Weak stock markets continued to take their toll on the Hibernian group as the company reported a severe fall in total sales £167 million sterling in the first nine months of the year.
According to figures released by British parent company Aviva this morning, sales in the comparable nine months in 2002 were £279 million.
New business sales were also lower at £55 million compared with £85 million for the same period the previous year. The company said this was partly due to strong sales of the SSIA schemes in 2002.
According to Aviva group, pension sales in the Republic remained strong over the period while individual pension products showed lower demand.
Sales from new single premiums rose from £78 million to £82 million with new regular premium pension sales flat at £32 million.
PRSA sales have been "slow", says Aviva, with the company blaming poor awareness among potential consumers and advisers.
Aviva said there were signs of a recovery slowly returning to the bruised UK savings market. Aviva shares fell sharply from the start of trade and were down 23 pence or 4.6 per cent at 480 pence by 7.04 a.m., the biggest decliners in the UK's FTSE 100 index which lost 1.5 per cent.
New business sales in the nine months to September 30th were flat at 1.745 billion and below analysts' consensus estimate of a small increase to 1.788 billion.