26 Feb 2002

Prudential plc 2001 Unaudited Results

• Total achieved profits (after restructuring costs) up 15 per cent to £1,186 million.
• New business achieved profits up 10 per cent to £673 million.
• Record total Group insurance and investment sales of £21.5 billion, up 54 per cent on 2000 (£13.9 billion).
• Over 60 per cent of Group sales and new business achieved profits from outside the UK.
• Geographically diversified business with significant strengths in chosen markets.
• Total dividend up 3.7 per cent to 25.4p per share.

Commenting on the results, Jonathan Bloomer, Prudential's Group Chief Executive said:

"We have continued to deliver our strategy of building an international retail financial services business by broadening our geographic presence, distribution channels and range of products to enable us to reach more customers and meet more of their needs.

"We have leading positions in key markets around the world and excellent customer access and reach. We are extremely well positioned to benefit from the growth in customer demand for asset accumulation and income in retirement with a business model that has an efficient cost base, financial strength and diversity of earnings by geographic region and product.

"The success of this strategy has been demonstrated in our performance during the year. We have made real progress in restructuring and re-focusing our UK insurance operations and its strong performance in 2001 shows that we can build the business in competitive markets while driving through these changes. There has been continued strong investment performance at M&G and Egg broke even in the fourth quarter as planned. Jackson National Life had its second best year ever for total sales as well as record sales of fixed annuities, and Prudential Corporation Asia had another year of exceptionally strong growth across the region.

"This performance was particularly pleasing because it was achieved against a backdrop of tough market conditions for many areas of our business. Turbulence in capital markets has led to credit losses and a fall in embedded value. However, the overall Group results reflect the fact that Prudential is a financially strong company with outstanding businesses and a broad international base.

Group total insurance sales, on an annual premium equivalent (APE) basis, of £1.8 billion were up 16 per cent and sales of investment products of £1 billion increased from £376 million in 2000. Achieved basis operating profits (after restructuring costs) increased by 15 per cent to £1,186 million. New business achieved profits were up 10 per cent, principally due to strong growth in Asia. Total in-force achieved operating profits increased 24 per cent to £673 million, despite a £74 million charge relating to average realised bond losses in the United States.

"As part of our ambition to build a business with long-term sustainable growth, we have set a goal for the next four years of doubling the intrinsic value of the Group. We define intrinsic value as the discounted value of the cash generated by the business in the future. This can be approximated to the sum of the embedded value together with a multiple of new business profits for our long-term businesses, and the fair value of non-insurance operations such as Egg and M&G. In order to achieve this goal, we will need to broadly double new business achieved profits and the fair value of our non-insurance operations. This is a stretching target, the key to which is performance delivery and our ability to develop the business so that growth will continue after the four year period, and one which is consistent with our focus on delivering value.

"The markets in which we operate around the world are experiencing significant change, bringing challenges but also enormous opportunities. This change is being driven by a number of factors including demographic shifts, changing regulation and government policy, different consumer attitudes, greater consumer sophistication, market reform and liberalisation, and increasing competition. Prudential, with its AAA financial strength, comprehensive distribution, product innovation and scale operations is well placed to meet these challenges and take advantage of the opportunities they present."

UK and Europe

"In the UK, we have complementary businesses and market-leading positions in key product areas, enabling us to deliver sustained growth in the low margin environment in which we now operate. Our UK insurance operations have undergone an enormous transformation in recent years and the development of our business model to improve our service to over seven million customers continued in 2001. We made changes to our direct sales channels and customer service operations and set out a more focused strategic direction for the business, creating further cost efficiencies and bringing together our operating units under the powerful Prudential brand.

"M&G's market position, investment capabilities and brand strength make it one of the leading fund managers in the UK. The successful integration with Prudential Portfolio Managers has created a focused business with strong positions in all of its markets. Investment performance continues to be encouraging against difficult market conditions. Within the retail market, M&G has materially increased market share during the year, and on the institutional side has won a number of sizeable new fixed income mandates on the back of the growing trend among defined benefit pension schemes to seek to cap their liabilities.

"Egg's full-year results were announced on 25 February 2002. Since we launched Egg in 1998, it has become one of the UK's leading e-commerce financial brands and the leading digital bank worldwide. In November, Egg achieved a break-even position and in doing so, met the commitment made at the time of its flotation in June 2000 that it would break even during the fourth quarter of 2001. Egg's management team is confident that its UK business is sustainably profitable. Customer numbers now stand at over two million, and in January of this year, Egg announced details of its planned launch in France during 2002 including the acquisition of Zebank, the first digital online bank in France.

"In Europe, Prudential had a number of notable achievements during the year including the opening of a Paris-based branch, the launch of Prudential Europe Vie, an equity-backed life insurance product that builds on the success of Prudence Bond in the UK, and the signing of an additional distribution agreement with Centre Francais du Patrimoine, one of the largest multi-product broking services in France."

United States

"2001 has been a year of considerable uncertainty for markets, particularly the capital markets, in the United States. No one in the US has been immune from these difficult market conditions and Jackson National Life (JNL) was no exception. However, long-term demographic trends are favourable and we believe that there are significant growth prospects, bringing with it outstanding opportunities for high quality businesses like JNL.

"JNL is one of the top 20 life insurance companies in the United States in terms of total assets. Since we acquired it in 1986, JNL has been transformed into a market leading provider in its chosen product lines and distribution channels. While its performance during the year was affected by the continued market volatility in the US, particularly in areas such as variable and equity-linked products, JNL's broad product and distribution mix enabled it to deliver strong results in other areas including fixed annuities and stable value products.

"When combined with its considerable operating efficiency, low cost base and modern IT systems, JNL's diversified product portfolio and variety of distribution outlets enables it to continue writing profitable business in difficult economic conditions. Our ambition to grow the business remains and we will continue to develop JNL's product range and enhance its distribution channels to ensure that it is well placed to benefit from the anticipated growth in the US financial services market."

Asia

"The Group had another year of success and impressive growth in Asia. Prudential Corporation Asia (PCA) now operates in 12 countries, having added Japan and Korea to its geographic mix during the year, and it already has top five market positions in eight businesses across the region.

"PCA's performance in 2001 (new business achieved profits were up 67 per cent) endorsed its successful strategy of entering new markets, strengthening and diversifying distribution channels, and launching innovative, customer-focused products. The prospects for the long-term savings markets will continue to be significant across Asia, and represent an excellent opportunity for companies like Prudential with its financial strength, trusted brand name, strong joint venture partners, track record of success in the region, and a commitment to meet local customer needs with innovative products."

Summary

"2001 has been another year of considerable success and achievement for the Group and the benefits of our strategy of diversification by product and distribution channel internationally are very clear. Prudential is one of only 10 insurance companies worldwide with AAA financial strength ratings from both Standard & Poor's and Moody's. We have some truly outstanding businesses across the Group and through our focus on delivering value rather than volume as well as our active management of capital, I believe that we are very well placed for the future."

The final dividend of 16.7p per share will be paid on 29 May 2002 to shareholders on the register at the close of business on 22 March 2002. Shareholders will once more be offered a scrip dividend alternative.

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

1. There will be a conference call today for wire services at 7.30am on 020 8288 4530 hosted by Jonathan Bloomer, Group Chief Executive.
2. A presentation to analysts will take place at 10:00am at Governor's House, Laurence Pountney Hill, London, EC4R 0HH. A webcast of the presentation and the presentation slides will be available on the Group's website, www.prudential.co.uk
3. There will be a conference call for international investors at 2:30pm (dial in telephone number: +44 (0) 20 8781 0574, US callers 1 334 323 4002). Callers to quote "Prudential" for access to the call.
   A recording of this call will be available for replay for one week by dialling:
   UK: 020 8288 4459, US: 1 703 736 7336, access code 653932.
4. A press conference will take place at 11:45am at Governor's House, Laurence Pountney Hill, London, EC4R 0HH. If journalists wish to attend, please call the Press Office in advance on 020 7548 3304. Photographs are available at www.newscast.co.uk .
5. An interview with Jonathan Bloomer (in video/audio/text) will be available on www.cantos.com and www.prudential.co.uk from 8.00am on 26 February 2002.
6. Annual premium equivalent (APE) sales comprise regular premium sales plus one-tenth of single premium insurance and investment sales.
7. Total number of Prudential plc shares outstanding as at 31 December 2001 was 1,993,819,770.
8. Financial Calendar:

   First quarter new business figures 2002	Thursday 18 April 2002
   Annual General Meeting	Thursday 9 May 2002
   Interim Results 2002/	Wednesday 24 July 2002
   Second quarter new business figures 2002 Third quarter new business figures 2002	Thursday 17 October 2002

This statement may contain certain "forward-looking statements" with respect to certain of Prudential's plans and its current goals and expectations relating to its future financial condition, performance and results. By their nature, all forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to future events and circumstances which are beyond Prudential's control including among other things, UK domestic and global economic and business conditions, market related risks such as fluctuations in interest rates and exchange rates, the policies and actions of regulatory authorities, the impact of competition, inflation, deflation, the timing, impact and other uncertainties of future acquisitions or combinations within relevant industries, as well as the impact of tax and other legislation and other regulations in the jurisdictions in which Prudential and its affiliates operate. As a result, Prudential's actual future financial condition, performance and results may differ materially from the plans, goals, and expectations set forth in Prudential's forward-looking statements.

Note

Operating profit for insurance operations includes investment returns at the expected long-term rate of return. For the purposes of the presentation set out above, to be consistent with the alternative earnings per share, operating profit excludes amortisation of goodwill and the merger break fee, net of related expenses. The directors believe that operating profit, as adjusted for these items, better reflects underlying performance. Total profit includes these items together with actual investment returns and profit on business disposals. This basis of presentation has been adopted consistently throughout this announcement. 

Operational Review

United Kingdom & Europe

UK Insurance Operations

2001 was a significant year for our UK Insurance Operations as we underwent a major restructuring and re-focusing of our business to meet the opportunities and challenges presented by continued change in the UK's life insurance market.

The UK insurance business recorded sales on an annual premium equivalent (APE) basis of £838 million, 10 per cent up on 2000. New business achieved profits (NBAP) were up 6 per cent to £243 million, reflecting increased volumes of new business written during the year, and our ability to build the UK business while driving through change. Total UK achieved operating profits fell 12 per cent to £620 million. However, these results reflect the adoption of the new active basis for setting economic assumptions. Underlying achieved operating profits, excluding the impact of the change to active-basis reporting, were £724 million (up two per cent on prior year), with NBAP contributing £269 million to this result, an improvement of 17 per cent on 2000.

During the year, we announced changes to our customer services operations, including the closure of our direct sales force, to enable us to meet changing customer needs and to continue to operate cost-effectively as a scale player in the UK market. We also transferred our general insurance operations to Winterthur Insurance, while forming an alliance with its UK subsidiary, Churchill, to continue to offer Prudential-branded general insurance products in the UK, while benefiting from Winterthur's market-leading expertise and capabilities in this sector. The transaction, which completed in January 2002, is expected to generate approximately £810 million for Prudential over time, and reflects our strategy of deploying capital where it will deliver the most value. Profit arising from the transaction will be accounted for in 2002.

Our core UK insurance businesses are currently being integrated into one organisational structure to significantly improve customer service and to lower costs. We announced our commitment to take a further £175 million out of our annual UK cost base by 2004 and aggressively drive expense levels across the business down to one per cent of funds under management. We believe this is an appropriate benchmark, and one which we are determined to surpass in the future.

During 2001, we continued to build our multi-channel distribution capability, which will give us the flexibility to respond to changing market environments while maintaining our market-leading position. In the UK, we distribute our products direct to customers (telephone, internet and mail), through intermediaries including IFAs and consulting actuaries, and through the workplace to our corporate pensions customers. Going forward, we will also develop partnerships with retailers and other distributors.

We have an excellent brand and market-leading positions in a number of product areas. Our future strategic focus will be on high growth medium to long-term savings products, including annuities, pensions, with-profits bonds and ISAs. We believe this product mix offers the best growth prospects in the market by meeting customer needs for long-term savings and retirement income.

Sales of individual annuities totalled £1.3 billion during the year, up 17 per cent. We launched an impaired life annuity, which offers higher income to those with chronic conditions, and a Flexible Retirement Income Account offering customers a greater degree of freedom in their pension arrangements. We wrote an increasing volume of shareholder backed annuity business during the year which will result in a greater portion of the economic benefits flowing directly to shareholders.

There are 11 million employees in occupational pension schemes of which some 4.7 million are members of a defined benefit scheme. Changes to the tax treatment of dividends, lower equity returns and increased longevity, are leading trustees to consider alternatives to defined benefit schemes. In addition, over the next two years, FRS17 will increase the transparency of the impact on companies' balance sheets of funding defined benefit schemes. As a result, many companies are now looking to change their pension arrangements to defined contribution schemes, an area in which we have a strong customer offering.

As well as seeing a shift from defined benefit to defined contribution schemes for employees, we expect to see the bulk annuities market grow to an estimated £300 billion as trustees seek to manage remaining liabilities under defined benefit schemes. In 2001, our sales of bulk annuities totalled £575 million, and we will continue to be a leading player in this market.

We enjoyed a number of key successes in the group pensions market during the year including being named joint provider for Stakeholder pensions and Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) to the National Health Service (NHS), giving us access to over a million NHS employees. In addition, we have around a 50 per cent share of the local government AVC market. In 2001, we further improved our service to customers by enabling them to carry out transactions to their pensions on-line through their company intranet, with employers benefiting from the ability to automatically collect contributions direct from the payroll system.

Looking ahead, we aim to be a leading player in the Stakeholder market with a focus on larger corporate schemes where we can offer quality service within the economics of a one per cent environment.

Sales of our with-profits bonds through IFAs were up 33 per cent to a record £2 billion. 2001 marked the tenth anniversary of Prudence Bond, and in January 2002, we launched an enhanced with-profits product to build on the success of Prudence Bond. It provides greater flexibility and clarity to customers and will enable us to continue to build on our market-leading position within the with-profits market.

Prudential has seven million customers in the UK giving us a presence in one in five households. Prudential is ranked number one in brand awareness in the 45+ age group, which accounts for 70 per cent of the savings market and is a key focus for us in growing the business.

We see increasing scope for attracting more of these customers, given the ‘flight to quality' we are witnessing in the market at present as people place increasing emphasis on financial strength when making their investment decisions. Consumers are seeking the reassurance of brands they can trust, and this puts Prudential in a very strong position.

M&G

M&G is Prudential's UK and European fund management business and has over £120 billion of funds under management. These funds are invested in a wide range of assets, including UK and international equities, fixed interest, property and private equity. M&G is the UK's second largest retail fund manager in terms of funds under management.

Underlying profit from the core retail and wholesale businesses was £56 million, an increase of £4 million from 2000. In addition, M&G earned a performance fee of £19 million (£14 million in 2000) reflecting its outperformance in managing the Prudential life fund. M&G's profits of £75 million compare to £125 million in 2000. This decline was primarily due to the transfer of the life and pensions business to Scottish Amicable in 2000, which contributed £42 million of operating profit in 2000.

M&G's strategy of refocusing its institutional business on core areas of strength in fixed interest, defined contribution and pooled pensions is increasingly bearing fruit as the move away from defined benefit schemes gathers momentum. A further £700 million of institutional specialist fixed income mandates were won during the year, with M&G's market leadership in liability and cashflow matching being a particular factor behind these wins. During 2001, M&G continued to develop its pooled fund business and increased the number of defined contribution clients.

For the second consecutive year, M&G generated exceptional investment performance across the internal funds for which it was responsible, including the £80 billion managed on behalf of the Prudential Assurance Company's and Scottish Amicable's long-term funds. Against a backdrop of difficult market conditions, these funds beat their competitor and strategic benchmarks by more than two per cent in 2001.

2001 proved a challenging year for the retail fund management industry with gross industry retail sales falling 22 per cent, net retail sales falling 48 per cent and net ISA sales falling 39 per cent (AUTIF figures to December 2001). Excluding an exceptional loan note rollover in 2000, relating to the original acquisition of M&G by Prudential, M&G saw a decrease in gross sales of only 5 per cent and achieved a significant increase in net retail sales over the year. M&G was able to leverage its leading fixed income position and reduce redemptions, in addition to benefiting from an increasing recognition among IFAs of the good performance of a number of its equity funds. M&G also significantly increased its market share in the IFA channel, winning more than a 6 per cent share of all ISA and PEP transfer business sold via intermediaries during 2001.

M&G's property and private equity arms, which primarily invest on behalf of the Prudential Assurance Company, also enjoyed a successful year. The managed property portfolio delivered another impressive performance, beating its market benchmark by a considerable margin, its tenth consecutive year of outperformance. While market conditions for private equity remain challenging, we continued to diversify the portfolio with new investments across Europe and Asia.

M&G has also taken significant steps to build its distribution capability in other parts of the world. In 2001, M&G won unit-holder approval to convert 38 of its unit trust funds to an OEIC (Open Ended Investment Company) structure. This conversion is part of M&G's plans to distribute its product range into European markets.

During the year, M&G established its Berlin-based sales and marketing operation and has now opened for business in both Germany and Austria. A co-operative product strategy has also been agreed with Prudential Corporation Asia through which assets collected within PCA's offshore fund range will flow into M&G's UK OEIC funds.

Cofunds, the fund supermarket for intermediaries which was founded as a joint venture between M&G, Threadneedle, Jupiter and Gartmore, achieved over £200 million of PEP and ISA sales during the year, with over 40 providers offering nearly 500 funds and over 2000 IFA firms now signed up. Cofunds gained nearly a five per cent share of IFA ISA sales and over three per cent of PEP transfers during 2001.

Egg

2001 was another year of outstanding growth for Egg, with operating income up 103 per cent to £189 million and strong customer growth, principally through its credit card business. Pre-tax losses decreased by 43 per cent to £88 million.

Egg's management accounts for November showed that the business made a profit for the month. In doing so, Egg met the commitment made at the time of its flotation in June 2000 that it would break even during the fourth quarter of 2001. Egg's management team is confident that its UK business is sustainably profitable.

During the year, Egg acquired 600,000 net new customers, giving a year-end total of 1.95 million. Today, Egg has over 2 million customers. The credit card business performed strongly, particularly Egg Card, and now has 1.37 million customers. Credit card balances nearly doubled to £1.8 billion and credit quality remains strong. Egg Mortgages increased its book by 18 per cent to £1 billion.

In January 2002, Egg announced its intention to launch in France during the year. As part of this strategy, Egg will acquire Zebank (subject to regulatory approval), the leading French online banking business, which will provide Egg with a platform to distribute Egg-branded products. In addition to this deal, Egg has signed distribution partnerships with French retailers Sephora and La Samaritaine.

Egg will also be extending its partnership with Microsoft to offer further financial services products in France in addition to the proposed fund supermarket through MSN, the leading consumer web destination in Europe.

Prudential Europe

Prudential's European operations encompass both the manufacture and distribution of Prudential branded products in continental Europe through strategic distribution agreements with strong local partners.

In Germany, our focus has been on unit-linked pension and protection products, distributed through local agent sales forces. During 2001, Prudential Europe re-launched its Vorsorge critical illness product, and launched two new mutual funds which were developed jointly with the Deutsche Bank Group. These are fund of funds (Dachfonds) and are the first Prudential branded products to be available in the German market.

During 2001, new business achieved profits of £8 million remained broadly in line with 2000. Total sales in 2001 were £78 million, more than double the levels achieved in the previous year, principally due to strong sales of Prudential Europe Vie, an equity-backed life insurance product that was launched in France in January 2001.

Pru Vie is initially being sold through independent financial advisers approved by Centre Français du Patrimoine (CFP), which is one of the largest multi-brokerage networks in France. In January 2002, Prudential announced a similar arrangement with Espace Patrimoine Conseil (a subsidiary of Crédit Mutuel de Bretagne), and is expecting to enter into further distribution arrangements later this year.

United States

The markets in the United States witnessed a year of unprecedented uncertainty in 2001, with equity markets suffering significant declines and bond defaults reaching record levels. No one in the US has been immune from these difficult market conditions and Jackson National Life (JNL) was no exception. However, long-term demographic trends in the US are favourable and we have continued to develop and enhance our product range and distribution channels to ensure that we are well placed to benefit from the anticipated growth in the US financial services market.

Our emphasis has been and will continue to be on profitable growth. Historical results demonstrate our ability to grow sales while maintaining pricing discipline, and in the last four years we have consistently earned above-industry rates of return (as measured by US GAAP operating return on capital). This reflects our key strengths in distribution, product design and cost. In addition, initiatives to expand product lines and distribution channels have resulted in more diversified, higher quality earnings.

Against this background, JNL recorded total sales of £4.6 billion during the year, down only marginally on the record figure set in 2000. Sales of fixed annuities reached record levels, up 80 per cent to £1.9 billion. Despite declining interest rates in 2001, investors sought the safety of fixed annuities resulting in record industry sales.

New business achieved profits fell to £167 million from £221 million in 2000, principally due to the adoption of revised achieved profits assumptions and a five per cent reduction in total sales. In-force profits were affected by US$532 million of net losses relating to JNL's bond holdings, resulting in a £74 million charge against current year profits on a five-year averaging basis. This US$532 million loss equated to 1.4 per cent of JNL's total invested assets and default experience appears to be broadly in line with that of our major competitors.

Over the last five years, JNL has made significant progress in widening its product range, enabling us to sell profitable products in any economic environment. In addition, our costs remain among the lowest in the industry and our highly rated service and technology capability makes us well positioned for continued growth and diversification.

The end of the bull market in 2001 created a challenging environment in the variable annuity (VA) market. After years of exceptional growth, VA assets were down in 2001, due to lower net inflows and a decrease in equity prices. Net variable annuity cashflow is a key measure of success in this market as it reflects overall variable annuity asset retention and therefore profit potential. JNL ranks eleventh in the industry on this basis with a net inflow of US$497 million (as at 30 September 2001).

JNL maintained a top five market position in the sale of equity linked indexed (ELI) annuities with sales of £271 million in 2001. Fourth quarter sales of ELIs were the strongest single-quarter sales in 2001 and were 28 per cent ahead of third quarter sales.

Our Institutional Marketing Group (IMG), which distributes through banks in the US, announced another record year with sales up nearly 58 per cent on 2000. IMG now offers annuities direct to customers through more than 320 banks and credit unions in the US, as well as to around 1,930 financial institutions through third-party marketing organisations and bank broker/dealers.

In 2001, JNL issued £1.7 billion of institutional products and maintained a top 10 position in the overall institutional product market and a top four position in the Medium Term Note funding agreement market. The notes, which may be in any currency, are issued to institutional investors and are backed by funding agreements issued by JNL.

Looking ahead, significant opportunities exist in the US life insurance market as people seek to fund a longer retirement. In JNL, we have an outstanding business which is well positioned to capitalise on these favourable demographic trends through our diversified product offering, high quality distribution network and strong cost position.

Asia

Prudential is Europe's leading life insurer in Asia. Six years ago, we were only present in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia. Today, we have a very strong regional presence with 21 operations in 12 countries, including top five market positions in eight of those operations (six in our life businesses and two in mutual funds).

Our success in Asia derives from a unique combination of competitive advantages including our ability to invest for the long-term, an extensive understanding of local markets and their people, considerable experience of overcoming barriers to entry into new markets, and our ability to leverage the power and financial strength of Prudential's brand.

Through our "think regional, act local" management approach, we have been able to replicate our successful business model into the building of new operations. This helps us to capitalise on synergies in brand, systems, product and distribution development while taking into account the great diversity in culture, regulation and levels of economic development across the region. Very importantly, we have also benefited from our ability to attract, motivate and retain the best people in the industry.

The prospects for the long-term savings markets in Asia are significant, driven by a combination of favourable demographic trends and increasing market liberalisation. Through its extensive network of life insurance and mutual funds operations, Prudential Corporation Asia (PCA) is strongly positioned to capture a major part of the region's fast-growing financial services market.

2001 was another year of strong growth for PCA. This was despite the anticipated slowdown in life insurance new business growth rates during the fourth quarter as the global economic slowdown started to have an effect on the region. Sales of insurance products on an APE basis were £434 million, up 69 per cent. As well as continuing strong growth in sales through agents, we achieved strong growth through other distribution channels. These included bancassurance (we have bank distribution agreements in place in nine countries) and direct distribution, which together generated just over 17 per cent of new APE life sales, up significantly compared to 2000. Net mutual fund sales of £1.4 billion were up 351 per cent.

Operating profit, before development costs and minority interest, increased from £213 million to £415 million in 2001. Achieved profit from life operations increased from £205 million to £405 million. New business achieved profits were up 67 per cent to £255 million, reflecting strong sales growth across all operations, and in-force achieved profit growth was also strong. This strong growth reflects PCA's successful strategy of entering new markets, strengthening and diversifying distribution channels and meeting customers' needs with innovative products.

During the year, PCA had a number of notable successes. We acquired Orico Life in Japan and YoungPoong Life in Korea. Both of these operations have been re-branded PCA Life and we are now building on these operationally and financially sound platforms. We intend, in time, to become material players in these two largest life insurance markets in Asia.

PCA extended its range of capital efficient unit-linked products with launches in China, where we became the first international life insurance company to launch a unit-linked life insurance product in Guangzhou (CITIC Prudential, our life insurance joint venture in Guangzhou, China, was established in late 2000). In Taiwan, our unit-linked single premium product is the first and only life insurance product that offers customers a significant investment choice. Regulatory approval for regular premium unit-linked products was received in late November and these were successfully launched in January 2002.

Prudential is now the largest private sector mutual funds company in India, having re-entered the Indian market in 1998 by teaming up with one of the country's leading banking groups, ICICI, and launching award-winning funds. In December 2000, we entered the Indian life market with the launch of ICICI Prudential, one of the few international joint ventures to be fully licensed and selling policies. The partnership with ICICI has gone from strength to strength and has grown still further in 2001 to include a bancassurance relationship with ICICI Bank.

In line with our strategy of expanding our successful unit trust operations across the region, we launched Prudential Unit Trusts in both Malaysia and Singapore during the year. These operations supplement our already successful and fast-growing mutual fund operations in India (ranked number two at the end of 2001), Taiwan (ranked number four at the end of 2001), and Japan.

Hong Kong's Mandatory Provident Fund had its first full year of operation in 2001 and our joint venture with Bank of China International (BOCI) is now one of the leaders in this market with an estimated 15 per cent market share. In December 2001, BOCI-Prudential also launched its first unit trust in Hong Kong.

Looking ahead, the global economic slowdown is likely to depress short to medium-term growth in the region. However the long-term potential in Asia remains exceptional. PCA, with its significant portfolio of businesses in the region, multi-channel distribution capabilities, excellent strategic partners, and customer-focused product expertise is in a very strong position to continue to benefit from the excellent long-term growth potential throughout Asia.

Financial Review

2001 was an exceptional year for sales with total insurance and investment sales reaching a record £21.5 billion, up 54 per cent on last year. Total new business inflows including renewal premiums reached £25.7 billion, 42 per cent ahead of last year.

Total insurance sales increased 9 per cent to £11.4 billion, reflecting a 13 per cent growth in sales in the UK and the success of our Asian operations, where insurance sales increased 102 per cent to £1 billion.

Gross investment sales increased 188 per cent to £10 billion while net mutual fund sales in Asia were £1.4 billion, an increase of 351 per cent. Sales at Jackson National Life and Prudential Corporation Asia now represent 68 per cent of the Group total.

Total achieved operating profit

Total achieved operating profit before re-engineering costs was £1,250 million, up 21 per cent from £1,029 million in 2000. This result reflects a 10 per cent improvement in new business achieved profits to £673 million combined with a 24 per cent improvement in the in-force result to £673 million.

Results from other operations including development costs and other shareholders' income improved from a loss of £128 million in 2000 to a loss of £96 million, principally due to a much reduced initial operating loss at Egg.

As we announced previously, our results are reported on the basis of the new ABI guidance for Achieved Profit reporting, issued in December 2001. The revised guidance requires the economic assumptions used for the projection of cashflows to be on an "active" basis, that is primarily based on appropriate government bond returns at each period end. These assumptions are reflected in the profit reported for the year to 31 December 2001. Previously, Prudential has used a "passive" basis, which uses stable assumptions based on a long-term economic view. Passive assumptions are revised only when it is judged that the economic environment has changed substantially. Results prepared under the Modified Statutory basis are not affected by this change.

The implementation of the revised assumptions under the active basis applied primarily to the UK and the US operations, and those countries in Asia where there are well-developed government bond markets (Japan, Korea and US$ business in Hong Kong). Assumptions in other Asian territories continued to be based on an assessment of long-term economic conditions.

This has resulted in our reducing the risk discount rate applied to our UK and US operations from 8.5 per cent to 7.7 per cent, and reducing the UK investment return assumption from 8.0 per cent to 7.1 per cent.

The overall impact on our Group achieved profit result for 2001 from using the active assumptions rather than the 2000 passive assumptions has been to reduce new business achieved profits by around £7 million and to reduce the in-force operating result by around £90 million. Achieved profit shareholders' funds are around £180 million lower than they would have been under the old assumptions.

New business achieved profit

Group new business achieved profit from insurance business of £673 million was 10 per cent ahead of prior year, reflecting strong growth in Asia partially offset by a fall in profits at JNL. The growth in new business achieved profits reflects a 16 per cent increase in insurance sales on an annual premium equivalent (APE) basis.

Offsetting this the Group new business achieved profit margin decreased from 40 per cent to 38 per cent, primarily reflecting the adoption of active basis reporting combined with the impact of lower US spreads brought about by the challenging US operating environment.

Prudential Asia's new business achieved profit of £255 million is up 67 per cent on 2000 reflecting strong sales growth across all operations (APE insurance sales up 69 per cent). The new business margin in Asia remained broadly stable at 59 per cent despite a significant change in geographic and product mix.

Compound annual growth in Asia's new business achieved profit over the last three years has been 66 per cent as we have developed new businesses and grown distribution throughout the region. These results demonstrate the benefits of geographic and product diversification.

The 24 per cent fall in Jackson's new business achieved profit to £167 million is driven by a 5 per cent decline in new insurance sales and a decline in new business margin from 44 per cent to 35 per cent, primarily reflecting a reduction in the spread assumption in the current challenging operating environment and revisions to variable annuity lapse rates.

UK Insurance Operations new business achieved profit of £243 million is 6 per cent higher than 2000. This is mainly due to increased volumes of new business written during the year, offset by the impact of the move to active basis assumptions.

In the final quarter we believe we regained the market leading position for IFA distributed WP bonds, with 32 per cent share of the market. Annuities performed strongly in 2001. We believe we had a market leading position for the year with a 19 per cent market share. Annuities written in our shareholder backed entity, PRIL, generated new business achieved profits of around £30 million, being 12 percent of total UK new business achieved profits.

The reported UK Insurance Operations margin has decreased 1 per cent to 30 per cent over the year. Excluding the impact of the change to the active basis, the margin would have increased to 33 per cent, 2 per cent above prior year. The underlying increase arises from PruBond and annuities, offset in part by the impact of stakeholder pension products.

Prudential Europe's new business achieved profit of £8 million is broadly similar to 2000.

In-force achieved profit

The UK in-force profit of £377 million was down 21 per cent on 2000. The decline is mainly due to lower than expected returns in the UK arising from the lower discount rate, and strengthening of the assumption for the amount of required capital for our shareholder backed businesses, offset by lower renewal expense assumptions resulting from the closure of the DSF

The US in-force profit has increased significantly from a loss of £2 million in 2000 to a profit of £136 million in 2001. However, the 2000 result was affected by a change to the persistency and expense assumptions which led to a charge of £258 million. Excluding this charge in 2000, 2001 profit was 47 per cent down, reflecting lower investment returns and the fact that we did not, in the increasingly competitive market, fully reset policyholder crediting rates to compensate.

The US result was also affected by defaults and impairments on bonds resulting in realised losses of US$532 million in the year. This resulted in a £74 million charge to the current year as realised gains and losses on bonds are taken through operating profit on a five year averaging basis. The US$532 million loss represents 1.4 per cent of JNL's total invested assets and includes approximately $200 million charged to this years result in relation to losses that have arisen subsequent to the year end.

These bond losses occur at a time of record levels of credit defaults in the US, as highlighted in recent credit rating agency reports.

Asia in-force profit (before development costs) has increased significantly from £60 million in 2000 to £160 million in 2001. The result includes a £66 million profit reflecting improvements in operating assumptions across all long term businesses in the region and £16m of favourable experience variances in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

Europe broke even at the in-force level, compared to £8 million profit in 2000, due to negative experience variances relating to the newly launched French branch and operational costs in Dublin and Frankfurt.

Non-insurance operations

M&G's profits of £75 million compare to £125 million in 2000. This decline was primarily due to the transfer of the life and pensions business to Scottish Amicable in 2000, which contributed £42 million operating profit in 2000.

M&G profit has also been affected by reducing fee income due to lower equity markets, and investment in new operations, including CoFunds and Europe. We have now established an office in Berlin and will start to sell our global theme range via intermediaries in Germany shortly. A performance fee of £19 million has also been recognised in the 2001 result (£14 million in 2000) due to the life fund beating its strategic benchmark by 2.3 per cent (the investment return for the life fund was minus 3.5 per cent against a strategic benchmark of minus 5.8 per cent).

Egg moved into profit in the fourth quarter of 2001 and the reported loss of £88 million is in line with the market expectation. Egg is now an established business with over two million customers today, and is still growing rapidly. Egg's move to profit demonstrates that it has a profitable business model and a management team committed to, and capable of delivering against their goals. Egg's results are presented in its own annual report.

National Planning Holdings, our US broker-dealer, and PPMA, our US fund manager together delivered profits of £16 million, up from £7 million in 2000.

Development costs (excluding Asia head office costs) were up from £21 million to £48 million largely due to branding and re-launch costs of our operations in Japan, and higher development costs in Europe including costs of establishing our b2c business in Germany.

Other income and expenditure, including PCA head office costs, was up from £117 million to £130 million. Lower interest payable and Group corporate expenses were more than offset by lower investment and other income and higher PCA head office costs reflecting the growth in scale of our Asian operations.

Achieved profit – profit before tax

Profit before tax and minority interest was negative £455m verses a profit of £728m in 2000. This principally reflects the adjustment for short-term fluctuations in investment returns of £1,402 million and includes £764 million in relation to the UK and £521 million in relation to JNL. The UK component reflects the difference between an actual investment return of negative 3.5 per cent and a long term assumed return of 7.1 per cent. The US component reflects the full charge for bond write-downs and impairments to the extent that it is not included in operating profit, and the negative variance against long term investment returns for equity-like investments, together with £85 million in relation to actual return on separate account business less return based on the longer term rate.

Economic assumption changes include the effect of the change to active assumptions mentioned earlier, together with changes to the long term assumption in Asia and the in-force spread assumption for Jackson.

This was partially offset by £338 million profit net of expenses relating to the American General termination fee. Amortisation of goodwill was £95 million against £84 million in 2000.

Achieved profit – profit after tax

Achieved profit after tax and minority interests was negative £217 million after reflecting a tax credit of £213 million and minority interests of £25 million. The effective tax rate at an operating profit level was 31 per cent, up from 28 per cent in 2000, largely due to a more normalised tax rate at JNL following the impact on the 2000 result of the operational assumption changes. The effective tax relief rate at a total achieved profit level is 47 per cent on a loss of £455 million, due to tax payable on the American General break fee being relieved against capital losses available to the Group, acquired during the year. The effective tax rate in 2000 was 33 per cent.

Modified statutory basis results - operating profit

Group operating profit before tax on the modified statutory basis (MSB) before re-engineering costs of £48 million, was £670 million, £170 million lower than 2000.

UK Insurance Operations' operating profit (excluding discontinued operations) in 2001 was £435 million, £33 million below 2000. This reflected the effect of lower with-profit bonuses together with the one-off £30 million profit in 2000 relating to transfer of the M&G life and pensions business to Scot Am.

The US operations result of £298 million was £168 million worse than prior year, principally reflecting reduced spread income combined with a £67 million charge in relation to average realised gains and losses on bonds. Fee income was lower due to lower sales and lower account values for variable annuities.

Prudential Asia's operating profit before minority interests and development expenses was £44 million (£39 million in 2000). The Group's more established operations in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia reported significant growth in statutory profits, up 40 per cent to £56 million. During 2002 and 2003 significant investment has been planned to build high quality customer focussed distribution channels in Japan and Korea as we pursue a strategy of creating material scale in these businesses. We expect the effect of this investment to result in an MSB loss for Prudential Asia in 2002.

Modified statutory basis results - profit before tax

MSB Profit before tax and minority interests was £385 million in 2001, compared to £947 million in 2000. This decline principally reflects lower operating profit combined with a £480 million adjustment for short term fluctuations in investment returns. This was partially offset by £338 million profit net of expenses relating to the American General termination fee. Amortisation of goodwill was £95 million against £84 million in 2000.

Modified statutory basis results - profit after tax

Profit after tax and minority interests was £389 million, reflecting a tax charge of £21 million. The effective rate of tax on MSB total profit in 2001 was 5 per cent, compared to 33 per cent in 2000, due to tax payable on the American General break fee being relieved against capital losses available to the Group, acquired during the year.

Earnings per share

Earnings per share, based on achieved profits operating profit after tax and related minority interests but before amortisation of goodwill were up 3.5 pence to 41.9 pence. Earnings per share on an MSB basis were down 6.9 pence to 23.3 pence.

Post balance sheet event – disposal of general insurance operations

In November 2001, we announced the formation of a long-term alliance with Winterthur Insurance and the Churchill Group, its UK subsidiary. This alliance was part of our UK insurance strategy to focus on our core medium and long-term saving businesses, and will see Churchill offering Prudential branded insurance products in the UK.

This transaction was completed in January 2002, and in addition to the up-front consideration of £353 million, we expect the following additional inflows: some £200 million release of solvency capital; some £21 million release of net profit in the unearned premium reserve; and some £236 million in relation to the conservatively estimated net present value of future commissions and profits over the term of the agreement.

Funds flow

The holding company net funds outflow of £421 million compares to a funds inflow of £179 million in 2000 and is after taking into account £699 million investment in businesses, and £132 million of timing differences and other items. The investment in businesses includes £160 million in relation to acquisitions comprising £139 million in relation to Orico Life and £21 million in relation to Korea.

In addition £539 million was reinvestment in existing businesses includes £222 million in relation to JNL funding, £110 million for Asia, £21million for Europe and £178 million of working capital for shareholder backed UK businesses.

This funds flow statement does not reflect the benefits to the Group of a number of initiatives that were undertaken in 2001. We will receive the benefit of about £450 million in 2002 including proceeds of the sale of the General Insurance business, release of sale proceeds relating to Life Fund shareholding in SJPC and the capital release from the Part 7 transfer (previously 2C transfer) of Scottish Amicable Limited.

Net borrowings at the end of 2001 were £2.1 billion, compared to £1.7 billion last year. This increase is mainly due to the issue of hybrid debt in the year, offset by repayment of senior debt, giving rise to a net increase in borrowings of £436 million.

Dividend per share

The final dividend per share is 16.7 pence, resulting in a full year dividend growth of 3.7 per cent to 25.4 pence.

Funds under management

Insurance and investment funds under management at 31 December 2001 totalled £163 billion, compared to £165 billion at the end of 2000. This reduction is mainly due to a fall in the market value of investments which more then offset the net sales achieved during the year.

Shareholders' funds

On an achieved profits basis, which recognises the shareholders' interest in long-term businesses, shareholders' funds were £8,150 million, a decrease of £626 million compared with 2000. The decrease principally reflects short-term fluctuations in investment returns, combined with dividends declared and the impact of adopting active assumptions, offset by operating profits of £1,186 million.

MSB shareholders' funds were almost unchanged at £3,950 million against £3,971 million in 2000.

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Prudential plc 2001 Unaudited Results - Schedules
Prudential plc 2001 Unaudited Results
Prudential plc 2001 Unaudited Results
Prudential plc 2001 Unaudited Results - Schedules