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Axa Wealth new business up 45%; Evans appointed UK CEO
04 August 2010
Axa Wealth reported new business rose 45% to £1.9bn in the first half of 2010, helped by its Elevate wrap and a hike in the sales of personal pensions and offshore bonds. This part of the business is being retained and strengthened after the planned sale of part of Axa UK's Life business to Resolution for £2.75bn, which is set to complete at the end of Q3. Axa UK's total Life & Wealth new business revenue (APE) was up 6% to £469m in the first half of 2010 from £441m in HY 2009. New business was split 54% ‘retained' business (largely the Axa Wealth business) and 46% ‘sold' business. Underlying earnings increased by £46m to £104m, excluding significant one-off items. However, including these costs, underlying earnings fell 14% to £104m in H1 2010 compared to £120m in H1 2009. In its results today, Axa also announced Paul Evans, previously CEO Life and deputy UK CEO, will move into the UK CEO role. Current AXA UK CEO Nicolas Moreau will take up a new role as CEO of AXA France. AXA Wealth said its offshore bond sales were up 36% for the period while personal pension sales rose 105%. The group benefited from improved customer sentiment with strong performances from the single pension (‘The One from Winterthur') and family SIPP (‘Family Sun Trust'). This was aided by the change in the minimum retirement age in April 2010 which caused a surge in individual pensions business as customers exercised their drawdown option. In addition to being RDR-ready, AXA Wealth is also accelerating its long term growth plans to target £45bn AUM over the next five years. It says "considerable progress" has been made through the Elevate wrap with 675 IFA firms now signed up and £1bn funds AUA, with £0.3bn coming through Bancassurance channels. Platform growth has been supported by new functionality launched in the first quarter, including an offshore bond, model portfolios, risk profiling and trust accounts. Further enhancements are underway including the addition of an onshore bond. Meanwhile, multi-manager business Architas has almost doubled its funds under management to £3.5bn compared to H1 2009, making it a top five multi-manager business. New business premiums from the bancassurance channel rose sharply by 142% thanks to new partnerships and improved adviser productivity, the group says. However, there was less positive news for Axa-owned Bluefin Advisory Services as overall revenues were down 19% to £31m in H1 2010. This was largely dragged down by Bluefin Wealth Management (BWM) as the corporate consulting division's revenues grew by 8%. However, Axa says BWM's new leadership team is on target to benefit from a major restructure, including a cost reduction programme which led to 20 offices being closed and 200 employees exiting the business. Overall, Axa Wealth's parent group Axa SA, Europe's second-biggest insurer by market value, said first-half profit fell 29% as it was hit by the loss from the sale of operations in the UK. Axa booked an exceptional loss of 1.48bn euros from the deal. Published by IFAOnline
