Profits shine for Royal & SunAlliance
Royal & SunAlliance Australia has reported a $69 million end of year profit for its financial services division, and a continued positive performance in its asset management businesses.
The $69 million profit for the financial services and life insurance business is part of the group's overall before tax recorded profit of $109 million, as at December 31, 2000. For financial services the result is an increase of $64 million from the previous year's result of $5 million, and the total profit figure is up by $45 million.
Royal & SunAlliance Australia managing director Mike Wilkins says the overall result is partly due to an increased focus in specific business areas, while the financial services performance was achieved with expense savings and integration benefits from the group's 1999 acquisitions.
A focus on products that meet consumer's investment and protection needs while also being competitively priced, was also a key factor in the profit results.
The group's investment, asset management and superannuation interests within two of its investment management businesses Tyndall and Guardian Trust, plus financial services group Connelly Temple, were also the strong performance areas.
"It is pleasing to see our value investing style is returning to favour with a performance which again places our Tyndall operation amongst the better performing asset managers in this sector," Wilkins says.
He says Royal & SunAlliance will be looking for further improvement in next year's results after continuing difficulties within some sectors of the long-term professional insurance market.
"While our operations have made good progress and there was an improvement in our overall profitability, we have still not reached our potential," he says.
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