Record growth for Aus Unity FS business
Australian Unity’s financial services business defied sluggish growth trends across the rest of the group to lift its funds under management (FUM) by a record $3.2 billion in the half year to December 2013.
However, the company overall reported a net profit of $6.1 million for the six months till 31 December 2013, a significant decline on the $11.3 billion reported in the same period in the previous year.
The comparative profit deterioration was attributed to a mix of high claims, one-off legislative costs and lower investment earnings.
“These matters aside, the interim result represents an encouraging position for the overall Group’s operations,” group managing director Rohan Mead said.
Mead said the financial services group’s growth - which saw it grow to $3.2 billion compared to $2.21 billion in the corresponding period the previous year - was “pleasing”, given the pressure and uncertainty around Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms.
Australian Unity’s number of advisers declined marginally from 118 to 117, a statement on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) showed. The reduction was linked to grandfathering provisions, which kicked in in July 2013.
Recommended for you
In this week’s episode of Relative Return Insider, AMP chief economist Shane Oliver joins the show to discuss Australia’s stagnating productivity ahead of the government’s economic reform roundtable, and how picking all the “low-hanging fruit” for reform in the ’90s helped kick off a surge that has since stalled out.
In this episode of Relative Return Insider, host Keith Ford is joined by Cyber Daily deputy editor David Hollingworth to take you inside the evolving landscape of cyber crime, how even huge companies can be at risk of breaches, and what that means for anyone trying to understand the risks.
The latest episode of Relative Return sees host Laura Dew chat with Richard Ivers and Mike Younger, co-portfolio managers at Prime Value Asset Management, on their newly launched Microcap Fund and opportunities in small and mid-cap shares.
In this week’s episode of Relative Return Insider, hosts Maja Garaca Djurdjevic and Keith Ford dive into the week's top news, from investors remaining blasé about tariff announcements to bitcoin surging and unemployment numbers.
