Navigator inflows guide Norwich to profit

Norwich Unionhas recovered from last year’s write-downs to post a $72.1 million operating profit for the year ending December 2001.

The Australian arm last year took a $137 million write-down on itsPortfolio Partnerspurchase.

The star performer in 2001 was the life business, which reported a $44 million profit.

Navigator, despite its software problems, reported a $15.5 million profit.

Navigator inflows were up 16 per cent on the first two months of the year and it now has $8.4 billion of funds under administration

Norwich chief executive officer Rob Garnsworthy says Navigator’s new business has increased by 20 per cent, to more than $2.5 billion during the last financial year.

He denied there were any plans to sell off Navigator, saying the expansion plans for the master trust into Asia confirmed it was a key part of the global group’s business.

“Navigator is not for sale and we have had no discussions with anybody about them taking a stake,” he says.

There had been a suggestion that a deal withWestpacwas in the offering, but Garnsworthy dismissed this, although he did say Norwich globally did often work in partnership with banks. He cited the relationship with the Royal Bank of Scotland in the UK as one such operation.

Norwich is planning to launch Navigator into Singapore later this year.

Portfolio Partners has recovered from its restructuring to report a $2 million profit for the 2001 financial year.

The fund manager now has about $10 billion of funds under management and reported inflows of $237 million to its trust products during the financial year.

Garnsworthy says Norwich will continue to focus on its three main business areas of wealth creation using Portfolio Partners, wealth administration using Navigator and wealth protection using Norwich Union Life.

Superannuation has become a key driver for inflows into the business, he says.

“Superannuation is now more than 50 per cent of our business and it is 50 per cent of Navigator inflows,” Garnsworthy says.

“However, in our view Australians are still not putting enough into superannuation and we want to see the statutory contribution rise to 15 per cent eventually.”