AXA Asia Pacific has reported an extraordinary 51 per cent increase in net retail inflows in Australia and New Zealand to $782.9 million.
In an announcement released on the Australian Stock Exchange, AXA Asia Pacific Holdings said that these inflows had occurred ahead of the June 30 implementation of the superannuation changes announced in the 2006 Federal Budget.
AXA Asia Pacific group chief executive Andrew Penn said the company’s AllianceBerstein joint venture had total gross inflows of $1.82 billion for the quarter and total net inflows of $1.01 billion.
He said total individual financial protection new business was up 2 per cent to $18.2 million, reflecting the competitiveness of the market and the company’s continued focused on writing profitable business.
Looking at the Australian and New Zealand operations, the company reported that superannuation gross inflows were up 10 per cent to $789.6 million with net inflows up 33 per cent to $307 million due to strong inflows from its personal superannuation products and good retention of existing funds.
It said that in the advice business, gross inflows were down 4 per cent to $277 million and net inflows were down 5 per cent to $88.1 million mainly due to a higher proportion of circular flows in 2006 and slightly higher outflows in New Zealand.
The report said that activity levels in the first quarter had been high ahead of the superannuation changes in Australia.
