A cashed-up Axa Asia Pacific Holdings is sitting on nearly $1 billion in investments, mainly in Asia, as it seeks to capitalise on low debt and another strong performance across its business divisions.

The diversified financial group, which has spent more than $1 billion since May on acquisitions in South-East Asia, announced a $677.8 million profit after tax and before non-recurring items for the year ended December 31. This is a 25% jump from the previous year.

More than half the full-year result came from its Australian and New Zealand divisions, where profit before non-recurring items climbed 11% to $378.5 million.

Parent company Axa SA now has total funds under management and administration of $97.7 billion and more than $85 billion in its Australian and NZ operations, which have benefitted from investments, capital surging into superannuation and the acquisition of Bank of New Zealand Investment Management.

Operational earnings rose 24% to $454 million, underpinned by strong local demand, and retail inflows reached a zenith, up 82% to $2.9 billion.

Investors had been expecting earnings of $467 million, prompting the market to wipe nearly 3% from the company’s value following its profit announcement last week.