nib New Zealand has announced a 14.9% lift in premium revenue to $210.9 million and a 35% rise in underlying operating profit to $24.7 million during financial year 2017.
In its latest annual results statement, nib said that its group level UOP sits at $153.7 million, up by 16.4%, while its net profit after tax grew 30.9% to $120.2 million.
“When we acquired the business in November 2012, we set some ambitious performance hurdles aimed at shaking up the health insurance industry, growing the market and nib’s overall share,” said Rob Hennin, Nib NZ chief executive officer. “Almost five years on and we’ve had some strong gains with the business delivering against our stated targets.”
According to Hennin, 50% of nib’s sales were driven by its direct-to-consumer health insurance channel. “Providing an easy and simple online join process is also proving popular with seven out of 10 customers joining on the website,” Hennin said. “Our white-label channel capability and pipeline also continues to grow and we’ve committed additional effort and investment to expand these channels over the coming 12 months.”
nib NZ chairman Tony Ryall said with expected favourable macro-economic conditions, the business would continue to invest in organic growth as well as look to adjacent business opportunities.
“We’ve seen great results within our Australian business operations in terms of leveraging our capability and expertise in adjacent businesses. We believe opportunity and markets exist to replicate this locally to grow our New Zealand operations and with that earnings,” Ryall said.
Its full year dividend was at 19.0 cents per share, up from 14.75 cents per share from a year ago, including a final dividend of 10.5 cents per share.
nib expects a UOP with range of AU$150 million to AU$160 million for the financial year 2018.
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