By Michael Susin

Prudential PLC reported on Wednesday a 90% net profit fall for the first half of 2022 driven by market volatility amid coronavirus-related restriction impacts, while its headline operating profit rose slightly, but missed market views.

The insurance-and-investment business made an IFRS-adjusted operating profit from continuing operations--one of the company's preferred metrics which strips out exceptional and other one-off items and is a closely watched figure for the industry--of $1.66 billion compared with $1.57 billion for the same period a year ago. This compares with the market expectation of $1.69 billion, according to a company-provided consensus forecast and based on 17 analysts' estimates.

Net profit from continued operations came in at $104 million from $1.06 billion for the first half of 2021.

Prudential's annual premium equivalent came in at $2.21 billion from the $2.08 billion in the first half of 2021, beating the forecast $2.04 billion taken from the company-compiled consensus, driven by the impact of higher interest rates.

The board has declared an interim dividend of 5.74 cents a share, up from 5.37 cents a share declared a year ago.

"Although there are signs that Covid-19-related impacts in many of our markets are stabilizing, over the remainder of the year we expect that operating conditions may continue to be challenging," the company added.

Write to Michael Susin at michael.susin@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 10, 2022 03:03 ET (07:03 GMT)

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