Irish Life & Permanent reported a 10 per cent rise in pretax earnings today and said it was confident of another strong performance in 2005.
Group finance director Peter Fitzpatrick said the the group should achieve double-digit growth in earnings again in 2005.
IL&P posted a pre tax profit of €400.2 million in 2004, up from €365.2 million a year earlier.
"Probably [we'll have] the same this year," Mr Fitzpatrick said. "Whether we see that being at 10 or 15 [per cent] very much depends on sales growth".
IL&P said the profit rise was mainly due to better results from its Allianz general insurance business than expected. Margins in the group's life business slipped to 13 per cent from 13.8 per cent a year earlier, but Mr Fitzpatrick said this was largely due to a change in the risk discount rate within the group's embedded-value assumptions.
"We're writing new business on the same, if not better, margins as 2003," he said. The group is targeting a 15 per cent margin for new business on the life side.
IL&P aimed to grow costs at slightly less than inflation this year, he added.