A third consecutive quarter of growth at Friends Provident International (FPI), has provided further confirmation of strong sales momentum at one of the Isle of Man’s leading life and pensions provider.
Despite tough trading conditions in the UK, FPI’s fourth quarter 2009 sales figures just released reached ?53.8m on the Annual Premium Equivalent basis.
The Castletown-based business, which employs in the region of 230 staff on the Isle of Man and over 400 staff worldwide, is headquarters for the Company’s activities in Asia and the Middle East.
Amid encouraging signs that confidence is returning in a number of FPI’s key markets, the results helped lift the Group’s overall new life and pensions business in the fourth quarter of 2009 to ?368 million, double the level of sales in the third quarter and 21% higher than in the same period in 2008.
It was also the first time that revenues from international businesses, including FPI, accounted for over half of Friends Provident’s overall sales figures, emphasising the importance of the international operation to the Friends Provident Group.
In particular, FPI increased its market share in Hong Kong significantly with its overall share of unit linked business virtually doubling from 6.0% for 2008 to 11.2% for the first nine months of 2009, the latest period for which data is available.
FPI has also recently been named Life Insurer of the Year at the Gulf Insurance Review Awards in the Middle East and the Best Fund Platform at Hong Kong’s prestigious Benchmark Best Practice Awards.
Jonathan Hall (pictured), general manager of Friends Provident International, commented that staff on the Isle of Man had made a significant contribution towards the latest favourable set of results.
He said, "These sales figures are as a result of everybody working together. We have seen concerted growth throughout 2009 and our team here can be really proud of their efforts.
"The Isle of Man remains the focal point of the International operation and we look forward to continued business success during 2010.
"I am delighted at the level of ongoing support for Friends Provident International among our business partners. We look forward to capitalising on our strengths and delivering new initiatives to the market."
Trevor Matthews, chief executive officer of the Friends Provident Group, commented that a third consecutive quarter of growth at FPI had helped the Group’s turnaround.
He said, "This was a strong performance against the backdrop of a year of economic troubles and volatile financial markets.
"We have good prospects and we believe despite the tough conditions in the UK, the work we have done to reshape our business and preserve financial strength gives us a solid base on which to build in 2010."
