AMP stages $1.5 billion turnaround for 2000

AMP has turned around it’s $424 million loss in 1999 to post an after tax profit of $1.1 billion for the year 2000.

AMP Financial Services (AMPFS) in Australia and New Zealand made an after tax profit of $604 million, up from $455 million in 1999. AMP has described its in-house financial services unit as an "earnings powerhouse" which contributed $370 million to operating margins, or an improvement of 32 percent on 1999.

AMPFS strengthened its performance on the back of growing cash inflows with a 16 per cent increase in retail managed funds compared with 1999. Across the Tasman, the AMPFS had a 20 per cent increase in retail managed funds and superannuation sales which took the group's funds under management to NZ$702 million.

Its international gains in financial services have been more spectacular. In the UK, the after tax profit (including Henderson Global Investors) stands at three times its 1999 figure of $145 million, with a total of $466 million.

AMP attributes the successes of its UK operations to its multi-channel, multi-product distribution approach for retail financial services, highlighting Henderson's 148 per cent increase on 1999 figures as an outstanding result for the financial services giant.

AMP chief executive Paul Batchelor says that AMP has established a balanced portfolio of leading businesses in growing wealth creation and protection markets.

"With over 70 per cent of our $60 billion in cash inflows now coming from offshore and 70 per cent of assets under management held outside Australia, we have consolidated our position as Australia's leading international financial services company," he says.

He also says that AMP is now considering to expand into Asia, with wealth creation products, life insurance, asset management businesses planned for the financial service markets in Japan, India and China.