Earnings growth for Chesnara
CHESNARA, the quoted holding company for a number of closed life assurance funds, saw underlying profits more than double in the first half.
The Preston business said pre-tax profits rose from £3.8m last year to £9.3m this time.
That’s after stripping out £4.8m relating to the one-off reclassification of policy-holder tax liabilities.
The group said its European Embedded Value (EEV) – the measure of a life insurer’s value – grew marginally by £1.8m to £296.3m.
Chesnara has several arms – Countrywide Assured, Save & Prosper Insurance and its subsidiary Save & Prosper Pensions, and Sweden-based Movestic.
The results demonstrated “a significant level of resilience to the economic conditions as we continue to benefit from our robust governance culture and low-risk investment model,” said the business.
Chief executive Graham Kettleborough said: “Bearing in mind the market uncertainty and volatility in this period I am pleased that the resilience of our underlying business has again enabled us to deliver a strong set of results.
“Consequently, we are able to continue our dividend growth and declare a 2.5% increase in the interim dividend to 6.1p per share.”
