Australia's second-largest general insurer, Suncorp Metway Ltd, said Monday its annual net profit rose 16.2 percent to a record 1.06 billion dollars (883,000 US), aided by 15 weeks of contributions from Promina Group. Suncorp bought general insurer Promina for 7.9 billion dollars in a deal completed in March.
The company said that despite booking a loss of 160 million dollars due to storms in New South Wales, its general insurance division made a pretax profit in the year to June of 835 million dollars. Suncorp is also the sixth-largest bank in Australia, and its banking pretax profit contribution grew 12.5 percent to 569 million dollars on strong lending growth and credit quality.
It declared a final dividend of 55 cents a share, bringing its payout for the year to 1.07 dollars. Chief executive John Mulcahy said the firm had already locked in 55 million dollars in annualised synergies with Promina and was on track with the integration.
The company said it has no direct exposure to the US subprime mortgage market, but noted the secondary impact of tightening liquidity and widening credit spreads could impact credit markets in Australia. Suncorp said it was reviewing its capital structure to optimise potential.
"Following consultation with rating agencies, we expect the group will be well placed to consider its capital management options by the end of June 2008," Mulcahy said.
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