The offshore business of Old Mutual Wealth saw net sales rise from £61m during the first half of last year to £254m, while gross sales were up 20% to £931m from £775m last year. Skandia International said this helped its assets under management increase by 6% to £14.7bn.
Steven Levin, international managing director at Old Mutual Wealth, said: “Internationally we have continued to grow our distribution footprint, extending our product innovation and technical expertise into markets that would benefit from the flexibility and sophistication that international offerings can bring – South Africa and Latin America being prime examples.
“I am delighted with what we have achieved so far this year but we are working on further enhancements to both our proposition and service levels. This will benefit advisers and customers and further strengthen our position as a top player across the international cross-border markets.”
The company generated an adjusted operating profit of £31m during the first half of 2013, an increase of 19%. Last year’s figure does not include the sale of Skandia’s Finnish business which was sold in 2012 and generated a profit of £10m – increasing the reported H1 2012 profit to £36m.
Skandia said sales were driven by “increased distribution reach in most regions together with the renewed demand for single premium portfolio bond products globally, particularly in South Africa, Europe and Asia”.
Late last week Axa Wealth International also reported strong sales of its offshore bonds during the first half of this year, although Axa’s growth was contained within the second quarter after the first quarter saw a 5% drop in sales.
The recent growth reported by these two providers comes against a backdrop of falling sales in more recent years.
Figures released by the Association of British Insurers in May, showed new business sales of offshore bonds into the UK market last year ended up a fifth below 2011’s levels, which in turn were down more than 7% from the previous year.
