PRUDENTIAL PLC Q1 2026 BUSINESS PERFORMANCE UPDATE
Another quarter of consistent double‑digit new business profit growth
Performance highlights on a constant exchange rate basis for the three months ended 31 March 2026 (Q1):
- Q1 new business profit was up 10 per cent compared with the prior year to $686 million with growth across all segments.
- Q1 APE sales grew 6 per cent to $1,823 million over the same period.
- New business margin increased 2 percentage points.
Commenting on the results, CEO Anil Wadhwani said: “In the first three months of 2026, we once again demonstrated our continued delivery of double‑digit new business profit growth. Performance was broad‑based across segments, with higher APE sales and improved new business margins, reflecting our disciplined execution and continued focus on driving high-quality growth.
“The quarter reinforced the strength of our multi-channel, multi-market business model, with resilient performance despite ongoing market volatility and geopolitical uncertainty. Similar to the outcome in full‑year 2025, bancassurance delivered strong year‑on‑year growth in both volumes and margins, with continued traction across key markets. We continue to progress our agency transformation programme with a focus on quality recruitment and actions to improve agent productivity, including the rollout of enhanced digital tools. The agency channel continued to grow new business profit in the first quarter.
“Through disciplined value creation, continued strengthening of our distribution and a focus on enhancing customer experience we are well positioned to capture structural growth opportunities across Asia and Africa. We remain confident in delivering double‑digit growth across our key financial metrics in 2026 and achieving our 2027 financial objectives.”
APE new business sales (APE sales) and TEV new business profit (NBP)
| Three months ended 31 March | |||||
| 2026 | 2025 CER | Change CER | 2025 AER | Change AER | |
| NBP $m | 686 | 625 | 10% | 608 | 13% |
| APE Sales $m | 1,823 | 1,725 | 6% | 1,677 | 9% |
| NBP margin | 38% | 36% | 2 ppts | 36% | 2 ppts |
Comparatives on a constant exchange rate basis (CER) and actual exchange rate basis (AER).
Market highlights for the three months ended 31 March 2026
(New business profit and APE sales growth rates are both on a constant currency basis. See “Definitions of Performance Metrics” below for more details. Discussions of changes in metrics refer to comparisons of the first quarter of 2026 to the first quarter of 2025 unless otherwise stated.)
In the first quarter of the year, we saw higher new business profit growth in each of our segments with Hong Kong, Mainland China and Malaysia delivering double‑digit growth.
Hong Kong saw new business profit growth across both agency and bancassurance channels and delivered an expansion in margins, with a higher proportion of health and protection APE sales and repricing actions. Our Mainland China joint venture, CITIC Prudential Life, continued the strong APE sales momentum seen in the second half of 2025. As expected, the on-going focus on participating business, as we rebalance the product portfolio, led to a moderation in profit margins. Malaysia new business profit growth was driven by agency and while volumes were lower in our bancassurance business, margins increased as we further optimised our product portfolio.
Indonesia saw modest new business profit growth following on from the strong performance seen in the prior period. The bancassurance channel grew double‑digit as we continued to build our partnership with BSI, while in the agency channel we remain focussed on quality recruitment to drive activation levels. In Singapore, we again saw good growth in APE sales particularly through the agency channel, reflecting customer demand for savings and wealth products. As in 2025, these shifts in product mix have reduced margins, leading to more modest growth in new business profit. We are taking targeted actions to broaden our health and protection offerings and to address previously announced changes in co-payment requirements on certain health insurance plans.
Growth in our “Growth markets and other” segment was led by our business in Thailand, which saw continuing strong demand for savings products, and our associate in India, ICICI Prudential Life. While overall performance in Taiwan moderated after the strong growth delivered in recent periods, we are pleased with progress in the broker channel.
Overall, Eastspring saw net inflows in the period, led by positive flows from the Group’s insurance business, demonstrating the scale and continuity provided by our integration of life insurance and asset management capabilities. Eastspring’s funds under management (FUM) were $268.9 billion at 31 March 2026 (31 December 2025: $277.7 billion), with the reduction largely driven by adverse market and foreign exchange movements given the market volatility in the period. Eastspring’s FUM includes contributions from both its wholly owned and joint venture businesses.
We have a multi-channel, multi-market business model which leads to a high degree of diversification. We continue to monitor the impact on consumers of the current geopolitical events, acknowledging that some of our smaller ASEAN businesses are relatively more exposed to the risk of higher inflation from higher energy prices. This could impact consumer sentiment and buying behaviours in the future.
Consistent with our disciplined capital return framework, we launched a $1.2 billion buyback in January to be executed during the course of 2026, comprising $500 million of recurring capital returns and $700 million of net proceeds from the initial public offering of ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company. During the first quarter of 2026 we repurchased approximately 20 million shares for a total consideration of $312 million.