Interim report Q3 2005

"Storebrand's performance continued to improve in the third quarter. The market is characterised by the changing regulatory framework and a competitive environment. Storebrand is continuously working to take advantage of business opportunities and provide high quality customer service in a dynamic market ", comments Idar Kreutzer, Group CEO.

 

Premium income (excluding transfers) at Storebrand Life Insurance totalled NOK 13.6 billion for the first nine months. This represents a 31% increase from the same period last year.

 

Storebrand is well prepared for the introduction next year of mandatory pension schemes for employees in Norwegian companies. We have made contact with over 10,000 companies all over the country, and have held 40 pension seminars. We are seeing a good inflow of new corporate customers seeking to set up pension schemes for their employees.

 

Storebrand set up some 120 new defined contribution pension schemes in Q3, bringing the total for the first nine months to approximately 320. Premium income has improved by 56% for the same period compared to the first nine months of 2004. Over 1,350 companies have now set up defined contribution pension schemes with Storebrand Fondsforsikring since it launched this product in 2001.

 

Storebrand has produced a satisfactory return on its life insurance policyholders' funds for the first nine months of 2005. Storebrand Life Insurance's booked investment return for the first nine months was 4.8%, and the value-adjusted return was 5.9%. The value-adjusted return for this period including unrealised gains on bonds held to maturity was 5.7%.

 

Storebrand Helseforsikring, which provides health insurance products for the corporate and retail markets, reported a 26% year-on-year increase in premium income for the first nine months of 2005.

 

Storebrand Investments had assets under management of NOK 177 billion at the close of Q3. This represents increases of NOK 12 billion since the start of the year and NOK 5 billion in Q3. Total funds under management were made up of NOK 152 billion of internal funds (including mutual funds) and NOK 25 billion of assets/funds managed for external clients.

 

Storebrand Bank reported a stable performance. The bank generated a pre-tax profit of NOK 42 million in Q3. This brings pre-tax profit for the first nine months of 2005 to NOK 182 million as compared to NOK 66 million for the same period in 2004.

 

Oslo, 2 November 2005

 

Appendix: Board of Directors' Interim report for Q3 2005