Great Eastern Q2 profit up 22% to $282.9m as insurance business gets boost
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Great Eastern recorded a loss of $89.8 million from shareholders' fund, compared with a profit of $102.2 million last year.
ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
Vivienne Tay
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SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) - Great Eastern's net profit rose 22 per cent to $282.9 million for the second quarter ended June 30, from $232.3 million in the same period a year ago.
This was mainly due to higher profit from the insurance business, the insurance arm of OCBC Bank said on Tuesday (Aug 2).
Non-operating profit for the segment jumped 368 per cent to $168.4 million, from $36 million previously, while operating profit grew 19 per cent to $174.1 million, from $146.9 million.
The insurer also booked a $58.9 million loss from shareholders’ fund, from a profit of $55.8 million in the year before.
Consistent performance across all markets drove total weighted new sales to rise 3 per cent to $550.6 million from $534.8 million. Higher sales from the Malaysia market helped new business embedded value (NBEV) increase by 5 per cent to $201.9 million from $193.1 million the year prior.
Great Eastern group chief executive Khor Hock Seng said net profit for the first half of 2022 remained resilient despite the volatile capital and financial markets.
For the six months ended June, net profit was down 25 per cent to $502.9 million from $669.9 million. This translates to earnings per share of $1.06 for the year, down from $1.42 in the same period a year ago.
Operating profit from the insurance business grew 11 per cent to $365.5 million from $328.2 million, mainly due to growth across the group’s core markets.
Non-operating profit was down 10 per cent to $227.3 million from $251.7 million as mark-to-market gains on asset liability mismatch from increasing interest rates were offset by mark-to-market losses from widening credit spreads and equities.
Great Eastern recorded a loss of $89.8 million from shareholders’ fund, compared with a profit of $102.2 million last year. The loss was due to mark-to-market losses in equities and collective investment schemes, compared with gains recorded last year.
Total weighted new sales were up 15 per cent on the year to $1.1 billion from $916.7 million on higher sales across all markets.
NBEV for the half-year period was up 0.5 per cent at $393.2 million, compared with $391.3 million in the year-ago period. Great Eastern noted that gains from a stable overall performance and higher contributions from the Singapore market were offset by lower NBEV from Malaysia.
Its board has declared an interim dividend of 10 cents per share for the financial year ending Dec 31, payable on Aug 31.
Great Eastern was trading one cent or 0.1 per cent lower at $19.44, as at the midday trading break on Tuesday.
