The firm posted a normalised net profit after tax of $164 million, up from $148.7 million in the previous first half.
Funds under management increased by 27 per cent over the year to sit at $48.8 billion, with $1.1 billion in net flows, according to Challenger chief executive Brian Benari.
Speaking at a results briefing yesterday, Mr Benari announced the formation of a new boutique manager within the Fidante Partners stable to be known as Tempo Asset Management.
“Tempo is a start-up offering a global smart beta strategy. This category is an industry growth area, and we’re very excited by the potential opportunities for this business,” Mr Benari said.
“We remain very confident of growing the Challenger Investment Partners business as well by broadening the product offering and continuing to attract new institutional clients.”
On the annuity side of the business, sales came to $1.75 billion. Retail annuity sales were $1.46 billion, which is up 38 per cent on the previous year, Mr Benari said.
“We sold more lifetime annuities in six months than the entire 2013 [financial] year, dispelling doubts about the revival of the Australian lifetime annuities market,” he said.
Challenger Life had $10.9 billion in assets under management as at 31 December 2013, seven per cent more than 12 months prior.
