Regular premiums rose from £124.4m to £136.1m, mainly boosted by Far East inflows which jumped an impressive 42.5% from £69.4m to £98.9m.
All the other regions in the Hansard Global results released today saw falls in combined single and regular premiums with Europe notably down 44.2%, from £46.6m to £26m. Latin America dropped 26.4% from £37.1m to £27.3m and the rest of the world, which includes the Middle East, fell by a similar level, 27.4%, from 22.6m to 16.4m.
Single premium flows of £32.5m for the year reduced 36.6% from £51.3m which not only reflected the group’s strategy of focusing on more profitable regular premium new business but also the reduced new business flows for Hansard Europe following the announcement of its closure to new business at the end of June.
Just one week earlier in June, Hansard Europe had agreed a settlement of €1.5m on an underlying claim of approximately €5.5m involving policyholders in Norway, just one week before the Dublin-based company officially closes to new business.
In today’s statement, the group said that plans to achieve an orderly run-off of the activities of Hansard Europe have been “developed with regulators and stakeholders and submitted to the Central Bank of Ireland for their consideration. We anticipate agreeing the plan shortly”.
Gordon Marr, group chief executive officer, said the fundamentals in its core markets were encouraging and that this had translated into an increase in demand for products, in particular a record level of regular premium new business.
“This is testament to the success of our strategy of focusing on regular premium business in growth markets. We believe that Hansard’s prospects remain strong and that our continuing investment in distribution infrastructure and Hansard OnLine will position us for future growth.”
He added that the group’s new business strategies will be refreshed following the appointment of Graham Morrall as new chief distribution officer.
