Great Eastern Q2 profit doubles to S$503.2 million on stronger insurance returns

The strong performance was vindication for minority shareholders who held out in parent OCBC&rsquo s unsuccessful bid to delist the insurer.

In June 2025, OCBC made a conditional exit offer of S$900 million at S$30.15 per share to Great Eastern&rsquo s shareholders for the 6.28 per cent stake it does not own.

The following month, some 63.49 per cent of minority shareholders present and voting at the extraordinary general meeting cast their votes in favour of a conditional exit offer from OCBC, falling short of the 75 per cent required to pass the resolution.

It came more than a year after OCBC first made a privatisation bid for Great Eastern through a voluntary unconditional general offer at S$25.60 per share.

Shares of Great Eastern closed 0.1 per cent or S$0.02 lower at S$21.50 on Thursday.

https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/great-eastern-q2-profit-doubles-s503-2-million-stronger-insurance-returns

Great Eastern&rsquo s FY2025 profit rose 21% y-o-y to $1,207.1 million, driven by favourable investment performance and earnings from the existing portfolio. Despite a 15% decline in total weighted new sales, new business embedded value grew by 25% in 4Q2025 and 19% in FY2025, fuelled by strong sales performance in Singapore and Malaysia.

Growth driven by robust results from shareholders&rsquo fund segment, which is up 45% on the year for the nine months ended Sep 30

 

[SINGAPORE] Insurer Great Eastern on Thursday (Oct 30) posted a net profit of S$372 million for its third quarter ended September, 36 per cent up from S$273.4 million in the year-ago period.

 

The improvement was driven mainly by &ldquo robust investment results&rdquo from shareholders&rsquo fund segment amid &ldquo modest growth&rdquo in underlying insurance business, it said in a Q3 business update.

 

For the three months, its new business embedded value rose 17 per cent on the year to S$182.2 million from S$156.1 million. This was driven by an improved product mix in the Singapore market, where new business embedded value climbed on the year to S$102 million, from S$61.6 million. 

 

However, total weighted new sales for Q3 fell by 5 per cent to S$373.1 million, from S$390.8 million previously, mainly due to the challenging business environment in Malaysia, where demand for insurance products was subdued. 

 

Total weighted new sales for the Malaysia market declined to S$113.3 million in Q3 2025, from S$129.4 million in Q3 2024. It was largely unchanged for the Singapore market at 251.9 million in Q3 2025. 

 

For the nine months ended Sep 30, net profit rose 12 per cent to S$965.7 million from S$860.5 million in the previous corresponding period. 

 

The higher bottom line was driven by profit from the shareholders&rsquo fund segment, which rose 45 per cent to S$321.7 million for the period, from S$222.4 million in the equivalent nine-month period for 2024. This reflects &ldquo favourable market conditions and (was) supported by effective portfolio management&rdquo , the group said. 

 

Meanwhile, profit from the insurance business inched up 1 per cent to S$644 million, from S$638.1 million. 

 

New business embedded value rose 16 per cent year on year to S$498.7 million, from S$428.1 million in the nine-month period of 2024. 

 

Total weighted new sales declined 21 per cent to S$1.1 billion, from S$1.4 billion previously. 

 

Great Eastern attributed this to lower single premium sales in Singapore, following a shift in product mix to align with emerging customer needs for longer-term financial planning priorities. 

 

&ldquo This led to a more favourable product mix and an improvement in overall margins, reflecting a year-on-year growth in the group&rsquo s new business embedded value,&rdquo the insurer added.  

 

Commenting on the results, Great Eastern&rsquo s group chief executive officer Greg Hingston remarked that the year-on-year gains in new business embedded value reflects the insurer&rsquo s ability to adapt to changing market demand while maintaining growth that supports its long-term profitability.

 

&ldquo Looking ahead, while we expect the broader market to continue to experience elevated volatility and uncertainty stemming from the global geopolitical environment, we remain steadfast in executing our growth strategy,&rdquo he said. 

The listed insurer is looking to capitalise on Asia&rsquo s unprecedented wealth creation

[SINGAPORE] Great Eastern Life &ndash the oldest and longest-established life insurance group in Singapore and Malaysia &ndash has signalled plans to significantly grow its profitability.

 

&ldquo We do have an ambition to double our new business value (NBV) over the medium to long term,&rdquo Greg Hingston, Great Eastern Life&rsquo s group chief executive officer, told The Business Times at the group&rsquo s 117th anniversary on Tuesday (Aug 26).

 

For life insurers, NBV refers to the present value of future profits from new business written during the year.

 

The way Hingston sees it, much of this new business could be generated by leveraging Asia&rsquo s unprecedented wealth creation, led by affluent and high-net-worth clients. He sees a &ldquo meaningful&rdquo opportunity for Great Eastern in the high-net-worth space. &ldquo We are relatively underweight in that at the moment, and yet it&rsquo s a very fast-growing part of the market so that is something that we will be very focused on,&rdquo he added. 

 

Operating across life, health, general insurance, and asset management, Great Eastern has more than 15.5 million policyholders and S$117 billion in assets. The group aims to expand consumption across its product lines, moving from a vertical to a more horizontal approach with customers.

 

Wealth, Hingston noted, is not just about investments and also encompasses holistic wealth management, in which insurance plays an implicit but essential role.

 

This is where Great Eastern is able to draw on Bank of Singapore&rsquo s (BOS) private banking network, OCBC&rsquo s retail and commercial banking base which includes a pool of business owners, and Great Eastern&rsquo s own financial advisers, many of whom are well connected to high-net-worth clients. 

 

For instance, Hingston explained that OCBC is focused on developing retirement planning solutions as part of its broader wealth management strategy and has been vocal about expanding its wealth business. 

 

He also described working with BOS a &ldquo fairly embryonic opportunity&rdquo where there is a lot more that the insurer can do there as well. 

 

In this context, distribution for products catering to high-net-worth clients will continue to be driven through the insurer&rsquo s bancassurance partnerships alongside its own advisory capabilities. &ldquo It&rsquo s going to be a combination of genuine white space, where we can bring something to the market that will be new,&rdquo Hingston said. 

 

Currently, Great Eastern has a well-established arrangement with OCBC that is being further strengthened. The insurer is also reviewing how BOS&rsquo brokered model could evolve. 

 

One option under consideration is the introduction of in-house insurance specialists within BOS to provide clients with direct expertise. 

 

Over the longer term, and subject to an extension of Great Eastern Financial Advisers&rsquo licence, the insurer also aims to incorporate both BOS and OCBC solutions into the portfolio available to its top-tier advisers.   Hingston said: &ldquo We want to make sure that we are where the customer is and where the customer wants to consume.&rdquo  

 

When asked how Great Eastern plans to differentiate its high-net-worth offerings from other players, he replied that the insurer is shifting to a &ldquo customer-led model, deep customer understanding model approach going forward, using technology to access and think about things in a different way&rdquo .

 

Based on his experience across banking, insurance, and financial services, he noted that such a model has not yet been applied as extensively in insurance, which he believes will set Great Eastern apart. He added that the insurer also benefits from being part of a larger financial group. &ldquo There is huge upside from working with the group and leveraging the synergies that do exist.&rdquo

 

Great Eastern&rsquo s 117th anniversary celebrations come on the heels of a failed takeover bid by parent company OCBC and its resumption of trading on the Singapore Exchange last week, after a proposed bonus share issue lifted its free float above 10 per cent. It was suspended from trading in July 2024 after its free float fell below 10 per cent.

 

In response to media queries at the anniversary event, Hingston noted that the status of the takeover or the delisting issue &ldquo does not make any difference&rdquo as it has no impact on the insurer&rsquo s strategic focus and how it would look to extract value from the wider OCBC group.

 

He told BT that OCBC, as the majority shareholder, remains integral to the insurer&rsquo s ability to drive value. 

 

Against this backdrop, Hingston outlined the three core themes that Great Eastern Life is focusing on: developing tailored offerings and engagement for all customers delivering advisory and service excellence through digital tools and platforms including artificial intelligence solutions and fostering an organisation and culture that supports a future-ready workforce. &ldquo The world is changing rapidly around us and we need to be able to embrace that as we go forward,&rdquo he said.

 

Refreshed corporate logo

This forward-looking approach is also reflected in Great Eastern&rsquo s refreshed corporate logo. The insurer has evolved its lion motif to &ldquo convey a greater gravitas&rdquo , and revised its tagline to &ldquo An OCBC Company&rdquo .

 

The refreshed logo will be rolled out progressively across digital platforms to customer communications and physical locations.

 

Hingston told BT that the brand refresh is &ldquo part of a natural evolution of the company&rdquo . He noted that the last refresh was about 20 years ago. &ldquo We now operate in a world that is much more digital than before, and we want the new logo to represent a more progressive, modern view and show up well across different mediums,&rdquo he added.

The counter last traded at S$25.80 in July 2024

 

[SINGAPORE] Great Eastern Holdings (GEH) resumed trading on Thursday (Aug 21), after a proposed bonus share issue lifted its free float above 10 per cent. 

 

It was suspended from trading in July 2024 after its free float fell below 10 per cent, following a failed takeover bid by parent company OCBC.

 

Its shares resumed trading on Thursday morning at S$13.21. It was last traded at S$25.80, prior to the suspension and bonus issue.

 

The insurer failed to pass a delisting vote at its extraordinary general meeting last month, which led to the passing of a resolution for a one-for-one bonus issue. It comprised new ordinary shares and newly created Class-C non-voting shares, and shareholders could choose. OCBC opted for the Class-C shares for its bonus entitlement to expand the public float. 

 

Events leading up to the year-long trading suspension 

OCBC in May last year made a voluntary unconditional general offer at S$25.60 a share for the remaining 11.56 per cent stake in GEH that it did not already own, with an eye on delisting the insurer. 

 

The offer was deemed &ldquo not fair but reasonable&rdquo by EY, the independent financial adviser to the transaction.

 

Great Eastern Q2 earnings down 11% at S$248.2 million due to lower contribution from insurance business

The privatisation bid failed and left OCBC holding 93.52 per cent of GEH shares, but was short of the 98.87 per cent compulsory acquisition threshold. This milestone would have triggered a compulsory acquisition of GEH shares that OCBC did not already hold.

 

Subsequently, OCBC, at the request of GEH, made a S$900 million conditional exit offer of S$30.15 per share for the 6.28 per cent stake in GEH it did not own. This new offer was termed &ldquo fair and reasonable&rdquo by EY. But this was rejected by shareholders, who then voted in favour of the bonus issue.

 

Most recently, GEH&rsquo s Q2 earnings were down 11 per cent at S$248.2 million due to a lower contribution from its insurance business.