PENSION sales at Hibernian Insurance "remain very buoyant", chairman Mr Edmund Williams told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting in Dublin yesterday.

Mr Williams said "there was also evidence of a welcome pick-up in life sales". Hibernian had a good spread of business and was well-positioned to continue to trade profitably in this very competitive environment, he said.

Mr Williams said short-term prospects for the British market were for "a period of below-average profitability". The company's British business, Hallmark, was being restructured and five regional offices were being created. The decentralisation was due to increased use of electronic data transfers, Hibernian chief executive, Mr Adrian Daly, said.

All British staff were offered jobs in the new offices and a relocation payment, but about 30 people choose not to move and had taken a redundancy package agreed with their union, MSF.

The Hallmark business would be rebranded under the Hibernian name later this year and should be in a position to derive maximum advantage from the better market conditions expected in Britain by 1998, Mr Williams said.