Australian insurer and wealth manager St Andrew’s has announced an 89% rise in underlying profit during 2005. The company is the Perth-based arm of Bank of Scotland-owned HBOS Australia, which made a pre-tax profit of $552 million last year.

St Andrew’s – named after the patron saint of Scotland – earned $10.8 million in underlying profit before tax.

Managing Director John Van Der Wielen says the results show HBOS’s insurance and investment operations will be making an increasing contribution to the overall group result for several years to come.

“We saw significant growth in our wealth and insurance business, demonstrating the success of our strategy to build our business by driving competition through low-cost, straight-forward value for money products,” he said.

Profits from insurance were particularly pleasing. “Our insurance business grew by 70% in 2005,” Mr Van Der Wielen said. “This insurance activity remains a business-to-business operation, marketing low-cost, simple products to the customer bases of other Australian financial services institutions.”