French insurer Axa said today its 2004 net profit more than doubled to beat forecasts amid better life insurance and money management results as well as controlled expenses.
Axa gave robust growth figures for its new life insurance business, which market watchers said would lift the stock. It said it would propose raising its annual dividend by 61 per cent to €0.61 a share.
Axa shares rose 2 per cent to €19.88 by early this morning, beating a 0.26 per cent rise in the DJ Stoxx index of European insurers.
The 2004 profit included €178 million in net capital gains while 2003 results had €585 million in equities-related writedowns.
Its 2004 operating earnings, before capital gains and losses, goodwill amortisation and other one-time items, rose to €2.72 billion from €2.04 billion in 2003, again beating the top forecast from Reuters' poll.
Improved productivity aided its life insurance arm while cost cuts and tighter underwriting boosted the profitability of the property and casualty unit.
Axa also said the value of new life and savings business rose 51 per cent to €771 million.