Hibernian's life division made a loss of £40m (€59.4m) last year, according to figures from its parent company Aviva. This compares with a £20m profit in 2005. But the insurance arm saw profits rise slightly to £172m (€255m).
Hibernian's life and pension sales were 93% higher at £1.27 billion after the start of its merger with AIB's Ark Life division. Sales through AIB branches were £589m. But margins halved to 1.2%, mainly because of increased competition.
In insurance, Hibernian's underwriting profit increased by £5m to £121m, helped by lower costs as the number of personal injury claims fell.
Meanwhile, Aviva's net profit leapt by 25% to £2.2 billion in 2006, boosted by sales growth in its home market and the purchase of US life assurer AmerUs. Pre-tax profit rose 11.7% to £3.25 billion, but this was short of analysts' expectations.
