Axa 2012 Net Falls 0.9% on Fewer Gains; Operating Profit Rises
Axa 2012 Net Falls 0.9% on Fewer Gains; Operating Profit Rises
Axa SA (CS), Europe’s second-largest insurer, said profit fell 0.9 percent in 2012 as year-earlier exceptional gains from asset sales weren’t repeated.
Net income fell to 4.15 billion euros ($5.5 billion) from 4.19 billion euros in 2011, the Paris-based insurer said in a statement today. That missed the 4.47 billion-euro average estimate of 20 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Axa, led by Chief Executive Officer Henri de Castries, is expanding in Asia and other regions where it sees better potential and has shifted 6 billion euros of capital to “high- growth” markets since 2010. Annual operating profit, which excludes capital gains, one-time charges and variations in asset valuations, rose 13 percent to 4.25 billion euros, above analysts’ estimate of 4.22 billion euros, driven by life and savings.
“Their life business is resisting” difficult market conditions, Jacques-Pascal Porta, who helps manage 600 million euros at Ofi Gestion Privee in Paris, including Axa shares, said before the results were published. “You also see the first fruits of their quite important push in Asia and especially Hong Kong.”
Axa rose 2.6 percent in Paris trading this year, exceeding the 0.5 percent decline of Allianz SE (ALV), Europe’s largest insurer. The 28-member Bloomberg Europe 500 Insurance Index advanced 3.5 percent.
Operating profit from property and casualty insurance rose 3 percent to 1.9 billion euros, while operating profit from the life-and-savings business, Axa’s biggest earnings contributor, rose 23 percent to 2.64 billion euros, beating analysts’ estimates for 2.54 billion euros.
Axa plans a dividend of 72 cents a share for 2012, up from 69 cents a year earlier, it said.
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To contact the editors responsible for this story: Frank Connelly at
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D) : Swiss Re 
