First nine months 2007 activity indicators confirm strong top-line growth momentum
News
Group, November 8, 2007
"9M07 figures continued to demonstrate AXA's sustained top line momentum while the integration of Winterthur continues to progress well", said Henri de Castries, Chairman of the AXA Management Board.
"Our Life & Savings activities delivered once more double-digit growth. NBV margin improved compared to 1H07 notably as a result of an increased contribution from our Accumulator roll-out program.The Property & Casualty revenues demonstrated good resilience in a competitive pricing environment, especially in retail lines. Our Asset Management business continued to record strong performance but experienced in Q307 some net outflows from third party investors in low fee asset classes."
Life and Savings new business volume (APE)* was up 26% to Euro 5,599 million, or 10% on a comparable basis**, reflecting AXA's continued organic growth momentum. The main contributors to the growth were the United States, Australia/New Zealand and the United Kingdom while Japan remained negative. Unit-linked new business APE mix increased from 49.2% to 54.4%.
Life and Savings new business value (NBV)*** was up 19% to Euro 1,250 million, or 10% on a comparable basis**, with a margin of 22.3%, in line** with 9M06 as a result of positive business mix evolution offset by negative country mix evolution.
Property & Casualty revenues increased by 30% to Euro 19,631 million, or 4% on a comparable basis**, mainly driven by the UK and fast growing markets (Turkey up 20%, Morocco up 19% and Asia up 10%) with strong Personal Motor and Household net new inflows reaching respectively 897,000 and 265,000 contracts. Personal lines were up 5% and Commercial lines up 2%.
Asset Management revenues increased by 16% to Euro 3,621 million, or 23% on a comparable basis**, driven by higher average Assets under Management and business mix improvement. Both AllianceBernstein and AXA IM revenues grew at a strong double digit pace.
Numbers herein have not been audited. APE and NBV are both in line with the Group's EEV disclosure. They are non-GAAP measures, which Management uses as key indicators 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 this release.
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The press release
* Annual Premium Equivalent (APE) represents 100% of new business regular premiums + 10% of new business single premiums. APE is Group share.
** Changes on a comparable basis were calculated at constant FX and scope (notably Winterthur's contribution was included in both 2006 and 2007 figures).
*** New Business Value (NBV) is Group share. NBV for both 9M06 and 9M07 were computed using profitability factors by products from year-end 2006. Economic and actuarial assumptions remained unchanged.