By P.R. Venkat


AIA Group's value of new business fell 18% in the first quarter as the insurer saw its operations adversely affected by disruptions caused by Covid-19 in China.

New-business value came in at $853 million, and its new-business margin fell 7.6 percentage points to 54.4%, AIA said late Thursday.

"While the Omicron variant of Covid-19 caused a temporary disruption to new business sales in the first quarter of 2022 as we previously highlighted, our businesses are regaining momentum where infections have passed their peak and disruptions have begun to subside," said AIA Group Chief Executive Lee Yuan Siong.

Mainland China remained the largest contributor to the value of new business, the company said.

Going ahead, AIA said that it remains cautiously optimistic and warned of supply-side disruptions and labor shortages among factors that are fueling high consumer inflation and interest rates.


Write to P.R. Venkat at venkat.pr@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-28-22 1823ET