August 9 2006
• Strong growth maintained
• Single Premium Individual Pensions up 75% to £536m (2005: £305m)
• Overall new insured pension sales (including regular premium sales) up 31% to £1.07 billion Single Premium Equivalent (SPE) in the first half of 2006
• Assets under management increased to £9.4 billion.
Winterthur Life today reported a 75% increase in half year single premium individual pensions business to £536m (2005: £305m) reflecting the continued strong progress of its predominantly single premium proposition. The company also reports a 31% increase in half year 2006 new insured pensions business SPE to £1.07 billion (2005: £810 million), while assets under management at half year grew to £9.4 billion, up from £8.34 billion, half year 2005.
Mike Kellard, chief executive officer, Winterthur Life, says the company’s clear and attractive product proposition for A-Day has helped boost Winterthur Life UK’s new business sales.
“Winterthur Life’s new insured single premium pensions business shows continued new business momentum, reflecting the strength of the company’s A-Day product suite and the attractiveness of its proposition to top end advisers and their high net worth clients,“ said Mike Kellard.
“Pension sales have grown strongly, with advisers and their clients attracted to the company’s full suite of A-Day products available on April 6 including individual personal pensions, EPPs and Income withdrawal through ASP and USP. A-Day has attracted a lot of interest from clients and activity from advisers which has helped the growth in new business.”
In the UK pensions segment:
• Single premium insured pension sales up 44% to £732 million (2005: £509m)
• Single premium Personal Pensions up 67% to £244m (2005: £146m)
• Income Drawdown up 127% to £91m (2005: £40m)
• Single Premium Individual Section 32 up 694% to £63m (2005: £8m)
• Annual Premium Group Pensions up 2% to £26.6m (2005: £26.2m)
In the UK investments segment:
• New investment bond new business grew 108% to £51 million (2005: £25 m).
The successful results build still further on the company’s overall achievements for the full year 2005, which saw UK gross written premiums topping £1.54 billion with a further £191 million in non-insured single premium SIPP sales. Winterthur expects further market growth throughout the remainder of 2006 and believes Winterthur is well placed to capitalise on the new opportunities. The company remains confident in its ability to continue delivering strong growth. The aim in the UK remains to build the overall profit contribution from new business and grow strongly ahead of the market average.
-End-
For further information:
Paul Riddell Winterthur Life, Press Office +44 (0)1256 798099
Sandra Fulton Winterthur Life, Press Office +44 (0)1256 798310
Christine Wood Financial Dynamics +44 (0)20 7269 7253
Notes to Editors
UK pension and investment business
Winterthur Life’s pensions business is predominately single premium (96% based on new business received). The company’s half-year new insured UK single premium pension business growth of 44% to £732 million has been underpinned by very strong gains in single premium individual pensions - up 75% to £536 m. The company targets chiefly single premium business where returns are better than the higher volume but more competitive regular premium market. We saw strong growth in particular in Section 32 pre A-Day and income drawdown and personal pensions sales post A-Day, boosted by protected rights, while sales of Sipps declined partly because of a highly competitive market place. The decline was also owed to the launch of Winterthur’s fast track facility on its personal pension, allowing easy-switch to self-investment when the client is ready.
Our two-product platform has enabled the system changes required ahead of A-Day to be delivered more easily, which will help us to maintain our strong service proposition and focus on gaining profitable market share. It has also enabled Winterthur to continue to offer a clean and transparent product offering, only charging for services/ products clients need.
New Investment Bond business grew reflecting growing consumer confidence after strong investment market performance. We continue to enhance our Tailored Selection of range of investment funds and expect our sales to reflect market trends.
SPE
Except where noted otherwise, all new business figures in this announcement are on a Single Premium or Single Premium Equivalent (SPE) basis. SPE equals new single premiums plus new regular premiums x 10. This replaces the Annual Premium Equivalent (APE) basis, used up to Q3 2005.
About Winterthur Life UK Limited
Winterthur Life UK Limited is part of Winterthur Group, a leading Swiss insurance company with its international headquarters in Winterthur, Switzerland.
Winterthur Life UK offers pensions and investments for high net worth clients distributed via top tier IFAs and is renowned for its innovative approach to financial products. Its philosophy of transparent product propositions offers advisers a range of retirement and investment solutions with an open charging structure.
Winterthur Life UK is an experienced provider of single premium personal pensions, trustee investment plans and corporate pensions via IFAs and a leading provider of self-investment retirement plans like Self Invested Personal Pensions (“Sipps”).
Any opinions expressed in this media communication are made as at the date of publication but are subject to change without notice. Past performance is not a guide to the future. The value of shares/units and the income from them can go down as well as up. Exchange rate fluctuations may cause the value of underlying investments to fall as well as rise. Yields are not guaranteed and may fall or rise.
Winterthur Life UK Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
www.winterthur-ifa.co.uk
Winterthur Group
Winterthur is the leading insurer in Switzerland, and ranks among the top ten all-line carriers in Europe. With a history spanning more than 130 years, Winterthur's life insurance, pension and non-life businesses are based mainly in Western Europe, but the group also has activities in Central and Eastern Europe, the US and Asia. Using a variety of channels, the group manages a balanced product portfolio for private clients as well as small and medium-sized companies. Winterthur operates in 17 countries, and has around 19,000 employees and 13 million clients worldwide. In the first half year of 2006, the group achieved a business volume of 18.8 billion Swiss francs, and reported assets under management of 157.4 billion Swiss francs as of June 30, 2006. Winterthur is a 100% subsidiary of Credit Suisse Group, a leading global financial services company headquartered in Zurich. Further information about Winterthur can be found at www.winterthur.com.
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