Zurich Life Ireland says its total new business rose by 1% to €218.5m for 2008. This is the company's first set to results under the Zurich brand - it was formerly known as Eagle Star.
The company said that market share was up 34% on the previous year to 12.6% after what it called an 'excellent' final six months.
It said its pension annual premium business rose by 20% last year compared to 2007 to reach €106.1m as the overall market for the product decreased by 8%. Pensions single premium business grew by 11% to €465.8m as the overall market declined by 22%.
Its PRSA business grew by 2% as the market fell by 20%. This gives it a PRSA market share of 28%.
The company said that over 80% of its new business last year came from pensions. Its non-life pension sales fell on the back of the fall-off in housing related lending for such products as mortgage protection.
'Although the economic background is currently difficult we are strongly positioned in the mainstream pensions market where customers take a longer term view,' commented CEO Michael Brennan.
Its Swiss parent Zurich Financial Services today posted a near halving of full-year net profit, and signalled more cost-cutting after its investments were hit by the crisis on financial markets.
Net profit fell by 47% from the 2007 level to $3 billion (€2.3 billion), while operating profit fell 23% to $5.2 billion. The group said that its net group investments fell by 42% to $5.832 billion after allowance for falls of $2.5 billion in values for equities and debt securities.
CEO James Schiro issued a cautious outlook for 2009, saying that 'rapidly deteriorating global economic environment' was unlikely to improve in the short-term.
