AIA's long-term assurance

AIA, the world's fifth-largest insurer, is undeterred by volatile investment markets and low interest rates in its push for further expansion in the region.

The company's chief executive, Mark Tucker, said AIA was keen to seize the business opportunities from Asia's growing middle class, and taking a long-term view.

"We are not managing for the short term but we are running our business with a long-term, 10- to 20-year view. As we are taking such a long-term view, any short-term volatility of the investment market does not really hurt our business," Tucker told the South China Morning Post in an exclusive interview.

The insurer, Asia's third biggest by market capitalisation, reported last month that its new business to the end of February rose 25.4 per cent in value year on year. Life insurance sales accounted for the bulk of this. The company's annualised net premiums recorded robust year-on-year growth of 37.2 per cent during the quarter.

Brokers share AIA's confidence. "Looking ahead, we expect AIA to demonstrate faster annual net premium growth but a smaller value of new business margin improvement, which should not be read negatively, as AIA should be able to grab rapidly growing opportunities in Korea and other markets where margins are relatively lower than Hong Kong and Singapore," CCB International said in a research report.

It has a target price of HK$38.20 for the insurer's shares, which closed at HK$36 on Friday.