Irish Life profits down 34% in the first quarter

Irish Life contributed €37.5 million in profits to its Canadian parent company, Great-West Lifeco, in the first quarter, new figures show.

This marks a 34 per cent decline versus the €57 million contribution recorded for the same three month period a year earlier.

For the preceding quarter ending December 31st, Irish Life had recorded a profit of €77 million, a year-on-year rise of 57 per cent.

In March, Irish Life announced plans to to become a major player in the health insurance market here after acquiring Aviva Health and buying out the the 51 per cent of GloHealth that it didn’t already own.

Incoming chief executive David Harney said plans on the project were progressing on target with the new company expected to benefit over two million health insurance customers.

“We are awaiting approval from the European and Irish regulatory authorities and in the meantime continuing with researching and developing brand and product options for the new entity,” he said.

Irish Life, which is one of the country's largest financial services companies with over 1 million customers, was acquired from the State by Canada Life owner Great-West Lifeco for €1.3 billion in 2013.

It contributed €204 million in profit last year to Great-West Lifeco, up 11 per cent on 2014.

Great-West Lifeco reported sales of CAD$48 billion (€32.7bn) in the first quarter, up 73 per cent on the same three month period in 2015.

The group reported net earnings attributable to common shareholders of CAD$620 million or $0.625 per common share, versus CAD$700 million or $0.702 per common share a year earlier.

Consolidated assets under administration at the end of March were approximately CAD$1.2 trillion, a decrease of CAD$26 billion from the end of December