Great-West Lifeco CEO Allen LoneyFRED GREENSLADE/Reuters
Great-West Lifeco Inc., one of the main businesses within the Power group of companies and one of Canada's largest life insurance providers, says its fourth-quarter net income fell to $353-million.
That amounted to 37.2 cents per share on a diluted basis, down from 65.1 cents per share, or $624-million, in the comparable period of 2011.
Its operating income, a non-standard measure of profit watched by analysts, was $493-million, or 52 cents per share – down slightly from 52.8 cents per share, or $500-million, a year earlier but in line with analyst estimates.
The Winnipeg-based company provides a number of financial services, including life and health insurance, in Canada, the United States and other countries.
It's a publicly traded subsidiary of Montreal-based Power Financial Corp. and its parent Power Corp. of Canada, which also own control the Investors Group, Mackenzie and Putnam investment managers.
Canada accounted for more than half of Great-West's fourth-quarter profit.
In the fourth quarter, the Canadian operations earned $263-million, up from $244-million in the year-earlier period.
The U.S. operations saw a slight decrease in profit attributable to shareholders, dropping by $2-million to $77-million – all due to the Putnam part of its business, which offset an increase at the Great-West Financial unit.
In Europe, Great-West Life's net income attributable to common shareholders fell to $152-million, down from $181-million.
Lifeco Corporate posted a $139-million net loss, compared with $120-million in net earnings in the fourth quarter of 2011. The loss included $140-million of litigation provision in the fourth quarter of 2012 and $124-million of provision releases a year earlier.