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Hong Kong (AFP) Feb 25, 2011 Asian insurance giant AIA said Friday its net profit last year soared more than 50 percent to $2.7 billion, several months after it raised $20.5 billion in a monster Hong Kong share sale. New business growth along with currency and investment gains propelled the Pan-Asian insurer's results for the fiscal year ended November 30 to 54 percent above its $1.8 billion net profit in 2009. "Our 2010 results are a significant improvement over 2009 on all key measures, with excellent growth in profitability," AIA's Chief Executive Mark Tucker said in a statement announcing the firm's first public results since its listing in October. The company said its income from insurance premiums rose 12 percent to about $13 billion in 2010, a rise partly driven by a general strengthening of Asian currencies against the US dollar. AIA said it booked a 22 percent hike in new business to $667 million, up from $545 million in 2009, with growth across key markets including mainland China, Malaysia and Thailand. The firm's shares closed 5.7 percent higher at HK$22.3 ($2.85) on Friday. The Asian unit of troubled US insurer American International Group raised $20.5 billion in October, marking the world's third-biggest initial public offering at the time. AIA's sale came after Agricultural Bank of China raised $22.1 billion in Hong Kong last July, beating the previous world record set by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, which raised $21.9 billion in 2006. Some of the cash from AIA's huge IPO was earmarked for helping its then parent AIG pay off a $182 billion US government bailout it received at the height of the global financial crisis. Once the world's largest insurer, AIG received the massive government cash injection after it teetered on the brink of collapse in 2008 and threatened to take down a number of large banks with it. On Thursday, AIG reported a $7.8 billion net profit for 2010, largely aided by asset sales including the AIA offering, after reporting an almost $11 billion net loss in 2009. AIG, which still owns about one-third of AIA, was forced to look at floating its Asian unit in Hong Kong after the collapse last June of a proposed $35.5 billion sale to British insurer Prudential.
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