularly given the challenging economic conditions and extremely competitive markets within which our businesses operate.
“AXA Wealth has delivered excellent results in the first half of 2013 with total sales up 68 per cent*, thanks largely to the early positioning of the Elevate wrap platform to meet adviser needs in the post-RDR environment and which additionally anticipated the proposed regulation of fund manager rebates. As a result of this positioning, and strong platform functionality and service, we have seen a 52 per cent rise in IFA inflows onto the platform, bringing total funds on Elevate to £6.4 billion.
“We continue to see strong growth within UK Commercial Lines (+11 per cent) where higher volumes, positive rating action and on-going efficiency improvements over recent years have restored underwriting profitability during the first half of 2013, which, together with the benefit of more benign weather conditions than seen last year, contributed to the 2.3 point improvement in the overall combined ratio at 98.7 per cent. Growth has also been achieved in Healthcare (+3 per cent) and UK Motor insurance (+4 per cent), together offsetting further portfolio pruning in non-core segments of the personal lines portfolio, and disciplined underwriting within fiercely competitive markets.
“In 2010 AXA UK launched a business transformation in order to reposition our offering to better serve the needs of both our customers and brokers whilst improving the cost efficiency of our operations. These changes are now delivering stronger results for our customers, brokers and shareholders, and I am confident that we are well positioned to continue building on this success in the years to come.”
