Great Eastern, the Singapore-based finance and insurance arm of OCBC Bank, has reportedly posted a 30% profit boost to the net profit of the firm, raising it to $278 million for Q3 that ended on September 30 from $213.3 million in the same period last year on Wednesday.
The OCBC Bank's insurance unit claimed that the increase was mostly caused by higher insurance business profits, which represent the net mark-to-market profit on assets and liabilities brought on by rising interest rates.
The company's non-operating profit turned around from a loss of $3.5 million to $83.9 million in Q3. Non-operating profit has increased year to date by 25% to $311.2 million from the earlier $248.2 million.
In the meantime, the unit's operating profit fell by 38% year over year to $208.1 million. Operational profit for the first half of the year decreased slightly from the previous year’s $575.8 million to $573.6 million.
From an earlier profit of $73.8 million, the insurer has suffered a loss of $103.9 million to date this year, resulting from shareholders’ funds, including a $14.1 million loss in the July to September quarter. According to Great Eastern, this was caused by smaller mark-to-market losses in bonds and equities as opposed to a fairly flat performance in 2021.
As per the company, Q3's total weighted new sales decreased 27% to $403.4 million from $554.3 million in 2021, primarily because of the Singapore sector's lower single premium sales, which were partially offset by better sales momentum from the Malaysian and Indonesian markets.
Khor Hock Seng, the CEO of Great Eastern, anticipates that the business environment would continue to be difficult because of geopolitical uncertainties, a hard investment climate, as well as inflationary pressures.
Seng stated that the firm's focus is still on improving our business and distribution strategy, underpinned by data-driven customized offers to satisfy the clients' demand.
Following the release of the results, Great Eastern shares traded up 26 cents, or 1.4%, to $18.30 on Wednesday.
Source credit: https://www.straitstimes.com/business/great-eastern-s-q3-profit-up-30-on-insurance-business-says-climate-remains-challenging