Friends First, the Irish subsidiary of the pan-European insurance group Eureko, doubled its profits to #17.3 million (£13.6 million) last year, according to the Eureko annual report. A strong performance from the life assurance business, where there was 57 per cent growth, was the main contributor while Friends First also benefited from the sale of its loss-making non-life portfolio to Hibernian. Friends First Asset Management increased its funds under management by 10.5 per cent to #4.2 billion with higher fees allowing profits to increase from #1.8 million to #2.7 million. Eureko itself more than doubled pre-tax profits from #282.8 million to #614.7 million while gross written premiums increased from #6.54 billion to #6.73 billion.