Earnings growth maintained

AXA UK maintains earnings growth

Globally, AXA reported underlying earnings up 7% to €2,766 million for H1 2008 thanks to strong operational performance in all its main business lines

7 August 2008

Posted in Financial results

Resilient Life and Savings Revenues. Strong growth in Protection and Group Pensions balanced by reduction in Investment Bond business
UK Property and Casualty markets remain difficult and show little signs of early improvement
Continued strong growth in Healthcare Revenues - 9% ahead of H1 2007
Good progress made in acquiring and integrating Distribution capability

In the UK & Ireland, underlying earnings increased by 14%¹ from £160 million for H1 2007 to £183 million for H1 2008.

General and Health Insurance

Total General and Health insurance revenues, including Distribution, remained flat at £1,872 million in H1 2008 compared to £1,861 million in H1 2007. Conditions remain tough in many sectors, exacerbated by strong competition and a delay to a satisfactory hardening of premium rates in many mainstream channels.

UK Health revenues continued the strong growth witnessed in recent years (up 9% from £537 million in H1 2007 to £585 million in H1 2008), with growth arising across all major business lines.

Strong premium growth has also continued at Swiftcover, AXA UK's internet-only motor insurer, with revenue up £30 million on a comparable basis compared to H1 2007, continuing AXA UK's strategy to expand its direct portfolio and be closer to the end customer. Elsewhere in the Personal sector of AXA's UK general insurance business, Household revenue increased by £13 million in H1 2008, while a reduction in premiums of £10 million for the first six months of 2008 in the Travel sector was brought about by an increased focus on profitability. UK Commercial revenues were down £44 million in H1 2008 compared with H1 2007 against a backdrop of competitive market conditions.

In Ireland, continued growth in policy numbers was helped by a series of branch openings in Northern Ireland. In the Republic of Ireland personal motor revenue declined by 5% reflecting a continued reduction in average premiums, which have now reduced by 40% over the last 5 years. To ensure we maintain our competitive position going forward, AXA Ireland will be reducing its cost base which will result in the loss of approximately 120 jobs as already announced.

Total General and Health insurance underlying earnings in the UK and Ireland, including Distribution, improved by 55% from £87 million for H1 2007 to £135 million for H1 2008. This result was influenced by the absence of any significant weather related incidents (£115 million before tax in H1 2007) which brought about an improvement in the general and health combined ratio from 102.4% in H1 2007 to 98.2% for H1 2008.

Life and Savings

AXA UK's Life and Savings business includes protection, wealth management and corporate business units. The AXA Protection Account APE² increased by 82% on H1 2007 levels, despite a slowdown in the UK mortgage market, helped by the success of AXA's award-winning tele-underwriting proposition. Group Pensions increased by 23%, reflecting the success of our new product offering. Investment Bond business, including onshore and offshore bonds, reduced by 18% following the recent changes to the tax treatment of bonds resulting in total APE decreasing by 3% from £553 million for H1 2007 to £536 million for H1 2008.

Following the reduction in APE, the margin on New Business reduced by 1.3% with New Business Value falling £11 million to £58³ million. Life earnings were adversely affected by the falling stock market which had a direct impact on annual management charges levied on assets under management. This, along with non-recurring one-off benefits in H1 2007 and increased investment in strategic projects, led to a reduction in underlying earnings for the Life and Savings business, including Distribution, from £92 million in H1 2007 to £72 million in H1 2008.

Distribution

In the distribution side of AXA UK's general insurance business, Venture Preference's placed annualised GWP increased by 40% to £0.7 billion compared to 2007, while at Thinc, AXA UK's Life and Savings distribution business, Funds under Management increased by 75% to over £0.5 billion since 2007 year-end.

Company realigns its support functions in next phase of transformation

To help drive future growth and improve customer service AXA UK is moving to the next phase of its new operating model. This will continue the transformation of the company which began 18 months ago with the creation of 11 strategic business units.

The support functions and related activities in the operating companies will be restructured along three main lines.

The corporate centre will retain governance, strategic oversight, corporate planning and financial monitoring; shared services will provide support activities where economies of scale can be achieved and where there is a common need across the business; and the operating companies will have dedicated resources for the functions that are particular to specific strategic business units such as customer or distributor activity.

As a result up to 500 redundancies are expected to be made within the support services and related functions subject to consultation. The company will manage the process with sensitivity to limit the number of compulsory redundancies where possible by focusing on reducing headcount through natural attrition, redeployment and more efficient use of contractors.

Overall, the company will make a combined annual saving of £80 million in three years which includes the operating model and support functions review announced today, the cost saving plan in Ireland announced in June and the reorganisation of customer facing functions to further improve service in AXA Winterthur Wealth Management announced in July.

The developments we have outlined signal our intent to improve continually our effectiveness and efficiency to ensure that the business model is well prepared to withstand changing market conditions - as well as our determination to provide customers with tangible service excellence.

Conditions in many property and casualty sectors remain challenging and show little sign of improvement in the short term. Despite these tough markets we have delivered a robust result for the first six months of the year because we have been resolute in following our UK strategy.

We have successfully launched our mutual fund proposition and I am confident that the launch of Architas, our new multi-manager investment company, the refresh to our single premium pension proposition and the full launch of our Wrap platform later on this year will provide added impetus. With the solid foundations we have in place across all our businesses in the UK and Ireland, I am confident that we will continue to thrive in the demanding months ahead.

Nicolas Moreau, Group Chief Executive at AXA UK

Footnotes

¹ 13% excluding the holding company result and with AXA Ireland's underlying earnings on a constant exchange rate basis.

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Legal notes

About AXA UK

AXA Insurance UK plc registered in England and Wales under registered number 078950 and authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority under Financial Conduct Authority registration number 202312. Registered office is 20 Gracechurch Street, London, EC3V 0BG.

AXA UK is part of the AXA Group, a worldwide leader in insurance and asset management, with 147,000 employees serving 94 million clients in 50 countries. In 2023, IFRS revenues amounted to Euro 102.7 billion and underlying earnings to Euro 7.6 billion. AXA had Euro 844 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2023.

In the UK & Ireland, AXA operates through a number of business units including: AXA Insurance, AXA Health and AXA Ireland. AXA UK & Ireland employs around 10,000 staff.

Important legal information and cautionary statements concerning forward-looking statements

Certain statements contained herein may be forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, statements that are predictions of or indicate future events, trends, plans, expectations or objectives. Undue reliance should not be placed on such statements because, by their nature, they are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and can be affected by other factors that could cause AXA’s actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward looking statements. Please refer to Part 5: “Risk Factors and Risk Management” of AXA’s Universal Registration Document 2022, for a description of certain important factors, risks and uncertainties that may affect AXA’s business and / or results of operations. AXA undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any of these forward-looking statements, whether to reflect new information, future events or circumstances or otherwise, except as required by applicable laws and regulations.