AXA Reports Turnover Up 32.6 Percent For 1st Quarter

France’s AXA recorded growth in all sectors, life, p/c and financial services for the 1st quarter. Bolstered by extremely strong performances from its North American subsidiaries the company registered an overall gain of 32.6 percent.

The earnings report gave the overall figures in Euros, which when converted at 90 cents to the dollar, showed the following approximate results:

Overall life sales increased 29.6 percent from $7.54 billion to $9.77 billion, property and casualty rose 26.3 percent from $3.475 billion in 1999 to $4.39 billion this year, and sales of financial service products rose a whopping 59.1 percent from $2.4 billion to $3.83 billion.

The report highlighted the importance of the addition of Guardian Royal Exchange Group, which contributed over €1 billion to 1st quarter revenues, and the strong rate of exchange for dollars, which resulted in a variation $1.17 billion.

P/C figures for North America showed a 28.2 percent increase for the period with overall revenues reported at $128.7 million. In this market, however, AXA’s real strength is in the “life” sector where gross revenues topped $2.9 billion.

Individual retirement and savings products accounted for 64 percent of that total. “This segment benefits from the development of distribution agreements with third-party channels (banks, financial planners, brokers) for which premium income is up 70.1%, ” said the report.

AXA has also benefited from increased activity in the international financial sector, particularly in the U.S., where the investment banking subsidiary of AXA Financial, Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ), recorded a 51.8 percent increase in revenues driven by strong growth in brokerage commissions, and the high value of the dollar.

Topics Property Casualty AXA XL