FWD posts a US$104 million profit last year

FWD (1828) swung to a net profit of US$104 million last year from a loss of US$78 million a year earlier. 

The insurer’s operating profit jumped by 21 percent to US$437 million in the year. Value of new business, a key metric to insurance firms, jumped 13.3 percent to US$945 million last year. 

New business margin, however, dropped by 4.9 percentage points to 38.6 percent, of which, Japan’s margin slumped by 9.6 percentage points to 64.9 percent while that of Hong Kong & Macau slid 1.9 percentage points to 39.6 percent.

New business contractual service margin rose 21 percent to US$1.5 billion, reflecting improved operating leverage and annualized premium equivalent growth.

APE for the year grew by 28 percent to US$2.45 billion while leverage ratio reduced by 4.2 percentage points to 21.3 percent, approaching the company’s target range of 15-20 percent.