AIA New Zealand Notes Strong Local Results

AIA Reports Record First Half Results;
AIA New Zealand Notes Strong Local Results

HONG KONG, 29 July 2011 – AIA Group Limited (“AIA” or “the Group”; stock code: 1299), the leading pan-Asian life insurance group, is pleased to announce a record performance for the six months ended 31 May 2011, with Value of New Business (VONB) rising 32 per cent compared with the same period last year to US$399 million.

Embedded Value (EV) increased 11 per cent to US$27,394 million and Annualised New Premium (ANP) for the period rose 23 per cent to US$1,094 million. VONB margin rose 2.3 percentage points to 36 per cent.

Under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), the Group reported Net Profit of US$1,314 million for the period, an increase of 24 per cent compared with the same period in the previous year. Operating profit after tax rose 8 per cent to US$967 million.

Commenting on these positive results, Mr. Mark Tucker, AIA’s Group Chief Executive and President, said: “AIA’s strong performance across all of our key financial performance measures demonstrates the excellent progress we have made in executing our growth strategy. There is much more to come.”

AIA’s record-breaking performance reflects the Group’s success across the region in building its Premier Agency sales force and boosting agent productivity, focusing on helping meet the savings and protection needs of its customers, improving customer experience and retention and on developing new and deepening existing relationships with bank partners.

AIA also declared its first dividend since listing, an interim dividend of 11 Hong Kong cents per share.

“We are pleased to declare our first dividend since our listing last October – an interim dividend of 11 Hong Kong cents per share. This dividend payment reflects the strong cash flow inherent in AIA’s business,” said Mr. Tucker. “We are confident in our ability to maintain a prudent and progressive dividend, in addition to being able to self-finance our strong new business growth.”

As well as generating record new business, the first half of 2011 saw AIA become a constituent stock in Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index, making it one of the city’s blue chip stocks just over 6 months after its record breaking initial public offering.

“AIA is a story of growth in the most dynamic region of the world. Asia has been our home for over ninety years and it remains the most attractive place in the world to do business given the long term economic outlook and demographic trends which fuel the region’s savings and protection needs.

“The scale of our franchise, our financial strength, our motivated staff and agents, our product innovation and pan-regional expertise are some of the competitive strengths we can deploy to create value from this Asian opportunity. We are highly confident about AIA’s ongoing growth in Asia,” said Mr. Tucker.

AIA New Zealand CEO Wayne Besant said, “These results reflect very well on the AIA Group and on the business in New Zealand. AIA New Zealand’s focus on simple, relevant engagement with New Zealanders is producing solid results – for the year ended June 2011 our Compound Annual Growth Rate for new business has increased 26.6% since June 2009 and 33% year-on-year since June 2010. We also had a very strong first quarter to March 2011 with an 89% increase on the March 2010 quarter and are tracking well with growth still above market expectations for the June quarter. AIA New Zealand is one of the highest-rating insurers in New Zealand and Asia Pacific, with a Standard & Poor’s rating of AA-.

“We’re developing a financial literacy programme and working with communities - we’ve also partnered with Maori Television to reach people that have historically been under-served by our industry. There’s a lot more to do, but we’re pleased to be making a difference in the lives of New Zealanders.”

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For more information please refer to our announcement today on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the Investor Relations section of our web site www.AIA.com

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