Toronto insurer Sun Life Financial Inc. saw its profit sag slightly in 2014’s first quarter as compared to the same period last year. However, while losses in Sun Life’s Asia business dragged down the company’s performance, analysts noted Canadian operations continue to flourish.
Sun Life CEO Dean Connor pointed out the carrier’s “double-digit growth in insurance and wealth sales and record level of assets under management,” amounting to a 38 per cent increase in individual sales, a 30 per cent increase in wealth sales and $671 billion in assets under management.
It wasn’t enough to translate to overall Sun Life profits, however. Canadian business dropped in profit to $243 million—down from $263 million last year. Combined with a drop in Asia operating income from $51 million to $32 million, Sun Life was down to $400 million in profit as compared with last year’s $410 million.
Sun Life was helped along somewhat by an increase in profit through Boston-based MFS Investment Management. The asset manager brought in $133 million this quarter, up from $100 million in the same period last year, fueled primarily by mutual fund performance.
In order to more accurately measure its performance, Sun Life introduced a new earnings metric measuring its “underlying net income”—the company’s core earning, minus the impact of interest rates and equity markets. Here, Sun Life reported an underlying net income of $440 million.
Sun Life plans to redeem $250 million in preferred shares, at a price of $25 each on June 30.
Despite the slight drop in performance, Sun Life beat analyst expectations. Expected to end the quarter at 66 cents a share, the carrier ended at 74 cents. That’s down just slightly from 75 cents in the same period last year.
