Not-so-great: OCBC’s Great Eastern profits plunge 31.2% in 2014

Blame the financial markets.

Lower gains, when seen from a bigger picture, could point to the economy as the main culprit.

Great Eastern, OCBC’s 87%-owned insurance arm, reported a 3Q14 core PATMI of SGD194.6m, down 20.4% QoQ and 31.2% YoY.

According to a report by Maybank Kim Eng, the declines were due to lower unrealised market-to-market gains from less-favourable financial-market conditions.

Maybank KE adds that Great Eastern’s underlying business was also weak, with total weighted new sales falling 2.8% QoQ and 22.3% YoY. 9M14 total weighted new sales declined 10.6% YoY to SGD660.1m.

New business embedded value, a measure of the long-term profitability of new sales, declined 4.8% QoQ and 14.0% YoY. 9M14 value fell 4.5% YoY.

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