The Board of AIA Group Limited announced the Group’s financial results for the year ended 31 December 2023 stating that the value of new business (VONB) grew by 33% to $ 4,034 million.
China, Hong Kong, ASEAN ex-Vietnam and India all delivered double-digit VONB growth and annualised new premiums (ANP) increased by 45% to a record high of $ 7,650 million.
Moreover, VONB margin of 52.6% for the year with an increase in the second half compared with the first half.
AIA’s Group Chief Executive and President Lee Yuan Siong said: "AIA has delivered excellent VONB growth and a strong financial performance overall. With continued strong business momentum post the pandemic across the group, we grew ANP by 45 percent to a record high and VONB was up 33 percent to more than $ 4 billion. Our diversified business portfolio and unrivalled distribution platform have enabled us to generate higher VONB from our key growth engines of ASEAN, Hong Kong, Mainland China and India as well as double-digit growth from 10 markets.
“Our consistent financial discipline and focus on growing AIA’s high-quality in-force business supported growth in all our other key financial metrics with increases in EV operating profit, EV Equity, OPAT and UFSG on a per share basis. EV Equity increased by 7 percent to $ 76.1 billion before the return of $ 5.9 billion to shareholders through dividends and share buy-back. AIA’s capital position remained very strong with a free surplus of $ 16.3 billion and a Group LCSM coverage ratio of 275 percent.
“The Board has recommended a final dividend of 119.07 Hong Kong cents per share, which brings the total dividend to 161.36 Hong Kong cents per share, an increase of 5 percent from 2022. This follows AIA’s established prudent, sustainable and progressive dividend policy, allowing for future growth opportunities and the financial flexibility of the Group.
“Our largest operation in the ASEAN markets, AIA Thailand, continued its strong track record with a further 21 percent increase in VONB. The excellent new business performance was driven by growth from both our market-leading agency and strategic partnership with Bangkok Bank. The consistent execution of our Premier Agency strategy drove excellent growth in the number of new recruits and double-digit increases in both the number of active agents and agent productivity.
“VONB of our Other Markets segment was stable in 2023 compared with 2022. Strong underlying growth of the segment was offset by lower VONB from Vietnam. As previously reported, negative consumer sentiment continued to impact the life insurance industry in Vietnam through the year. Excluding Vietnam, Other Markets grew VONB by 15 per cent in 2023. Tata AIA Life delivered another year of excellent VONB growth across all distribution channels and ranked as the third largest private life insurer in India for 2023.
AIA Group Limited is listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited under the stock codes ‘1299’ for HKD counter and ‘81299’ for RMB counter with American Depositary Receipts (Level 1) traded on the over-the-counter market under the ticker symbol ‘AAGIY’.