In its interim management statement describing Q1 of the 2016 financial year – three months ended 30 September 2015 – it said new business volumes were up 42% compared with the same period in the previous year.
It said in the Middle East, the strategy implementation had taken the longest time to bed in, but has now driven new business premiums by 336.4% – taking premiums from £1.1m in Q1 2015to £4.8m in Q1 2016.
Regional sales
Comparatively, Asia saw a rise of 56.8%, from £3.7m to £5.8m but Latin America saw a decline of 39.7%, falling from £5.8m to £3.5m.
That said, Hansard said it hoped the new sales executive appointed to the Latin America during the quarter would result in a growth in regional sales as the year progressed.
The rest of the world combined was up 71.9% – taking premium levels from £3.2m to £5.5m.
Momentum
The group said new relationships with a number of IFA networks in target markets were beginning to mature and deliver increased levels of new business, building on the “growth and momentum” it had generated in the previous two quarters as strategic and regional initiatives started to take hold.
Group chief executive Gordon Marr said: “Despite global stock markets experiencing significant declines during the past quarter, we are pleased that the encouraging trend in our new business levels has continued and that we have maintained the momentum that we have built up over the past two quarters in both the levels of business written and our pipeline.”
Encouraged
“We are encouraged by the results we are seeing from our approach and continue to work hard to ensure that the strategic investment made to our products and distribution network is leveraged across all the regions where we operate.”
Regular premium policies constituted the majority of new business, at £12.8m and single premium business was £6.8m.
