nib New Zealand Improves Full Year Earnings

20 August 2018

nib New Zealand Improves Full Year Earnings with Member-First Approach

nib New Zealand today announced a full year underlying operating profit (UOP) of NZ$27.4 million for the 12 months to 30 June 2018 (FY18), an increase of 3.8% on the previous financial year. Premium revenue grew by 1.9% to NZ$214.9 million.

In its annual results statement issued to the ASX this morning, nib holdings limited (ASX: NHF) announced at a Group level UOP had increased 20.2% to AU$184.81 million while Net Profit After Tax (NPAT) grew 11.1% to AU$133.5 million.

nib New Zealand CEO, Mr Rob Hennin, said the New Zealand full year result reflected a lot of effort to enhance the member experience as well as a focus on service and product innovation.

“One of our key performance metrics is our member Net Promoter Score, which almost doubled during the year highlighting the significant progress we’ve made to put the member at the heart of everything we do,” Mr Hennin said.

“Our member-first approach is also a driving force behind our growth, with net policyholder growth during the year of 2.8%. Our fastest growing sales channel is now our direct-to-consumer and whitelabel portfolios which account for approximately 20% of all our inforce policies,” he added.

Mr Hennin said the company’s focus for the next 12 months would be on further improving member empowerment, transparency and assisting consumers to make better decisions in regards to their health and wellness.

“We’ve made great progress over the past year or so with initiatives like our First Choice Network to reduce member co-payments for hospital medical treatments and the launch of Whitecoat to help people search, rate, review and compare local healthcare providers,” Mr Hennin said.

“And thanks to the digital age, there’s a lot more we have in the pipeline to reduce medical cost variation as well as help people make more informed healthcare choices and improve their overall health outcomes.

“There’s no better example of this than our first ever Maori population health trial with Auckland iwi, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. The unique partnership provides free universal private health insurance as well as wellness programs for all iwi members to help improve their health and wellbeing outcomes,” he said.

“We are really proud of our work with Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. It’s been great to see this innovative programme come to life to help members of the hapū to overcome existing barriers to health, wellness and social care,” Mr Hennin added.

nib New Zealand Chairman, Mr Tony Ryall said the New Zealand market presented significant potential with nib well placed to invest in growth as well as capitalise on other strategic investment opportunities.

“We’ve seen great results across the nib Group in leveraging our capability and expertise in adjacent businesses to grow earnings. We believe there’s plenty of opportunity to replicate this strategy in the New Zealand market through a combination of organic growth, strategic acquisitions as well as industry rationalisation,” Mr Ryall said.

nib declared a full year dividend of 20.0 cents per share, fully franked (FY17: 19.0 cents per share) which includes a final dividend of 11.0 cents per share (FY17: 10.5 cents per share).

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