Australian Unity will continue to grow its funds management operation in the next financial year as the traditional friendly society business continues its slow decline, says group managing director Mark Sibree.
Australian Unity will continue to grow its funds management operation in the next financial year as the traditional friendly society business continues its slow decline, says group managing director Mark Sibree.
“We will be focussing on the funds management business as well as developing the healthcare operations,” he says.
The funds management operation made a before tax-profit of $1.6 million for the 1999 financial year, compared to $1 million last year. Despite the strong rise in profits, the total funds under management only rose $9 million to $1.237 billion during the year.
The slow growth of funds under management was due to the outflows in the benefit funds of almost $30 million during the year. Sibree says strong inflows from the Defined Income Trust and Mortgage Income Trust countered the outflows.
Another top-performing division of Australian Unity was its health insurance business which reported a $7.1 million pre-tax profit, up from $5.5 million, and stronger than a few years ago when the business was reporting significant losses.
The general insurance business profit almost doubled to $1 million which Sibree attributes to Australian Unity’s only slight exposure to the Sydney hailstorm disaster.
The after-tax profit for the group was $27.2 million for this year, compared to $25.9 million for the 1998 financial year.
Sibree sees future growth coming from partnerships, such as the up-market retirement village partnership with Becton. Australian Unity will run the operation after the units have been sold at the Melbourne development.
“We are also looking for interstate growth through relationships with dealer groups rather than doing it ourselves,” he says.
