Axa enjoys solid Q1 growth

French insurer Axa enjoyed a period of solid growth in the first quarter of 2014 as almost all its business lines increased including its property/casualty arm. It also enjoyed double digit growth in some emerging markets.

The company posted total revenues of €28.5 billion in the period, a 2 percent increase on the year before. Within this, its life & savings unit grew by 1 percent to €15.8 billion, its property/casualty arm by 3 percent to €10.4 billion and its asset management arm by 2 percent to €0.8 billion.

“The fourth year of Ambition AXA [the company’s strategic plan] kicked off with further improvement in the product mix across all segments demonstrating the continued success of our strategy,” said Denis Duverne, deputy chief executive of AXA.

“In life & savings, we continued to shift our product mix towards higher margin and less capital intensive offers, designed to address our customers’ protection and retirement savings needs. As a result, we succeeded in growing the value of our new business despite lower volumes.

“In property/casualty, our leading market positioning enabled us to further grow our portfolio while maintaining our underwriting discipline. In Asset Management, we recorded positive net flows for the sixth consecutive quarter.

“Ambition AXA continues to progress well and we are confident about our growth momentum for the year 2014, during which we expect to increase both our life & savings new business volumes and property/casualty growth compared to last year.

“In high growth markets, we have maintained our organic growth momentum and closed our acquisitions in China and Colombia. Moreover, our digital transformation continued to gain traction as we announced new strategic partnerships, notably with Facebook. Going forward, we will continue to invest in digital and to attract talent with a view to creating lasting value.”