Old Mutual shows profits grow
Old Mutual showed a 14% profit growth in 2010.
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Old Mutual, the London and Johannesburg listed insurance giant with a strong presence in South Africa, recorded good financial results this week.
The group announced that it had beaten expectations and recorded a 14% increase in profits.
Old Mutual put its success down to following a three year strategy religiously and streamlining its structure.
The insurance giant said that pretax operating profits in 2010 were ?1.48 billion.
This was an increase of ?1.3 billion in 2009.
Prior to the release of these figures, industry analysts posted expectations of ?1.45 billion.
Old Mutual is in the process of simplifying its company's structure and realigning itself with its core offering - life insurance products.
Last year, investors expressed concern that Old Mutual was structured in a way that was too complex to see it - and them - enjoy satisfactory returns.
As such, Old Mutual went through a major revamp, a process that it is still working through.
The plan was met with several obstacles last year when Old Mutual was unsuccessful in selling its majority stake in Nedbank to HSBC.
However, Old Mutual said that it would continue to "work with Nedbank to build a shareholder value" this year.
Old Mutual is also trying to reduce its dependency on the South African market, and has therefore moved into European acquisition.
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