Axa he succeeds to increase its margins in H1
Axa announced Wednesday better than expected financial results for the first half performance in line with its objective to give priority to the recovery in margins rather than the development of its turnover.
Net income for the second European group of insurance by market capitalization stood at 944 million euros, a figure well above the 623 million approached by the consensus of analysts conducted by the editor of Reuters.
"In the first half of 2010, we focused on optimizing our margins on all our business lines," said a statement from the Group CEO Henri De Castries.
If the result is displayed down 28% over the same period last year, this drop is due to the supply of 1.478 billion euros spent by the group following the sale of some of its assets in the United Kingdom.
Without this extraordinary loss, net income would increase by 81%.
The decline in operating income of 3% to 2.082 billion euros, a performance superior to 1.884 billion as planned by Reuters, while turnover has increased it from 1% to 49.925 billion euros.
The band's performance "We will strengthen our ability to rebound when the economy will become clearer," said Henri de Castries.
Axa has not commented on the offer of 11.5 billion dollars from the National Australia Bank on its subsidiary AXA Asia Pacific.
The subsidiary has announced a profit of 219.2 million Australian dollars for the first six months of the year, a figure in line with market expectations.
The offer, which clashed with the Australian authorities to the competition runs until August 31.
The title Axa lost 10.9% since the beginning of the year, while the European index DJStoxx insurance is up 3.16%.