Great Eastern's net profit skyrockets to $279.5m

Thanks to the whopping 123% jump in life insurance profit.

The insurance arm of OCBC Bank reported a stellar set of numbers in its quarterly financial report, with net profit attributable to shareholders shooting up by 173% to $279.5m.

According to the group, this came with the 6% increase in total weighted new sales to $255.7m and 17% growth in new business embedded value to $121.1m for the past quarter.

The growth in new weighted sales was due to the strong contribution from the agency channels in the group's core markets and bancassurance channel in Singapore. Meanwhile, the jump in new business embedded value was due to higher sales.

For the said quarter, its profit for life insurance grew 123% to $244.2m, whilst is general insurance profit dwindled by 55% to $3.8m.

"We continued to see sustained and positive growth during Q2-17 in our key operating metrics such as Group Profit Attributable to Shareholders, New Business Embedded Value and Total Weighted New Sales. This strong performance is an indicator of the underlying strength of our business fundamentals," Great Eastern CEO Khor Hock Seng said.

The group chief expects favourable conditions in the coming quarters, given the rebranding of their general insurance business to Great Eastern General Insurance.

"The brand unity will enable us to further leverage the strengths of the Great Eastern brand to offer more compelling propositions to our customers. Our strategic focus is to leverage on the customer database and distribution capabilities of the Group and OCBC Bank and draw on our collective strengths to tap new growth opportunities to serve individual and corporate customers," he said