Great Eastern’s Latest Earnings
Gross premiums collected (the revenue of the company) was down 4% to $2.124 billion in the third quarter of 2014 compared to the same quarter last year. Profit from life assurance fell 27% to $174.4 million while profit from general assurance followed suit with a 47% plunge. As a whole, profit from insurance fell by a 28% to $180.7 million.
Weighted new sales was $213.9 million for the quarter, a decrease of 22% compared to the third quarter last year. Singapore ended up with $125 million in weighted new sales, a 34.6% drop from a year ago. According to the insurer, Singapore suffered from lower sales from the bancassurance channel (sales arising from agreements with banks). On top of that, sales in third quarter of 2013 were boosted by a peak in the number of maturing policies sold during the group’s centennial celebrations, and a number of new product offerings; thus, making it a tougher comparable for the current quarter. The drop in weighed new sales in Singapore was offset by 5.5% rise in sales coming out of Malaysia.
As a whole, profit fell by 31% to about $194.6 million for the quarter. Profits for the first nine months of 2014 is still up 31% year-on-year, and currently stands at $677.2 million.
