Financial services group Friends First has announced a pre-tax profit for 2004 of €27.1 million, an increase of 34 per cent on 2003, with its life and pensions business contributing €16.8 million.
Friends First Finance, which had been put up for sale last year but was subsequently withdrawn, increased profits by 75 per cent year on year to €3.5 million.
A €270 million bank syndicated deal lead by ABN Amro, Danske Bank, Bank of Scotland and Bank of Ireland will provide a base for the future growth of the finance business, to which Friends First is now firmly committed said Mr Adrian Hegarty, Group Chief Executive of Friends First.
The group's developmental business contributed profits of €6.8 million.
This business groups a number of related activities including back-office processing company Friends First International, independent broker group Liberty Asset Management, securities lending firm Guild Global and a service for high net worth individuals.
"We are very pleased with the overall performance of our life assurance business, which continues to deliver solid growth across a range of product areas," said Mr Hegarty.
"We have invested heavily to bring further service improvements to customers across the life business and clearly this is now bearing fruit."
Overall APE sales which indicate new business, were up 10 per cent to €87.6 million in the life and pensions division.
Life APE was up 40 per cent to €32 million while single premium sales were up 86 per cent to €179 million which Mr Hegarty attributed to strong sales of its Protected Investment Bonds products.
Mr Hegarty once again criticised the government's focus on PRSA products, which he said are failing to attract interest from consumers. He suggested that compulsory pension saving is one of the options that needs to be examined to address the shortfall in pension coverage.