ING profit up 15 per cent
Funds management and financial planning giant ING Australia has increased its annual profit by 15 per cent, largely as a result of growing funds under management and life insurance underwriting profits.
A $55 million gain from the sale of its New Zealand business also contributed strongly to the after tax profit for 2005 of $306 million.
But in a statement released this morning, the 50 per cent ANZ Bank-owned company admitted that profits could have been higher if not for the loss of concessional taxation for life insurance earnings and increased interest costs.
ING said it had also spent big on improving old legacy products and systems.
Sales of investment and superannuation were up 24 per cent on 2004, with flagship platform product OneAnswer experiencing a 33 per cent increase to $3.367 billion.
Life risk sales increased just 3 per cent to $80 million.
But ING is optimistic life sales will improve thanks to an overhaul of its product offerings late last year.
“All of our key business lines — personal investments, employer superannuation, life risk and direct insurances — have performed well in terms of sales and operational profit,” chief executive Paul Bedbrook said in the statement.
ING owns the RetireInvest, Millennium 3 and Tandem financial planning dealer groups.
ING was unavailable for comment this morning.
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