Full year results 2016

Following the publication of the full year 2016 results for AXA Group, AXA UK and Ireland has announced another year of growth and profitability.

23 February 2017

Posted in Financial results

The key highlights from AXA UK & Ireland’s 20161 performance include:

  • Underlying earnings increased 12%2 to £263m
  • Overall revenue grew by 8.1% to £4.4bn delivering a COR of 97.3% (2015: £4.1bn, 97.1%)

Growth was delivered in all our major business lines:

  • AXA Health revenues grew by 4.8% to £1.5bn
  • The UK Insurance Commercial Lines business grew 10% to £1.1bn
  • The UK Insurance Personal Lines business grew 5.4% to £1.2bn
  • The Ireland business grew by 14% to €640m
Amanda Blanc, Group CEO at AXA UK & Ireland

These are a really strong set of results and the delivery of five consecutive years of profitable growth shows that the turnaround of this business is not only complete, but one year on, the business continues on the right trajectory. However, it is clear that the uncertainty in financial markets and the wider economy continues and we must be vigilant to the consequent risks and ready to react to the opportunities that arise.

Growth has been strong across the business with profitability a key focus. Performance is very healthy in all our core business lines, reinforced by a burgeoning culture of innovation and digitisation.

The strength of our overall performance can be attributed to good growth in our personal and commercial motor books in the UK and Ireland as well as the AXA Global Healthcare business.

Looking at the individual business units, strong growth in the direct motor book helped drive the 5.4% increase in revenue in the Personal Lines business where rate increases continue to be carried.

The 10% growth in Commercial Lines has been driven in part by the successful launch and delivery of the new Mid Market proposition. PPP’s growth was derived primarily from a strong performance in AXA Global Healthcare in addition to a good performance in the UK personal lines book via Health-on-Line and through the broker channel as well as burgeoning growth in the UK small corporate market.

Finally, in Ireland, we saw 14% growth due to a strong performance in the personal and commercial motor markets in the Republic of Ireland and the personal motor market in Northern Ireland where rate increases have continued to be carried.

I am very pleased at the breadth of success across business lines and business units as the diversity provides an inherent strength. Our financial performance allows us to continue investing in innovative ideas and technologies that change the way people interact with insurance. Existing investments in initiatives such as Trov (on demand contents insurance), Biobeats (workplace wellbeing app), Doctor@hand (providing access to GP’s digitally) and eServe (claims tracking tool for customers and brokers) are paying huge dividends and changing the way our customers perceive our role as an insurer.

Having completed the disposal of Wealth and Bluefin, we will continue to focus on profitable and responsible growth, innovation across business lines and distribution channels and increasing operational efficiency to deliver the service that our customers demand.

Amanda Blanc, Group CEO at AXA UK & Ireland

1 The AXA Group results announcement includes the UK Direct results within the Direct segment, and excludes those results from the UK & Ireland segment. This press release aggregates the two as in prior years.

2 On a comparable basis and at a constant exchange rate, excluding AXA Wealth, SunLife and Bluefin (following the sale of these businesses in 2016) and excluding the contribution from the Group reinsurance business (AXA Pool)