Prudential Plc H1 Profit Surges, Lifts Dividend - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Prudential plc (PRU.L), a UK-based financial services group, reported Thursday that its first-half profit before tax attributable to shareholders, on IFRS basis, climbed 173 percent to 1.81 billion pounds from last year's 664 million pounds.

IFRS profit after tax grew 119 percent to 1.51 billion pounds from 687 million pounds a year ago.

IFRS operating profit based on longer term investment returns grew 15 percent to 2.36 billion pounds from 2.04 billion pounds a year ago.

Basic earnings per share based on operating profit after tax increased 14 percent to 70 pence from 61.3 pence last year.

On EEV basis, basic earnings per share based on operating profit after tax were 111.9 pence, an increase of 27 percent from 88.2 pence in the prior year.

In the first half, Life new business profit climbed 34 percent to 1.69 billion pounds, reflecting higher sales volumes and more favourable economics.

Further, the company said its Board has approved a first interim dividend for 2017 of 14.50 pence per share, which equates to an increase of 12 percent over the 2016 first interim dividend.

Mike Wells, Group Chief Executive, said, "Our successful strategy, innovative products and strong execution have driven growth across all of our main performance measures led by double-digit growth in our Asian business. We have achieved our objective of generating over £10 billion of Group cumulative free surplus between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2017 six months early and we remain on track to achieve the remaining Asia-focused objectives by the end of this year."