AXA Reports Strong First Half Earnings

AXA’s recently retired CEO, Claude Bebear, must be pleased. The company he built virtually from scratch over the last 25 years just reported its best first half year earnings ever, with growth in all sectors.

Life insurance sales rose 13.8 percent (U.S.13.9 percent); P/C sales increased 3.6 percent, and financial services turned in a strong performance registering overall growth of 36 percent.

The growth came from all sectors, with only p/c sales in the Asia-Pacific Region reporting a downturn. Gross revenue in the period was just under €40 billion ($37 billion) compared to € 31.825 billion ($28.73 billion) in the first half of 1999 – a 28.8 percent increase.