Hong Kong-based insurer AIA Group Ltd on Thursday reported a 37% fall in new business for the first half of the year, as the COVID-19 pandemic dented sales of its insurance products in its main markets of Hong Kong and China.
The company’s new business value, which measures expected profits from new premiums and is a key gauge for future growth, dropped to $1.41 billion in the half-year period ended June 30 from $2.28 billion a year earlier.
China and Hong Kong together account for about half of the new business growth globally at AIA, which was founded in Shanghai nearly 100 years ago and was the first foreign insurer to be granted a license in China