Great Eastern Q1 shareholder profits plummets by 50%

The firm blames less favourable financial market conditions.

Great Eastern Holdings Limited reported that its first-quarter (Q1) profit attributable to shareholders fell by 50% to $220m compared to $437.6m a year ago.

This was due to a lower valuation of investments arising from less favourable financial market conditions during the quarter compared to the same quarter last year. 

The firm, meanwhile, reported a 6% increase to $191.4m in operating profit from its insurance business compared to $181.3m. Total weighted new sales grew 32% in Q1 2022, however, new business embedded value fell slightly by 3% due to lower contributions from Malaysia.

According to group CEO Khor Hock Seng, the group’s performance continues to be resilient despite the challenging business environment and volatile capital and financial markets. 

“Our Operating Profit from Insurance Business continued its good growth momentum, underscoring the strength of our core business fundamentals, achieving 6% growth for Q1-22 against the quarter last year. In the near term, the business landscape will remain challenging. Nonetheless, it remains critical that we continue to strengthen our reach and harness customer insights to innovate product solutions and transform customer experience. With this strong customer focus, we will be able to offer product propositions that are targeted at addressing our customers’ evolving needs,” Seng said.