Suncorp Metway has shrugged off the difficulties of assimilating the AMP/GIO General Insurance operation by posting a solid $154 million profit for the six months to December 31. The result hasn’t been particularly popular with analysts, who expected more.

MD Steve Jones said the sound profit result has been achieved despite poor equity market performance and a $25 million increase in goodwill associated with the acquisition of AMP/GIO in July.

While the net profit is lower than the $189 million reported in the corresponding period to December 2000 “the underlying operating performance of the company has been strong”.

“We have made good progress on integrating GIO, setting in place the building blocks for excellent growth into the future,” he said. “We’ve been able to produce a respectable profit at the same time.”

He said the result is a “satisfactory performance” when it is considered against the background of the September 11 disaster, and the fact that investment returns in the period were $88 million lower than they were in the preceding half-year.