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SUNCORP Group (SUN) has bounced back from the 2011 summer of natural disasters.
Queensland’s largest financial institution posted a 160 per cent increase in net profit after tax to $724 million for the 2011-12 financial year.
General insurance, where many premiums have increased since the 2011 payouts, was a stand-out performer, recording a 125.7 per cent rise in after tax profit to $493 million.
Natural calamities had increased reinsurance costs and affected the headline result, but underlying performance was still positive across the business.
All subsidiaries achieved top-line growth of between 8 and 10 per cent and improved or at least maintained profit margins.
CEO Patrick Snowball (pictured) credited the group’s ‘one company, many brands’ business-model for achieving the encouraging result. He predicts the model will deliver $200 million in annualised benefits by the 2016 financial year.
“As a result, we enter the current financial year in a position that many companies would envy – with improved profits, stable or growing margins and reduced costs,” he says.
“The non-operating holding company structure has improved capital transparency, we have disposed of non-essential operations and the non-core banking portfolio has been reduced by more than 75 per cent.”
SUN shares were steady at $8.82 per unit.
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