Platforms, Asia deliver results for AXA

Solid growth in inflows through platforms and wholesale funds along with strong contributions from Asia have offset weaker results in advice from New Zealand, to deliver AXA Asia Pacific a sound overall second quarter performance.

AXA today reported platform net flows were up 63.2 per cent on the same quarter last year to $614.7 million. A spokesperson for the company said this was largely due to the low-cost Generations platform, which has been gaining momentum since its release last August.

Net wholesale fund flows to AXA funds management partner Alliance Capital were also by 41.1 per cent on last year to $1.65 billion.

AXA group chief executive Les Owen said while gross retail inflows in Australia and New Zealand were up 9.7 per cent on the same period last year, net retail inflows were down 16.4 per cent due to changes last year in products distributed.

“Net retail inflows in the second quarter were $780.5 million, up 32.4 per cent on the first quarter,” he said.

The company’s expansion in Asia has seen new business in the region increase by 97.8 per cent, with total premiums up by 72.5 per cent compared with the second quarter last year.

Expanding partnerships lead to growth in new business in Indonesia of 277.3 per cent, while improved agent productivity increased new business in Thailand by 115 per cent.

New business was also up in Singapore by 39.2 per cent and the Philippines by 20.4 per cent. New business in China picked up by about 25 per cent on the first quarter but remained 11.1 per cent lower than the same time last year because of competition for agents and a market slowdown in Shanghai.

Flows from the New Zealand advice business, Spicers, were down due to a difficult market environment, contributing to a 27.3 per cent reduction on last year in advice net flows.