Prudential says 9-month new business profit rises, boosts dividend

LONDON - Insurer Prudential Plc reported a 19 percent rise in new business profit for the first nine months of the year, driven mainly by strong performance at its Asian business. Prudential, which serves about 24 million insurance customers and has 562 billion pounds of assets under management, said new business profit rose to 1.97 billion pounds ($2.46 billion) from 1.66 billion pounds a year earlier. Group Annual Premium Equivalent (APE) sales, which include regular premium sales plus one-tenth of single premium insurance sales, rose 16 percent to 4.55 billion pounds, the insurer said. The company said it would aim to raise its ordinary dividend by 5 percent every year. -Reuters