Profits Up for Liberty in Q3

Liberty Holdings, one of South Africa's largest life assurance groups, announced that it had shown a profit in the third quarter of 2009.

Liberty said that year to date losses were slightly lower than what had been reported in the first six months of the year.

The months leading to June 30, 2009 had shown Liberty Holdings with a R1.2 billion loss due to a number of factors.

Elements such as rising policy lapses, a stronger rand on foreign currency investments, and less consumer spending on life insurance products all contributed to the first half loss.

While the third quarter showed a slight profit, however, analysts agree that most product lines were set to decline.

"The new business numbers don't look great," said insurance analyst, Jan Meintjies.

A statement by Liberty Holdings this week said: "Liberty Holding's operations have performed satisfactorily over the quarter, with life cash flows being positive and growth in assets in the group's asset management business."

Speaking about a new move by management to encourage policyholders to be persistent in their payments, the spokesperson said: "Management believes the results of this initiative will begin show during 2010."

Liberty's newly established health business is continuing to grow and has now expanded to five African countries.

The segment most affected by the recession seems to be individual life as the lower socio economic groups struggle to find disposable income to pay their monthly premiums.

Liberty foresees a full recovery within the next 18 months.