HONG KONG - Asian insurance giant AIA said Friday its new business grew 40 per cent year-on-year, a better-than-expected result thanks to strong growth in Singapore, Malaysia and China.

The firm, which is one-third owned by the troubled American International Group (AIG), said its value of new business rise to US$932 million (S$1.1 billion) in the 12 months to November 30, up from US$667 million a year earlier.

The result beat an average forecast of US$870.5 million in new business growth by eight analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.

Value of new business is a common growth measure used in the insurance industry, which takes into account the present value of expected future profits arising from new policies sold during the year.

"We have continued to deliver strong growth in our key performance measures," AIA group chief executive Mark Tucker said in a statement.

"These results demonstrate that the momentum in value creation which we generated in 2010 has been sustained throughout 2011."

Tucker said AIA's focus on the Asia-Pacific, "the world's most dynamic region", put the company in "a very strong position to optimise opportunities for further growth" and generate robust returns for its shareholders.

The better-than-expected result lifted AIA's Hong Kong-listed shares by 1.46 per cent to HK$27.80 (S$4.49) in early trade.

Despite the strong growth in new business, AIA's net profit fell 41 per cent year-on-year to US$1.6 billion, due to market turbulence affecting the value of its assets. Its annualised new premium sales rose 22 per cent to US$2.47 billion.

AIA, which operates in 14 Asia-Pacific markets, raised US$20.5 billion in an initial public offering in 2010.