Tower outperforming last year

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-0.69%

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Insurer and fund manager Tower performed ahead of its year ago results in the three months to December, chairman Tony Gibbs told the company's annual meeting today.

``Without going into details, I can say that for the first three months of the year, that is through to December 31, results are tracking ahead of the same period last year and the board is pleased with this performance,'' Mr Gibbs said. 

The financial services and insurance sector is now subject to an unprecedented degree of regulatory change.

This calendar year changes to the taxation of life insurance businesses, and the regulation of financial advisers would be implemented.

Prudential supervision of insurance businesses by the Reserve Bank and best practice anti-money         laundering regulations would also affect the industry, Mr Gibbs said.

This year more than 3.5 million shares had been allotted under the company's dividend reinvestment plan, which meant eligible shareholders had reinvested 47 percent of their dividend in Tower.

Chief executive Rob Flannagan said market conditions were expected to continue to be challenging during the next six to 12 months.

While there were good signs the economy was improving, the downturn was not over yet.

In the 2009 financial year, Tower produced an underlying profit of $46.9 million, up 22 percent from the year before.

About an hour after the sharemarket opened today, Tower shares were down 1c to 190 early.

- NZPA