Norwich Union Ireland has announced strong growth, with a 24 per cent rise in annual premiums to £24 million in 1997. This increase, Norwich said, "was due in the main to the tremendous success of a new suite of unit-linked pension plans launched in January 1997".

The most notable increase came from single premium business which showed a 282 per cent increase to £73.3 million. Part of this growth was due to pension funds, which received free shares in the flotation and which sold them to reinvest in Norwich Union funds. Around £13 million was involved. But even if these are excluded, the growth in single premiums was substantial.

In contrast, regular annual premiums fell by 7 per cent to £14.7 million. But the pension business was very buoyant and this was reflected by the 233 per cent growth to £42.9 million while annual premium pensions went up by 21 per cent to £8.2 million. Ordinary single premium business sales grew by 383 per cent to £30.4 million. This was due to the success of the Celebration bond which was on offer during last autumn and attracted £27 million in investment, said Norwich.

The Irish company now has assets of £2.3 billion and premiums of £182 million.

Norwich is optimistic about this year, saying it is well placed for continued growth.