Partnership’s annuity sales in the three months to the end of December 2013 are set to fall £161m below analyst Morgan Stanley’s forecast, due in part to the effects of the Retail Distribution Review.
Partnership admitted that it does not expect to its retirement sales to see growth in the fourth quarter of this year on an annual basis.
In its interim management statement published today (13 November), Steve Groves, Partnership chief executive, said: “Looking ahead, we do not expect to see growth in our year-on-year retirement sales in Q4 given that sales in the final quarter of 2012 benefitted materially from regulatory change, in particular the introduction of gender neutral pricing.”
In a Morgan Stanley research document published today, Morgan Stanley says it is “disappointing” that annuity sales will not show year-on-year growth, considering it had predicted £541m of sales for the final quarter of 2013.
Sales figures for Q4 2012 were £380m, meaning Partnership is falling £161m short of projections.
However, Partnership reported £300m of new business in the third quarter of this year, up 3 per cent from £293m year-on-year. The bulk of new business comes from the company’s retirement business which reported £283m in new business.
This is against an overall non-standard annuity market decline of 15 per cent for the same period.
In contrast, new care business fell to £17m from £23m year-on-year, a drop of 28 per cent.
The statement from the company noted: “Market activity continued to be negatively impacted in Q3 as a result of the changes introduced by RDR.”
Partnership floated earlier this year with a launch share price of 385p per share. Currently the share price is listed on the London Stock Exchange as 332p.
Competitor Just Retirement began trading on the LSE yesterday with a share price of 225p per share, which has since fallen to 213p per share.
