Dai-ichi Life has reported a 13.3% rise in profit to ¥324.7 billion ($4 billion) for the nine months to December 31.

The life insurer’s report covers all global operations, and country segments such as TAL in Australia are not itemised.

The group’s stronger profit comes despite flat revenue of ¥5.4 trillion ($66 billion), rising only 1.3% compared with the previous corresponding period.

Premium for the nine months totalled ¥4.1 trillion ($50 billion), up from ¥3.9 trillion ($48 billion).

Turbulent markets hit Dai-ichi’s investments, with income falling to ¥981 billion ($12.1 billion) from ¥1.1 trillion ($13.6 billion).

President Koichiro Watanabe says global revenue and profit maintained growth in the third quarter of last year.

“TAL demonstrated significant growth both in new sales and policies in force due to a large contract in group life business,” he said.

“Neo First Life, which began selling insurance products last August, continued to have healthy sales of non-smoker discount medical insurance products, which we developed utilising the group’s Big Data.”

Mr Watanabe says international operations, including TAL, continue to deliver the strongest growth within the group.