PRUDENTIAL PLC Q3 BUSINESS PERFORMANCE UPDATE
Q3 YTD new business profit up 11 per cent (9 per cent excluding economic impacts)
Performance highlights on a constant (and actual) exchange rate basis for the nine months ended 30 September 2024
· Q3 year to date new business profit was $2,347 million, up 11 per cent (10 per cent) including economic impacts. Q3 year to date new business profit excluding economic impacts was up 9 per cent (7 per cent)
· Q3 year to date APE sales were up 7 per cent (5 per cent) to $4,638 million. APE sales for the three months ended 30 September were up 10 per cent (10 per cent) compared with the same period in the prior year, with all segments growing in the discrete third quarter.
Anil Wadhwani, Chief Executive Officer of Prudential, commented:
“Our new business performance in the third quarter saw our momentum continue as expected. APE sales for the three months ended 30 September were up 10 per cent compared with the same period last year. Our multi-channel distribution model has driven broad based new business profit growth including, on a total regional basis, in Greater China, ASEAN and Africa. Looking ahead, we remain on track for growth in new business profit in 2024 of between 9 to 13 per cent. Through our transformation programme we continue to drive growth and quality. In line with our ambition to expand our distribution strength in our key ASEAN markets, we are delighted to enter a long-term partnership with Bank Syariah Indonesia, the biggest Syariah bank in Indonesia, which gives us access to circa 20 million customers. We have also taken full ownership of our Nigeria life operations.“
Business Performance (on a constant exchange rate basis)
Total APE sales were up 7 per cent in the nine months ended 30 September and up 10 per cent in the discrete third quarter compared with the same prior year period. Growth in the third quarter was broad based across all segments, highlighting the benefits of our multi-channel distribution model and our diversified geographic presence. Our agency growth in Q3 was broad based across our four multi-market growth regions and we continue to focus on agent activation and productivity of agents. Agency APE sales grew by 11 per cent in the discrete third quarter compared with the same period in the prior year. Bancassurance APE sales were up 21 per cent in the nine months ended 30 September, with the discrete third quarter increasing by 12 per cent when compared with the same period in the prior year. This increase in APE sales in the third quarter was driven by growth from Hong Kong, China and Thailand, with the level of growth moderating in Taiwan. The execution of the first tranche of our $2 billion share buyback continues with a total of 66 million shares repurchased as at 31 October 2024 for £437 million ($570 million).
Outlook
Given our performance in the nine months ended 30 September, we believe we are on track for our expected 2024 new business profit growth trajectory of 9-13 per cent, assuming economics consistent with those applied in our FY23 reporting and on a constant foreign exchange rate basis. This trajectory is consistent with achieving our 2027 new business profit objective.