Great Eastern

Great Eastern: Par Fund increased 19% to 144m, Non-Par Fund increased 214% to 422.5m, and Investment-linked Fund declined 1% to 125m. Profits increased 208% to $1.2b, of which $422m was attributed to the gain from the sale of the Group's shareholdings in APB and FNN in 3Q12. The 97% increase in profit, excluding the APB and FNN sale, was attributed to unrealised mark-to-market investment gains, strong growth in underwriting profit and net investment income. FY12 gross premiums increased by 3% to $6.6b, total weighted new sales increased 5% to $837m. Profit from insurance operations rose 76% to $726.1 million. Growth in underwriting profit was mainly contributed by the higher sales of protection-based products in Singapore and investment-linked products in Malaysia. On a geographical basis, the total weighted new sales increase in Singapore was driven by the sale of regular premium policies across all channels. In particular, the Group’s bancassurance channel through OCBC. Mgmt stated that Investment performance was better as markets recovered in 2012 with the narrowing of credit and swap spreads and improvement in equity markets. At the same time, aggressive pricing competition continued to dampen the sales of traditional endowment products. In Indonesia, the Group experienced encouraging growth in bancassurance sales. Dividend of 27¢ per share for 4Q12, together with an additional special dividend of 27¢. Total dividends paid out for FY12 of 64¢;Indicative yield for FY12 is 4.1%, almost doubling from FY11's dividend yield of 2.1%. Dividends proposed payable 9 May 2013. Company trading at 1.76x P/B, and 7.1x P/E.