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PARIS (Reuters)—AXA S.A., Europe's second-largest insurer, said on Wednesday it would boost earnings and cut debt as part of a 2015 plan to bolster investor confidence in its future growth path.
The company is under pressure to deliver a convincing strategy after the crisis forced it to shelve its previous growth targets.
Its shares have rebounded this year but are still trading at among the sector's lowest price-to-book multiples.
The insurer is targeting an underlying earnings-per-share growth rate of 10% by 2015 on a compound annual growth basis, the French group said ahead of an investor day on Wednesday.
The insurer also announced the sale of its Canadian operations to Intact Financial Corp. for $2.6 billion Canadian ($2.66 billion) in cash.
AXA has grown over the past three decades from a small mutual insurer in Normandy to a global player via a string of acquisitions.
Its current chief executive, Henri de Castries, is facing growing questions about the company's push into emerging markets and anemic share price performance.
The group reiterated its aim to find €1.5 billion ($2.14 billion) in pretax cost savings by 2015, which it said would come from mature markets. By 2013 the group said it will have reached €800 million in pretax savings.
The group is targeting an adjusted return on equity of 15% in 2015 and a debt gearing level of 25%, down from 28% at yearend 2010.
In asset management, a trouble spot for the group, AXA is targeting a turnaround of net flows in 2011 and then 4% to 5% net new money flows per year between 2012 and 2015.
TORONTO (Reuters)—Intact Financial Corp. has agreed to buy the Canadian arm of European insurance company AXA S.A. for $2.6 billion Canadian ($2.66 billion) in cash in a move to expand its North American presence.