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Investing.com -- Prudential Plc (LON:PRU) shares traded higher on Wednesday after the insurer posted first-half results that topped expectations and unveiled plans to return more than $5 billion to shareholders over the next three years.
The London-listed group reported an Annual Premium Equivalent of $3.29 billion, slightly above the $3.27 billion consensus.
New Business Profit came in at $1.26 billion, 1.3% ahead of expectations, with a margin of 38.3%, compared with forecasts of 38%.
Life and asset management gross operating free surplus generation reached $1.56 billion, 6% above the $1.47 billion estimate, driven by a 10% increase in returns on excess surplus and in-force transfer, alongside a 23% rise in assumption and experience variances.
Adjusted operating profit before tax stood at $1.64 billion, compared with the $1.63 billion forecast.
Insurance business profit was $1.80 billion, 2.6% higher than the $1.76 billion expected, while Eastspring, Prudential’s asset management arm, posted $158 million, 3.1% below consensus, as a result of marking shareholder assets to market.
Other income and expenses totaled to negative $317 million, compared with an expected negative of $291 million, reflecting lower cash balances and yields.
Operating profit after tax per share was 49.3 cents, ahead of the 48.5 cents forecast. The dividend per share of 7.71 cents matched expectations.
Alongside the earnings release, the company detailed a capital management plan of more than $5 billion through 2027.
The program includes annual ordinary dividend growth of 10% from 2025 to 2027, additional returns of $500 million in 2026 and $600 million in 2027, and the distribution of net proceeds from a potential initial public offering of ICICI Prudential Asset Management.
“In our view, these proposed capital returns are attractive, although we are surprised to find that these capital returns were not expressed in the form of a payout ratio on the group’s net free surplus generation, unlike Prudential’s close peer, AIA (which targets 75%),” said analysts at Jefferies in a note.
Based on consensus net free surplus, the implied payout ratio stands at about 50%, below the level some market participants had anticipated.