Global financial product provider Hansard reported a decline in new business in the three months to 30 September 2021 (Q1 2022).
Present value of new business premiums was £31.4m ($43.2m, €37.1m) – an 8.2% fall from Q1 2021.
Assets under administration remained unchanged from the levels reported at the end of June 2021 at £1.22bn.
Graham Sheward, group chief executive at Hansard, said: “While the first quarter of our financial year typically sees a seasonal decline due to the summer holiday period, this year the impact was greater as distributors and clients took the opportunity to take extended summer breaks as global travel restrictions eased.
“As a result, the first quarter of our 2022 financial year saw lower levels of new business. However, we are working hard to reinvigorate sales levels for Q2 which traditionally sees volumes increase.”
Japan
As covid restrictions are gradually dropped in Japan, Hansard believes that its distribution partners will be re-planning their backlog of “product launch activities” in the country.
Sheward added: “The operating environment in Japan is gradually improving as covid-19 restrictions are relaxed, although it may still be a while before we return to more normalised conditions. Notwithstanding this, we are working hard to agree a detailed timeline to launch with our first distribution partner and continue to expect this initiative to deliver positive new business growth for Hansard.”
In September 2021, Hansard said that it was reliant on an improvement in the coronavirus environment in Japan to go to market before the end of 2021.
The firm was granted an investment manager licence in Japan in June 2019 which, at the time, Hansard said was the first step to enable the company to enter the market with an “innovative, next generation savings proposition”.
A year later, Hansard planned to launch a product in the Asian country in the first quarter of 2021. But due to covid setbacks, it has been delayed further.
