(Reuters) -Australia’s Suncorp Group posted an 86.3% rise in its full-year cash earnings on Wednesday, on the back of improved underlying margins and a significant turnaround in investment returns.
Also aiding the cash earnings, the company logged strong top-line growth across the group’s Insurance Australia and banking arm for the year ended June 30.
The country’s second-biggest insurer by market value posted annual cash earnings of A$1.25 billion ($817.38 million), compared with A$673 million a year earlier.
Net gain from yields and investment markets was A$724 million for the year, compared with a loss of A$190 million in 2022, the company said in a statement.
Last week, the company’s A$4.9 billion banking arm sale to ANZ Group Holdings was blocked by the country’s competition regulator.
Suncorp now expects the separation and other costs related to the deal to increase from A$500 million to between A$575 million and A$600 million.
The company also declared a final dividend of 27 Australian cents per share, compared with 17 cents per share a year earlier.
($1 = 1.5295 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by John Biju and Nausheen Thusoo in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
