The present value of new business premiums from Royal London’s offshore business now stands at £224m as of 30 June 2013.
Last May the firm announced a change direction, moving away from the highly competitive single premium market and towards the higher margin ‘stickier’ regular premium section of the off-shore bond market.
Royal London 360° adjusted its price on regular premiums accordingly, to attract more business.
This pricing strategy is reflected in the results which shows that so far this year the company has racked up £84m in regular premiums (compared to £49m in the half year ending June 2012) and making slightly less in single premiums – £140m this year compared to £143m in 2012.
Royal London 360° director of marketing Natalie Hall said that all new business segments were ahead of target “by about 130%”.
“We repriced our regular premium contracts at start of 2012 to focus on that product segment and have enjoyed exponential growth from that point,” she added.
While the report did not include an individual market breakdown Hall revealed that although the UK market was on the decline, its products were currently performing “unexpectedly well” in territories such as the Middle East “even during the typically quiet months of July and August,” she added.
According to Hall, the new business increase was partly as a result of sales through its UK wrap platforms, such as Ascentric.
Royal London’s overall half year results show that the Ascentric wrap platform achieved record new business levels of £813m in the first half of 2013, up 39% on the equivalent period in 2012.
At a Group level, Royal London enjoyed a growth in new business, reporting its total value to June 2013 at £1,950m, compared to £1,619m in over the same period in 2012.
This excludes the £1m of DWP rebate the company gained over this period, following the cancellation of this product in 2012 due to legislative changes.
Assets under management have also increased by £3bn between June 2012 and June 2013 to £50bn – a figure which is set to rise by approximately £20bn following its acquisition of The Co-op’s insurance business and The Co-op asset management company in March.
