AIA Group Limited recorded 13 percent growth in value of new business (VONB) on constant exchange rates (CER) for the first quarter ended March 31, 2025.
Growth rates are shown on a constant exchange rate basis.
• Annualised new premiums (ANP) increased by 7 percent to US$2,617 million
• VONB margin up 3.0 pps to 57.5 percent
• New business contractual service margin (NB CSM) up 16 per cent
• Shareholder capital ratio remained strong and comfortably above 200 per cent
Lee Yuan Siong, AIA’s Group Chief Executive and President, said, “AIA has continued to build on ourexcellent results and momentum in 2024 with VONB of US$1.5 billion in the first quarter of 2025, up 13 percent compared with last year’s record quarterly result. Our ability to capture profitable new business opportunities sustainably at scale is the direct result of our highly diversified and resilient business model and growing demand for AIA’s products and services.
“Our Premier Agency is a key pillar of our growth strategy, delivering over 75 percent of the Group’s total VONB in the first quarter of 2025. We continue to grow our reach with strong, highquality recruitment supporting an overall 8 percent increase in active agent numbers.
“Our differentiated agency model, focused on long-term customer relationships and powered by leading digital platforms, has driven further increases in agent activity and productivity while maintaining a diversified and resilient product mix.
“Our proven management team’s commitment to building a high-quality, sustainable business for the long term, and continued focus on executing our strategic priorities help us successfully deliver against a global backdrop of volatile capital markets and capture the strong fundamental growth drivers in Asia, which is the most attractive region in the world for life and health insurance.
“I have full confidence that our substantial competitive advantages will continue to deliver longterm sustainable value for all of our stakeholders.”
AAIA delivered a 13 percent increase in VONB to US$1,497 million in the first quarter of 2025, with growth from both our agency and partnership distribution channels.
“Our unrivalled, proprietary Premier Agency grew VONB by 21 per cent to US$1,218 million with very strong growth from both traditional protection and participating products. The focused execution of our strategy drove higher agent productivity, an 8 percent increase in the number of active agents and a 9 percent increase in the number of new recruits. The agency channel accounted for over 75 percent of the Group’s total VONB in the first quarter of 2025.
VONB from our partnership distribution was up 2 per cent to US$397 million, as we remain financially disciplined in AIA Hong Kong’s independent financial adviser (IFA) and broker channel as well as AIA China’s bancassurance channel. Outside Mainland China, our bancassurance businesses delivered VONB growth of 21 per cent.
Our largest business, AIA Hong Kong, delivered another very strong quarter with VONB up 16 percent, supported by balanced growth across both the domestic and Mainland Chinese visitor (MCV) customer segments. We achieved excellent performances in both our Premier Agency and bancassurance channels. Our Premier Agency is the market leader in Hong Kong and Macau, and our strategy continues to drive increased agent activity and productivity as well as very strong recruitment.
AIA China’s VONB was up by 8 percent, before the effects of economic assumption changes, compared with the very strong result we reported in the first quarter of 2024. VONB included in the Group’s reported results for the first quarter of 2025 reflects Chinese government bond spot yields as at December 31, 2024, as well as the reduction of 80 basis points in our long-term investment return assumption made at the end of 2024. On this prudent basis, VONB reduced by 7 percent compared with the first quarter of 2024 while VONB margin was above 50 percent, as previously indicated.
Our Premier Agency model is unique in Mainland China, combining high-quality professional advice with a focus on long-term relationships with middle-class and affluent customers, our economically robust target segment. The proactive training and professionalism of our agents have been critical enablers of our product strategy with a successful shift towards participating products and our product mix overall remained balanced. Recruitment continued to be strong with the number of active new agents increasing by 15 per cent, supporting an overall increase of 6 percent in active agent numbers, further building sales momentum. Agency VONB in our new geographies established between 2019 and 2023 grew by more than 20 per cent. In March and April, we successfully launched new operations in another four new geographies, namely Anhui, Shandong, Chongqing and Zhejiang, providing access to 100 million potential new customers in our target segment.
AIA Thailand delivered exceptional VONB growth as we benefitted from one-off sales through the agency channel ahead of regulatory changes relating to individual medical insurance products intrduced from March 2025. We also saw very strong VONB growth through the bancassurance channel, driven by our strategic partnership with Bangkok Bank.
“In Singapore, we achieved excellent growth in VONB and continued to see strong sales from our unit-linked long-term savings products that provide access to leading global fund managers through the AIA Regional Funds Platform. The strong performance of our market-leading Premier Agency was supported by very strong growth in agent productivity. AIA delivers continued strong growth in value of new business,” he said.
AIA Malaysia reported higher VONB as excellent growth through our strategic partnership with Public Bank was partially offset by a decline in the agency channel, where we continue to focus on quality recruitment.
Other markets delivered very strong VONB growth, driven by increases from most of the markets in the segment.
“Our joint venture in India, Tata AIA Life, achieved excellent VONB growth with strong performances across its multi-channel distribution platform, and maintained its number one industry ranking in retail protection by sum assured in the first quarter of 2025.
Overall, VONB for the Group was up by 13 percent to US$1,497 million. ANP grew by 7 percent to US$2,617 million, while VONB margin increased to 57.5 percent, benefitting from the favourable shift in product mix, partially offset by the change in economic assumptions.
Margin reported on a present value of new business premium (PVNBP) basis remained stable while total weighted premium income (TWPI) increased by 14 per cent to US$12,680 million.
NB CSM for the first quarter of 2025 increased by 16 per cent, faster than VONB growth of 13 percent. Successive layers of profitable new business add to our substantial, recurring earnings from in-force business, providing us with confidence in delivering our operating profit after tax (OPAT) per share CAGR target of 9 to 11 percent from 2023 to 2026.
While the global macro environment and capital markets remain volatile, AIA’s financial strength and flexibility are key differentiators for the Group.
