CORRECT: AIA's Value Of New Business Climbed 40% In Year Ended Nov 30

Asian insurance company AIA Group Ltd. (1299.HK, AAGIY, AAIGF) reported Friday a better-than-expected new-business value, which totaled US$932 million in the fiscal year ended Nov. 30, driven by continuous strong premium-income growth in Singapore, Malaysia and China.

AIA, which is 32.89%-owned by American International Group Inc. (AIG), said its new-business value rose 40% in the last fiscal year from US$667 million. The result was much higher than the average new-business value forecast of $870.5 million in a Dow Jones Newswires poll of eight analysts.

During the period, the insurer's value-of-new-business margin increased 4.6 percentage points to 37.2%, and annualized-new-premium sales were up 22% at $2.47 billion, AIA said.

The company plans to pay a final dividend of HK$22 cents a share, making the full year total dividend payout HK$33 cents per share.

Asian markets "put us in a very strong position to optimize opportunities for further growth and generate strong and sustainable returns for our shareholders," AIA Chief Executive Mark Tucker said.

-By Fiona Law, Dow Jones Newswires; 852-2802-7002; [e-mail]