The life insurer saw IFRS operating profit in Asia increase by 16% to £1bn, while new business profit was up 15% to £1.4bn.
But the sale of onshore bonds in the UK did not fare so well with APE sales of £176m, nearly a quarter lower than 2012.
This contributed to an overall decrease in retail APE sales of 12%, to £697m.
Prudential said the onset of the Retail Distribution Review had significantly impacted the timing of sales volumes in the UK retail investments markets over the last two years.
It said this caused good sales in 2012 due to heightened activity, but in 2013 the volumes returned to levels consistent with 2011, which it described as the last ‘undisturbed’ year.
However, commenting on the figures published in a report today, group chief executive Tidjane Thiam said the company had met its goal of catering to the protection and savings needs of the growing Asian middle class.
“We are pursuing the increasing demand for protection products from the rapidly growing middle class in our chosen markets across Asia," he said.
“A rapidly growing, increasingly wealthy and well educated middle class with significant savings and protection needs underpins demands for our products.”
Stable flows
Asian asset management business Eastspring Investments, which is owned by Prudential, saw stable net inflows of £1.6bn with IFRS operating profit growing by 7%.
Prudential set out two new objectives for Asia at its investor conference in December.
It hopes to achieve underlying free surplus generation from Asia of between £0.9bn and £1.1bn in 2017.
It also plans to grow Asia life and asset management pre-tax IFRS operating profit at a compound annual rate of at least 15% from 2012 to 2017.
Prudential owned M&G also had a good year, delivering record IFRS operating profit of £396m, an increase of nearly a quarter from 2012.
The firm said this was reflective of the benefits of its diversification across funds, asset classes and geographies.
Thiam said: "Looking ahead, we believe that the global economic outlook is improving.”
However, M&G’s UK business was dampened by £700m outflows as investor interest in UK bond funds declined and business proved sluggish for a fourth consecutive year, parent company Prudential disclosed in its annual results.
