APRIL: stable to end September

Foreign exchange fluctuations generated an adverse impact of €5.5m, mainly in South America and Canada, primarily affecting commissions in the Property & Casualty division. After adjusting to exclude foreign exchange effects and changes in scope, pro forma sales remained roughly stable.

“Sales trends are very encouraging in our traditional business as a wholesale broker in individual and group Health and Personal Protection insurance, as well as in Property and Casualty insurance, demonstrating the relevance of our model. While adversely affected by a challenging economic environment in South America, the group is actively working to prepare for the challenges of the generalisation of group health insurance by 2016 (under the National Interbranch Agreement, ANI), as well as to optimise its offerings and boost its distribution channels. While these investments will impact our financials in 2014 and 2015, they are essential to prepare for the future and ensure that APRIL is forward-looking and focused on long-term value creation.” – commented Bruno Rousset, Chairman and CEO, APRIL.

Looking at the detail, on a pro forma basis:

-Brokerage activity in Health & Personal Protection, driven by loan insurance and group insurance, was adversely affected in individual health insurance by the company’s prudent decision not to capture loss-making individual employee policies under the National Interbranch Agreement (ANI). These commissions totalled €234.5m to end September 2014, down 2.0%.

Property & Casualty commissions continued to be adversely affected by the agency network, whose strong sales performance was still not sufficient to make up for a start-of-year stock position impacted by the unfavourable trends of 2013. Furthermore, the travel and assistance business was impacted by challenging economic conditions in South America and Central Europe, adversely affecting sales momentum. These commissions fell 2.7% to €129.3m.

The increase in Health & Personal Protection premiums (up 3.0% to €139.6m) was mainly driven by growth in the individual, group and expatriate health and personal protection portfolios.

Property & Casualty premiums showed slight growth (up 0.8% to €80.5m) as a result of new partnerships and the revival of affinity member activities within the framework of a significantly reinsured model. After adjusting to exclude the effect of non-recurring premiums recognised in 2013, growth would have been more marked (up 4.2%).

APRIL

27 October 2014