Friends First cut costs, focus on profits

Financial services group Friends First has reported a 43% increase in profits for 2003 to €20m.

The group has enjoyed exceptional growth in recent years and has total assets exceeding €4.4bn.

Friends First employs over 450 people in Ireland, with offices in Dublin, Cork and Galway.

In an international context, Friends First is a subsidiary of European financial services group, Eureko BV.

The group has a total asset base of €94.8bn and over 25,000 employees in 12 countries.

The company said the improvement, in what it called a volatile market, came from cost cuts and a focus on profitable areas of business.

Annual premium equivalent (APE) sales (life assurance division), dropped 13% to €79.8m. This compares with a fall of 23% in the market overall.

New lending at Friends First Finance rose 12% - €206m - and regular premium pension sales increased by 42% to €39.7m.

Regular premium life sales dropped over 50% to €13.1m, and single premium sales fell 22%, affected by uncertainty in equity markets.