Insurance giant Prudential posted a sharp rise in profits today as it shrugged off changes to the UK pension market and boosted sales in the US and Asia.
The group beat forecasts to deliver an operating profit up 17% to £1.5 billion on the back of demand from baby boomers in the US and growing middle class savers across Asia.
Budget changes to the UK pensions market, which mean that individuals will no longer have to buy annuities, saw the Pru's business in this area slump 43% to £63 million.
But this gap was more than filled by company bulk annuity schemes that lifted the sale of annual premiums in this sector by 22% to £433 million.
The group was impacted by a strong pound, which meant its operating profit rose by a more modest 7% when currency translations are taken into account.
The group said it won four bulk annuity deals during the period, which generated £104 million of sales and £69 million of new business profit.
The Pru, which has 23 million customers worldwide, said it had a range of products and experience to appeal to UK pensioners who decide not to buy an annuity when the changes take effect in April.
Overall in the UK, the firm said operating profits lifted 10% to £374 million due to bulk annuities and increased investment bond sales.
In Asia, the group saw operating profits rise 19% to £525 million, despite political uncertainties brought by legal challenges in presidential elections in Indonesia and a military coup in Thailand.
The Pru said it continued to meet the need for savings among "Asia's rapidly growing middle classes."
In the US, the company saw operating profits jump 28% to £686 million as its economy grew and housing market strengthened.
Chief executive Tidjane Thiam said as a result of the group's geographical spread he was confident it would "produce profitable growth over the long-term."
Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers head of equities Richard Hunter said: "Prudential has shown again that it is a company which is firing on all cylinders."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article