Prudential has started the year on a strong note, delivering an eleventh consecutive quarter of year-on-year growth, and its shares, which trade below embedded value, are still worth buying.
Business was especially buoyant in Asia, where new business profits rose 20 per cent, boosted by a successful series of bancassurance agreements. But trading was tougher elsewhere, with new business profits in the UK down 5 per cent at £62m while US profits slipped 3 per cent to £214m.
On the asset management side, M&G attracted net inflows of £1.77bn, which helped to boost assets under management by 2 per cent to £202.9bn. Finances remain in pretty good shape, too, with reserves over and above the minimum regulatory requirement up from £3.6bn at the end of last year and net of the final dividend payment, to £3.8bn.
