ASIAN SALES DRIVE UK’S PRUDENTIAL GROWTH

Significant growth from its Asian life operations drove an increase in first quarter sales for UK insurer Prudential. New revenue from the regional was up a third during the quarter, outstripping its performance in other markets. Prudential writes business in 13 countries in Asia but saw particularly strong growth in India, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore. In India sales of £89m in the quarter represented an increase of 41%, while sales in Japan doubled to £22m and were up nearly the same percentage in Indonesia at £40m. Hong Kong saw sales of £54m – up 50% - and Singapore sales were up 41% at $38m. In China Prudential’s sales growth of 50% outstripped the average market growth both for domestic players and foreign and joint ventures. And its takaful operations in Malaysia performed strongly and was 70% up on last year.