AXA Asia Pacific Holdings, the regional wealth management arm of the Global AXA Group, saw a 41 per cent decline in total Australia wealth management gross inflows to A$5.82 billion for the nine months to 30 September.

The drop manifested despite improved performances during the September quarter, as investor confidence remained weak and industry sales were comparatively low. Net wealth management inflows for local operations were down 81 per cent to negative A$8.6 billion.

Beyond Australia, the group's total group funds under management, administration and advice slid 2 per cent from $83.9 billion in the same period last year to $81.9 billion. The total new business index for Hong Kong also dropped 8 per cent to HK$1.7 billion, with industry sales showing a 30 per cent slump for the first half.

"The third quarter of 2009 saw further improvements in local and global equity markets," said Andrew Penn, the chief executive officer of AXA Asia Pacific, in a statement. "Notwithstanding this, investor confidence has not yet recovered and industry sales in most of the markets in which we operate remain well below 2008."

The declines were not spread across the region, however, as the new business index for South East Asia was up 35 per cent. Growth was particularly strong in Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand, delivering a 20 per cent, 34 per cent, and 28 per cent rise respectively. In addition, new business in India went up 19 per cent to 2.8 billion rupees, while China saw a 59 per cent rise to Rmb198 million.

Mr Penn forecasts that the business environment will continue to be tough for the rest of the year, although he believes that equity performance could translate to an upturn by the start of 2010. "In this environment, our product and geographic distribution has continued to provide resilience to our business," he added.

AXA Asia Pacific has operations in Hong Kong SAR, China, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, India, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand.