InvestIdeas

A thinly traded stock. This should help OCBC.

November 3, 2008, 5.35 pm (Singapore time)

Great Eastern Q3 net profit up 9%

SINGAPORE - Great Eastern Holdings, the insurance arm of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, said on Monday third quarter net profit rose 9 per cent as higher earnings from insurance offset a drop in investment income.

Great Eastern, the largest life insurer in Singapore and Malaysia, earned S$135.2 million in the three months ended September, up from S$124.4 million a year earlier.

Insurance operations accounted for 26 per cent of OCBC's core operating profit last year but only 4 per cent in the first six months of 2008, as the fall in global markets hurt insurers' investment portfolio.

OCBC, which will announce its third quarter earnings on Wednesday, owns 87 per cent of Great Eastern. -- REUTERS

Great Eastern has S$64m exposure to Madoff-linked funds By SIOW LI SEN

Great Eastern Holdings has disclosed its exposure to funds of the Fairfield Greenwich Group which had dealings with Bernard Madoff who ran one of the biggest Ponzi fraud schemes ever.

In a statement on Wednesday, Great Eastern said its exposure via the relevant funds is about $64 million, comprising $7.7 million invested out of its shareholders' fund and $56.3 million from its Life Fund. This investment represents 0.14 per cent of the group's total assets of $45 billion as at 30 September 2008.

In addition, Lion Fairfield Capital Management Ltd, a 65/35 joint venture between Lion Global Investors Limited (a subsidiary of Great Eastern Holdings) and the Fairfield Greenwich Group, acting as an agent, has sold about US$45 million of the Fairfield Sentry fund through private banking channels to accredited investors.

One of Great Eastern Group's GreatLink funds, the GreatLink Lion Global Flexi Fund, feeds into LionGlobal Flexi Fund. The latter is managed by Lion Global Investors Limited and it has an investment of approximately $350,000 in the Fairfield Sentry fund. This investment represents less than 1.5 per cent of the LionGlobal Flexi Fund's portfolio as at 11 December 2008.

The above has no material impact on the Great Eastern Group, including its subsidiary, Lion Global Investors, it said.

February 17, 2009, 6.34 pm (Singapore time)

Great Eastern Q408 net profit slumps 47%

By LYNETTE KHOO

With investment performance hit by the financial downturn, Great Eastern saw a 47 per cent slump in its net profit for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2008 to $76.5 million compared to the previous year.

Its net profit for the full year tumbled 50 per cent to $272.4 million, down from a record high of $546.9 million achieved in 2007, no thanks to mark-to-market changes on investments as a result of extreme volatile market conditions throughout the year.

The underlying insurance business of the group remained strong in 2008, with group gross premiums recording an increase of 17 per cent to $7.03 billion for 2008, while pre-tax profit from investments in the Shareholders' Fund totalled $40.9 million, a drop of 63 per cent from $111.5 million in 2007.

The group said its overall performance will continue to be affected by local, regional and global economic conditions.

'The current financial crisis and recessionary conditions portend a weak economic outlook for 2009,' it added. 'Continued volatility in the equity and debt markets will impact earnings of the insurance businesses of the group. However, the capital and solvency positions of the group remain strong.'

Life's not so great afterall..

Published February 18, 2009

GE writes down exposure to Madoff's funds

GREAT Eastern has written down $64 million of indirect exposure to Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff's funds.

This represents 0.15 per cent of Great Eastern's assets of $44 billion at end-2008.

In the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2008, Great Eastern saw a $409.6 million increase in provision for impairment of assets.

The increase for the whole of 2008 was $486.6 million.

Madoff's Ponzi scheme that rocked the financial world unravelled last December, claiming seasoned banks and funds among its victims.

Great Eastern's indirect exposure to Madoff funds comprised $7.7 million invested from its Shareholders' Fund and $56.3 million from its Life Fund.

In addition, the local insurer has exposure to some funds of Fairfield Greenwich Group, a hedge fund that invested more than half of its US$14.1 billion of assets with Madoff.

Lion Fairfield Capital Management, a 65-35 joint venture between Great Eastern subsidiary Lion Global Investors and Fairfield Greenwich Group, sold about US$45 million of the Fairfield Sentry fund through private banking channels to accredited investors.

One of Great Eastern Group's funds, the GreatLink Lion Global Flexi Fund, feeds into LionGlobal Flexi Fund, which has an investment of about $350,000 in the Fairfield Sentry fund.

This investment represented less than 1.5 per cent of LionGlobal Flexi Fund's portfolio at Dec 11, 2008.

Hi MM
Not only that.
So many big wigs/gurus in charge of our esteemed fin institutions aren't great after all too. Now we know that a number of them really understand issues less than many of us in this forum

STRAITS TIMES - About 1,000 Great Eastern Life agents have been asked to return up to S$12.6 million ($8.80 million) in commissions received from policies they sold up to four years ago.

Interesting.

Does Great Eastern has a case for this?

After all, they decide the product to sell and the quota for the agent to meet.

So, if the agent spend so much time prospecting and trying to close the deal, how does Great Eastern compensate for the efforts spent?

winston wrote:STRAITS TIMES - About 1,000 Great Eastern Life agents have been asked to return up to S$12.6 million ($8.80 million) in commissions received from policies they sold up to four years ago.

i am sure the agents will tell Great Eastern Insurance

GREAT EASTERN HOLDINGS LTD - Credit Suisse upgraded Great Eastern to an "outperform" and raised its price target by 20 percent to S$15.41 from S$12.84 to reflect its better-than-expected insurance profits.

February 10, 2010, 6.19 pm (Singapore time)

Great Eastern's FY09 net profit surges 90%

Great Eastern Holdings Limited reported net profit for the full-year 2009 grew 90 per cent to $516.7 million.

Its performance was lifted by the increase in investment returns on the Non Participating Fund due to the improving market conditions.

There were also two non-recurring items - a profit of $210.4 million arising from the move to the new risk based regulatory capital framework in Malaysia as well as from the portfolio matching exercise in Singapore in the first quarter of the year and a non-recurring loss of $213.3 million due to the one-off redemption offer made to GreatLink Choice policyholders in third quarter of the year.

Full-year profit from insurance operations before shareholders' tax registered a sharp increase of $434.9 million to $751.9 million.

Excluding the non-recurring profit contributions, profit from insurance operations increased 71 per cent to $541.5 million.

It is recommending a final dividend of 27 cents a share, compared to 16 cents a share previously.

It is also proposing a special final dividend of 8 cents (2008: nil), totalling 35 cents a share for SY09.