Prudential reveals rise in profits and sees progress in growth strategy

It came as the company revealed that adjusted operating profits grew by 6 per cent to £2.27bn in 2023, compared with the previous year.

Chief executive Anil Wadhwani cheered the performance as “a very strong set of results while operating in a challenging macro environment”.

The group said it benefited from positive policy sales in Asia and Africa over the year.

This helped to drive a 45 per cent increase in new profit during the year, bosses said.

The London and Hong Kong-listed firm said its financial performance was also bolstered by its Eastspring investment management business and cost reductions.

Prudential also said sales continued to grow in the first two months of 2024 as momentum carried over.

Mr Wadhwani said: “It has been six months since the launch of our new strategy and it’s highly encouraging to see the early progress on our strategic objectives of improving our customer experience, driving technology-powered distribution and transforming our business model in health.

“We delivered an excellent financial and operational performance in 2023 and deployed increased levels of capital in new business, enhancing core capabilities and expanding distribution.

“Given the relentless execution focus in implementing our strategy, we are increasingly confident in achieving our 2027 financial and strategic objectives and in accelerating value creation for our shareholders.”

The group’s board also approved a fresh dividend payment, taking total dividends to 20.47 cents per share, up 9 per cent year on year.

Richard Hunter, Head of Markets at interactive investor, commented: “Prudential has a new purpose and a new strategy, and the early signs of this refreshed focus after a change at the top are extremely encouraging.

"Prudential has stated that it now has a “relentless” focus on executing the new strategy against some stretching targets, and already those 2027 aims are coming into view.

"The stated objectives, including compound annual growth of between 15 per cent and 20 per cent in new business profit to 2027 are particular punchy but even at this early stage the group is increasingly confident of achieving these goals.”

He added: “Unfortunately the economic clouds which have hung over the likes of China more recently have had a detrimental effect on the share price for Prudential, if not for its long term prospects.

"The shares have fallen by 23 per cent over the last year, as compared to a rise of 4.5 per cent for the wider FTSE100, and have now dropped by some 49 per cent over the last three years in a painful reminder of the ground which needs to be recovered. “Nonetheless, this lag in the share price has seemingly strengthened the resolve of bulls of the stock, who remain highly confident of the group’s longer term prospects, as evidenced by a market consensus which continues to come in as a strong buy.”