AXA records negative half

While the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission continues to mull over National Australia Bank’s (NAB’s) bid for AXA Asia pacific, the company has reported a 19 per cent decrease in profit after tax and non-recurring items to $219.2 million for the six months ended 30 June.

AXA Asia Pacific announced to the Australian Securities Exchange today that group operating earnings had increased by 6 per cent to $270.3 million and that profit after tax, before investment experience and non-recurring items had been up 7 per cent to $286.7 million.

Commenting on the result, AXA chief executive Andrew Penn said the result was pleasing and had been set against a difficult and uncertain external environment with global markets down more than 10 per cent over the period and with the Australian dollar appreciating significantly.

He noted that in Australia, operating earnings were up 25 per cent to $93.6 million – although the value of new business had been down 8 per cent to $58.3 million

Drilling down on the Australian results, the AXA announcement revealed that wealth management had been a strong contributor to the bottom line with earnings up by 73 per cent to $30 million, albeit that total inflows were down 9 per cent to $3.37 billion and Funds Under Management Administration and Advice were down 7 per cent to $54.96 billion.

In New Zealand, wealth management earnings recorded a similarly strong rebound to be up 47 per cent, despite total wealth management retail gross inflows being down 8 per cent.