BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian insurance company Ageas (BR:AGES) firmly beat expectations for profit in the third quarter as both its life and non-life businesses fared well and Belgian and Chinese earnings were strong.
Ageas, the successor to bailed out and broken up Belgian-Dutch group Fortis, said on Wednesday that net profit from insurance operations rose 42 percent to 239 million euros (187.8 million pounds).
That was far above the 178 million euro average forecast in a Reuters poll.
Ageas, which announced a new 250 million share buy-back programme in August, said it also made a profit on its legacy portfolio linked to the break-up of Fortis of 12 million euros.
That pushed overall net profit up to 251 million euros.
(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop)