AMP reports FY22 figures, says advice business transformation ongoing

AMP reported an underlying net profit after tax (NPAT) of $184 million for the full 2022 financial year, compared to $280 million a year earlier, while also reversing its statutory NPAT loss of $252 million and reporting a profit of $387 million supported by the gain on the sale of the infrastructure debt platform in 2022.

Australian Wealth Management’s (AWM) total assets under management (AUM) dropped to $124.2 billion from $142.3 billion on the back of a decline in investment markets and net cash outflows of $5.2 billion.

AMP’s advice business halved its NPAT loss to $68 million from $146 million reported in full 2021 financial year. The firm acknowledged that the transformation of this branch of the business continues to “progress towards a sustainable, standalone business”.

Advice revenues of $56 million (FY21: AU$58 million) were impacted by the sale of the employed business, partially offset by higher licensee fees, growth in equity investment portfolio and $18 million of impairments in the prior year not repeating, AMP reported.  

Variable costs reduced to $18 million, which was primarily due to the exit of employed advice.

The firm also provided an update on the AMP Capital transaction, noting that it completed the sale and transfer of the international infrastructure equity business to DigitalBridge in February 2023, realising a total value of $582 million and potential for additional cash earn-out of $180 million contingent on future fundraisings by new owners.

“We have made excellent progress on the delivery of the strategy that we announced in November 2021, setting us on the path to a new AMP. Our strategic focus has been on simplifying our operations and repositioning AMP as a leading wealth management and banking business in Australia and New Zealand. We are now focused on driving growth in our core businesses and exploring new business opportunities for longer term growth,” said AMP chief executive, Alexis George.

“We have now completed both the sale of the infrastructure debt platform and the international infrastructure equity business. We continue to work towards completion of the sale of the real estate and domestic infrastructure equity business. The completion of these transactions enables AMP to become a simplified and more customer-focused business,” she noted.

Addressing the Advice business, Ms George said: “We are seeing positive momentum around the transformation of our advice business, where we have more than halved the losses, and our key growth businesses — AMP Bank and Platforms — are starting to benefit from the investments we are making in those businesses”.

“In our flagship North platform, we have continued to increase the percentage of flows from the independent financial adviser market.”

AMP also declared a full year 2022 final dividend of 2.5 cents per share (franking of 20 per cent), as part of the $1.1 billion capital management program.