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2006: Another year of strong top-line performance

News
Group, February 1st, 2007

Portrait of Henri de Castries

Henri de Castries, Chairman of the Management Board

"Our performance in 2006 demonstrates once again that AXA, acting on the structurally growing Financial Protection market, is capable of meeting its long-term top-line growth targets" said Henri de Castries, Chairman of the AXA Management Board.

"All our business segments are contributing to this growth and I am particularly satisfied to note that this volume expansion is accompanied by continuing improvement of our business mix, notably in Life & Savings and Asset Management."

Life & Savings entities recorded strong growth across the board in 2006, with new business volume (APE*) up 15% to Euro 6,234 million, notably driven by France and the US both up 14%, the UK up 38%, and Japan up 16%. Product mix continued to improve with unit-linked new business APE increasing by 30% to represent 51% of total Life & Savings APE in 2006, compared to 45% in 2005.

Property & Casualty revenues increased by 4% to Euro 19,793 million. Personal lines were up 5% resulting from a combination of strong resilience in most European countries and positive momentum elsewhere. Commercial lines were up 4%, mainly driven by France, the UK and Belgium. Personal Motor and Household net new inflows were up strongly compared to 2005, reaching 939,000 contracts and 231,000 contracts, respectively.

Asset Management revenues increased by 29% to Euro 4,406 million, driven by higher average Assets under Management (AUM) (+17%), as a result of very strong net inflows (Euro 73 billion) and favorable equity market conditions, combined with a favorable business mix evolution for both AllianceBernstein and AXA Investment Managers.

* Annual Premium Equivalent (APE) represents 100% of new business regular premiums plus 10% of new business single premiums in line with Group EEV methodology. APE is group share.

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Numbers herein have not been audited or adjusted for scope and currency changes. Growth rates are on a comparable basis and, accordingly, have been adjusted for changes in scope, accounting methods and currency.

APE is in line with the Group's EEV disclosure. It is a non-GAAP measure, which Management uses as key indicator of performance in assessing AXA's Life & Savings business and believes to provide useful and important information to shareholders and investors. IFRS revenues are available in Appendix 3 of the press release.