Axa Wealth revenues fall 23%

Revenues at Axa Wealth fell 23% last year to £474m as the recession hit bond and pension sales.

The business, which incorporates Axa Winterthur Wealth Management, Axa Wealth International, Architas multi-manager and the Elevate wrap platform, saw a 40% drop in offshore bond sales, a 26% fall in personal pension sales and an 18% drop on onshore bond new business.

Overall at Axa Life, which also includes Axa's corporate pensions, protection and Sun Life Direct propositions, total new business revenues were down 18% on an APE basis, from £1,026m in 2008 to £840m in 2009.

Bluefin Advisory Services (BAS) saw overall revenues decrease by 25% to £70m in 2009, reflecting, it says, a decision to dispose of the network businesses and focus on fee-based financial advice in readiness for RDR.

Axa says life underlying earnings were hit by stock market levels which reduced the value of annual management charges levied on assets under management and cut investment returns on shareholder assets and lower with-profit bonus rates.

However this was offset, it says, by a one-off profit of £106m from the internal restructuring of a portfolio of annuity liabilities and a raft of cost-cutting measures, leading to an increase in underlying earnings of 71% to £166m in 2009.

Axa says "considerable" progress has been made with its Elevate proposition, which has now signed up 363 IFAs and exceeded £695m funds administered on the platform. Architas, meanwhile, has tripled its funds under management to £3.19bn.

Revenues in corporate pensions were down 15% to £287m, reflecting a combination of the repositioning of the business away from initial commission towards a fee-based model as well as the impact of recession-driven recruitment, pay and contribution freezes on new member contributions.

The protection business saw new business revenue advance 15%, helped by the launch in July of its online underwriting capability for advisers. Sun Life Direct revenues grew 17%.

AXA Life says it is focusing its 2010 strategy on continuing to transform its business into an RDR-ready, new model financial services company.