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Tower Limited

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FY2022 Annual Report · Tower Limited
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Tower Limited 
Annual Report 2022

TOWER LIMITED  
ANNUAL REPORT 2022

2022 YEAR IN REVIEW

UPDATE FROM CHAIR & CEO 

MAKING INSURANCE EASY 

• Innovating to make insurance easier for customers 

• Creating beautifully simple and rewarding customer experiences 

• Transparency & fairness at the heart of our customer experience 

• Flood risk-based pricing 

• Expanding our core product range 

• Partnering everywhere 

• Making insurance affordable and accessible 

• Investing in the Pacific 

CLIMATE CHANGE – TACKLING THE CHALLENGE OF A LIFETIME

• Managing the impacts of climate change 

• Supporting our communities through climate change 

SUPPORTING CUSTOMERS THROUGH LARGE EVENTS AND EVERYDAY CLAIMS 

• FY22 large events and everyday claims 

• Transforming our claims experience 

PUTTING OUR PEOPLE FIRST

• Diverse and inclusive to the core 

• Supporting our people 

• Developing careers in the Pacific

PROTECTING THE FUTURE 

• Managing our ESG issues 

• Our ESG strategy 

BOARD OF DIRECTORS 

CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 

• Financial Statements 

• Notes to the consolidated financial statements 

INDEPENDENT AUDITOR'S REPORT 

APPOINTED ACTUARY'S REPORT  

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AT TOWER  

GRI CONTENT INDEX  

TOWER DIRECTORY   

REGISTRAR  

01

02

04

06

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

26

28

32

34

40

42

48

50

54

56

58

60

62

63

64

66

66

74

113

118

122

136

142

143

TOWER LIMITED ANNUAL REPORT 2022TOWER LIMITED ANNUAL REPORT 2022 02

2022 YEAR IN REVIEW

2022 YEAR IN REVIEW

03

2022 IN REVIEW

13%
$27.3m
$18.9m
319k

200k

Underlying GWP growth 
$457m vs $404m in FY21*

Underlying profit incl. large events  
vs $20.8m in FY21*

50%

Of Tower customers hold  
multiple products

78%

Growth in EV policies - 4140 policies  
in FY22 vs 2320 in FY21

Profit after taxation  
$19.3m in FY21

Customer growth 
vs 304,000 in FY21

My Tower registrations  
vs 132k in FY21

30%

Reduction in New Zealand electricity 
emissions after moving to 6 Green Star 
head office, vs 2020 baseline year 

7.8

Employee NPS  
vs 7.7 in FY21

$19m

Large events  
vs $13.9m in FY21

73k

Everyday claims paid  
in New Zealand

*For a reconciliation of Tower’s underlying GWP and underlying profit, which are non-GAAP measures, to its reported GWP 
and profit after taxation respectively, see Tower’s FY22 Investor Presentation, announced 23 November, 2022 via the NZX.

04

UPDATE FROM CHAIR & CEO

UPDATE FROM CHAIR & CEO

05

UPDATE  
FROM  
CHAIR &  
CEO

"At Tower, our purpose is to inspire, shape 
and protect the future for the good of our 
customers and communities."

Strong growth and  
business performance  

We are pleased to report that in the 
year to 30 September 2022, our 
underlying profit including large events 
was $27.3m, up 31% from $20.8.m for 
the full-year 2021. Underlying profit, 
excluding large events, was $41m, 
compared to $30.8m in the prior year. 
Profit after taxation was $18.9m, versus 
$19.3m at the end of FY21.

Tower’s focus on simple and rewarding 
customer experiences combined 
with our digital and data capability 
have contributed to strong growth. 
During the financial year we grew 
customer numbers to 319,000, up 5% 
on last financial year. We also grew our 
underlying gross written premiums 
(GWP) 13% year on year, up to $457m.   

Reflecting these positive results and 
based on Tower’s dividend policy, the 
Board has declared a final dividend 
of 4 cents per share. This will be  
paid on 1 February 2023,bringing  
total dividends for FY22 to 6.5 cents  
per share. 

We remain in a strong capital and 
solvency position. As at 30 September 
2022, Tower’s New Zealand parent 
solvency ratio was 205% and the 
company was holding $22m above  
itstarget solvency margin.

In March, the Board returned $30.6m in 
excess capital to shareholders by 
way of a compulsory share buyback 
under a court-sanctioned Scheme 
of Arrangement.

In FY22 Tower successfully navigated 
global and domestic challenges 
including record inflation, supply 
chain blockages, access to talent, 
and increasing large events. We are 
pleased that the actions we have taken 
to address these challenges, combined 
with consistent growth and strong 
underlying business performance, are 
delivering results for shareholders.

Delivering on innovation and growth

Our flagship Tower Direct business 
continues to go from strength to 
strength, growing GWP by 17% to 
$320m as we innovate to build 
rewarding and engaging  
relationships with customers.  

Our digitisation strategy has seen us 
make the process of purchasing and 
managing insurance policies and 
making a claim even easier on one 
simple online platform. We have  
also enhanced transparency  
of pricing and individual property risk 
with the introduction of our flood  
and earthquake risk rating tool.

Digitisation of our Pacific business 
continues at pace and we are now 
operating on one core platform across 
New Zealand and the Pacific, leading  
to further improvements in efficiency 
and competitiveness.

Similarly, our partnerships business 
has attracted new partners such as 
Ray White, and our flagship Trade 
Me offering has increased by 38% to 
45,000 policies. During the year we 
were pleased to complete our strategy 
of acquiring legacy insurance books 
from banks and migrating them to 
Tower Direct, reducing commission 
payments by around $11m per year.

Our technology partnerships 
are enabling the business to be 
increasingly nimble in responding 
to challenges and capitalising on 
opportunities. 

In the financial year we were 
particularly pleased to win a number 
of industry awards for our leading 
customer experience, including the 
Insurance Business Awards New 
Zealand General Insurer of the Year,  

and the top Canstar Car Insurer of 
the Year and Outstanding Value Car 
Insurance Awards for the second  
year running. 

Recognising our people

Our 2022 financial year result is a credit 
to Tower’s management and people 
who focused on delivering our strategy 
and the resulting customer benefits.  

We were pleased to have further 
bolstered our leadership team and 
Board this financial year. In January,  
we welcomed both our Chief Financial 
Officer, Paul Johnston, and Chief Claims 
Officer, Steve Wilson, and in June,  
Greg Moore joined as Chief Digital  
and Data Officer.

In February we farewelled Steve Smith 
who had been a Director of Tower since 
2012. On 30 November, Warren Lee 
retired following seven years' service 
to Tower. We sincerely thank Steve 
and Warren for their considerable 
contribution towards Tower’s 
transformation over the years. 

Just after the close of the financial year, 
the Board was pleased to welcome 
Geraldine McBride as a Director on  
1 October. Geraldine brings extensive 
governance and technology industry 
experience both internationally and in 
New Zealand. 

Managing the impacts of  
climate change 

It’s clear that the biggest challenge  
we collectively face is the threat of 
climate change.

Tower is committed to navigating the 
changing climate in support of our 
customers and communities in  
New Zealand and the Pacific, and in the 
long-term interests of our shareholders.  
That’s why we have introduced flood 
risk-based pricing and a parametric 

insurance pilot, to better inform and 
prepare our customers and business 
for the future.

Increasing the large event limit in our 
financial plans and the successful 
renewal of Tower’s reinsurance 
programme also provide important 
protection from this volatility. 

In the coming financial year, we will 
respond to the Government’s new, 
mandatory Climate-related Disclosures 
reporting regime by sharing the risks 
and opportunities we anticipate from 
a range of potential climate change 
scenarios. We see this regime as a 
positive opportunity to inform our 
business strategy and support  
future resilience.  

Environmental, social and  
governance commitments

This year, for the first time, we are 
pleased to integrate environmental, 
social and governance (ESG) 
commentary throughout our annual 
report, in accordance with the 
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) 2021 
Standards. This approach reflects our 
commitment to transparency and 
providing shareholders with the widest 
possible view of our activities.

Tower has identified and prioritised its 
most relevant ESG impacts and has 
initiatives in place to address them. 
These are highlighted throughout the 
report with a list of our material topics 
summarised on page 62.

We welcome feedback on this report 
from our shareholders and look forward 
to sharing our progress as we continue 
our sustainability journey, in tandem 
with our other strategic priorities.  

MICHAEL  
STIASSNY
Chairman

BLAIR  
TURNBULL 
CEO

06

MAKING INSURANCE EASY

MAKING INSURANCE EASY

07

MAKING  
INSURANCE EASY 

08

MAKING INSURANCE EASY

MAKING INSURANCE EASY

09

Key to our strategy is a 
relentless focus on our 
customers, deepening 
our relationships with 
them through rewards, 
new products and other 
offerings that make  
sense and create value.

10

MAKING INSURANCE EASY

MAKING INSURANCE EASY

11

DON’T JUST TAKE  
OUR WORD FOR IT

“Just great service,  
easily accessible  
and right first time!!” 

– Davina, Tower customer, March 2022

“Incredible friendliness,  
so engaging and  
explained everything.” 

– Carolyn, Tower customer, December 2021

“The My Tower login 
is super easy to use 
to update and change 
policies.” 

– Pradeep, Tower customer, August 2022

NEW ZEALAND GENERAL INSURER  
OF THE YEAR
Insurance Business Awards NZ 2022,  
Awarded in February

CANSTAR CAR INSURER 
OF THE YEAR
Awarded in September

CANSTAR 2022 OUTSTANDING VALUE  
CAR INSURANCE AWARD
Awarded in September

CELENT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE  
TRANSFORMATION
Celent Model Insurer Awards 2022,  
Awarded in March

NEW ZEALAND INSURTECH INITIATIVE  
OF THE YEAR AWARD
Insurance Asia Awards 2022 – Quick Quote,  
Awarded in June

12

INNOVATING TO MAKE INSURANCE EASIER FOR CUSTOMERS

INNOVATING TO MAKE INSURANCE EASIER FOR CUSTOMERS

13

INNOVATING TO MAKE INSURANCE 
EASIER FOR CUSTOMERS

Customers are increasingly engaging with us online.

In FY22 Tower continued 
to invest in and develop 
industry-leading 
technology and tools to 
deliver beautifully simple 
customer experiences. 

This digital focus has 
contributed to our flagship  
Tower Direct business 
performing well in FY22,  
with GWP up 17% to $320m.

Throughout the year we’ve continued 
to enhance our unique My Tower 
offering. In addition to purchasing 
insurance, making a claim, and 
updating and keeping track of policies 
on one simple online platform, 
customers can also:

•  View a personalised comparison  
of pricing changes at renewal time

•  View their property’s individual 
risk profile for flooding and 
earthquakes

•  Adjust their sum insured

•  Update their personal details  

and payment methods

•  View discounts and promotions.

200k
66%
17%
50%
48%

Customers now registered for My Tower NZ, vs 132k in FY21 

Of Tower Direct sales now digital

Increase in Tower Direct online quotes from FY21

Of service tasks and transactions completed digitally in NZ

Of claims now lodged online in NZ

14

CREATING BEAUTIFULLY SIMPLE AND REWARDING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES

CREATING BEAUTIFULLY SIMPLE AND REWARDING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES

15

CREATING 
BEAUTIFULLY 
SIMPLE AND 
REWARDING 
CUSTOMER 
EXPERIENCES

Charlie the chatbot

Charlie the chatbot handled more than 92,000 
customer queries in FY22. Through clever use of 
artificial intelligence, Charlie can answer more than 
10,000 unique questions and is learning more every 
day. Charlie is available to customers 24/7.

Quick Quote

Making it quicker to get a quote has increased the 
number of quotes we’ve provided. Quick Quote uses 
big data and automation to make the insurance 
quotation process as simple as possible for 
customers. A quote from Tower now only requires 
responses to between five and nine questions, 
depending on the policy.

16

TRANSPARENCY & FAIRNESS AT THE HEART OF OUR CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

TRANSPARENCY & FAIRNESS AT THE HEART OF OUR CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

17

TRANSPARENCY & FAIRNESS AT 
THE HEART OF OUR CUSTOMER 
EXPERIENCE

We are focused on building trust, through fair and transparent insurance services.

Our customer research tells us that 
insurers traditionally do not make 
things easy for customers; only a 
quarter of Kiwis told us they are 
confident they have the right cover 
for all their risks*. Three-quarters of 
people surveyed also told us that 
transparency of information is one 
of the most important factors when 
deciding on an insurance provider.

We recognise the need for clearly 
worded and simple descriptions 
of insurance products that ensure 
customers understand what they’re 
covered for.

Easy to understand insurance

In addition to ensuring our policies 
achieve the WriteMark plain English 
standard, we progressed several 
important initiatives in FY22 aimed at 
increasing transparency and fairness.

These include our approach to risk-
based pricing for flooding which 
launched in November 2021,  
and continually simplifying and 
improving our customer self-service 
offering through digitisation. 

We enhanced our digital platform to 
provide customers with transparent 
pricing. We also challenged industry 
norms by making it easier for 
customers to cancel their insurance 
online without needing to call the 
contact centre. 

With 82% of customers surveyed 
saying they are likely or very likely 
to insure with Tower again in the 
future, this approach has removed an 
unnecessary pain point for customers. 

Toka Tū Ake – EQC levy change

A substantial change to premiums in 
2022 was driven by the Government’s 
decision to double the amount Toka 
Tū Ake – EQC will pay out in certain 
types of natural disasters, to $300k 
per household. 

With most customers seeing a 
resulting increase in premiums,  
Tower proactively explained the 
change in premiums to customers, 
including producing an easy-to-
understand video which received 
positive customer feedback. 

Putting things right for our customers

An important part of being fair and 
transparent is fronting up and fixing 
things when we don’t get them right. 
In the 2023 financial year, Tower will 
put things right for customers whose 
discounts weren’t calculated correctly.
Following an internal review, we 
identified that some customers who 
hold multiple policies with Tower 
have not received the multi-policy 
discount they were entitled to. After 
we identified the issue, we proactively 
advised the Financial Markets 
Authority (FMA). We are identifying 
affected customers and calculating 
refunds due. Customers will not need 
to take any action as we will make 
contact directly as appropriate. We 
sincerely apologise to customers who 
have been affected by this error. We 
have put new processes in place to 
ensure that customers always receive 
their correct discounts.

*From Tower research commissioned in September 2021, which surveyed 1,000 New Zealanders

18

FLOOD RISK-BASED PRICING

FLOOD RISK-BASED PRICING

19

FLOOD 
RISK-BASED 
PRICING

In November 2021, Tower introduced 
flood risk-based pricing and a new 
online tool to help all Kiwis better 
understand and prepare for the 
risks their properties face, and to 
ensure we keep premiums fair  
and transparent.

The tool was developed in 
partnership with Risk Management 
Solutions (RMS, a global risk-
modelling company). It’s the first fully 
probabilistic flood model for  
New Zealand and allows a low, 
medium or high rating for every 
residential address in the country.

We also use this data to help 
customers understand their 
premiums. Through My Tower  
we have raised the benchmark 
around open and transparent  
pricing for customers, by presenting 
visual breakdowns of customer 
premiums in a simple chart, where 
they can easily compare year-on-
year changes for the various  
pricing elements.

Throughout 2022, all home 
insurance customers who have 
held Tower policies prior to  
November 2021 have been 
transitioned to our new flood-risk 
rating model, with nearly 90% 
receiving a reduction in the flood-
risk portion of their premiums.

Looking forward, Tower will expand 
its risk-based pricing approach to 
include coastal erosion and coastal 
flooding risk by the end of 2023, 
with windstorm to follow.

20

EXPANDING OUR CORE PRODUCT RANGE

EXPANDING OUR CORE PRODUCT RANGE

21

EXPANDING OUR CORE 
PRODUCT RANGE

At Tower, we’re all about solving our customers’ 
problems before they even know they have them. 
This enables us to build deeper relationships with 
customers who then stay with us longer. 

Pet insurance

We launched pet insurance in 
December 2021. From home and 
contents to canines and cats, 
customers are now able to insure  
their most precious possessions  
and furry friends with Tower.

In FY22, Tower developed a new 
renovation insurance product. We also 
partnered with Allianz Partners to offer 
travel and pet insurance.

Travel cover

Tower launched travel insurance in 
October 2021. Once borders opened 
fully in March, Kiwis left the country in 
earnest with 19% of travel insurance 
policies purchased for trips to 
Australia, followed by New Zealand  
at 14%, the UK at 12%, and Fiji and the 
US at 9%.

55
18
19%

Injured dogs recovered

Sick cats nursed back  
to health

Of travel insurance policies were 
for trips to Australia - our most 
popular destination

Contract Works –  
Renovation cover 

Kiwis took out more than 30,000 
renovation consents for their houses 
last year. But our research* shows 
many people aren’t aware home 
insurance doesn’t cover everything 
related to renovating.

In August 2022, Tower launched 
Contract Works – Renovation cover. 
It’s separate from house insurance 
and builders’ insurance, and covers 
damage while work is being done, as 
well as theft of construction materials.

Disciplined, data-driven underwriting 
improving risk accuracy

We are staying ahead of inflationary 
pressures by ensuring accurate sum 
insured amounts for our customers’ 
homes. Now almost 100% of our house 
customers’ sums insured are updated 
automatically on their policies, either 
by the consumer price index or the 
Cordell calculator, compared to only 
77% a year ago.

Our underwriting capability is 
becoming increasingly automated, 
with 95% of risks in New Zealand 
now sold without requiring a manual 
underwriting review.  

We are continuously monitoring 
our pricing to ensure we stay both 
competitive and profitable. Our agility 
and data-driven capabilities have 
enabled us to make more than 140 
pricing and underwriting adjustments 
in the year.

*From Tower research commissioned in July 2022, which surveyed 1,005 New Zealanders

22

PARTNERING EVERYWHERE

PARTNERING EVERYWHERE

23

PARTNERING EVERYWHERE

Smart, meaningful 
partnerships have been 
key to unlocking growth 
amid a rapidly changing 
insurance landscape.

Bringing Kiwis home safe 

We’re proud to celebrate one  
year of partnering with Coastguard  
New Zealand. New Tower Boat 
customers are eligible for a discounted 
Coastguard membership. 

In FY22 Tower’s 
Partnerships business 
increased GWP from 
active partners by 35% 
to $54m and Tower has 
attracted a number of new 
partners over the year.

Coastguard volunteers and staff are 
also eligible for insurance discounts. 
These discounted rates help drive 
Coastguard memberships and 
ultimately, keep more Kiwis  
water safe.

Ray White Concierge 

TSB

Unlike any other service in the New 
Zealand property industry, Ray White 
launched Concierge in partnership 
with Tower in October 2022.

Our partnership with Ray White makes 
it even easier for people to insure their 
home during a seamless property 
purchase process experience, with 
access to our entire product range and 
My Tower platform.

Kiwi Adviser Network

In September 2022, Tower partnered 
with the Kiwi Adviser Network 
(KAN). KAN has relationships with 
200 advisors and 20 New Zealand 
mortgage lenders across NZ.

This partnership helps simplify 
insurance referrals for advisers and 
is another positive step forward for 
Tower’s partnerships advisory model, 
helping to accelerate the growth of 
our network by 35% to 1,500 active 
advisors throughout FY22.

Flagship Trade Me Partnership

Our flagship Trade Me partnership 
has gone from strength to strength 
this financial year, growing 38% to 
$25m GWP and helping Tower reach 
a range of customers through Trade 
Me Insurance (TMI). In March, TMI 
extended its offering to include our 
Boat insurance product. With more 
than 3,000 boats for sale on Trade Me 
at any one time, we're continuing to 
provide insurance cover for products 
on Trade Me with our online journey.

In May we announced a new five-year 
referral agreement with TSB, providing 
the opportunity for further growth. 
Tower has underwritten TSB-branded 
insurance products since 2004.

Legacy insurance book  
acquisitions complete

In September we completed our 
strategy of acquiring legacy insurance 
books and migrating them to Tower 
Direct. We announced we would 
acquire and assume Kiwibank’s rights 
and obligations relating to servicing 
a portfolio of insurance policies 
underwritten by Tower. 

Since February 2021, Tower has 
purchased books for a total price 
of $26m from ANZ, Westpac, TSB 
and Kiwibank, ending commission 
payments and enabling us to have 
a direct relationship with these 
customers, who hold more than 
88,000 assets and contents policies.

Previously, Tower paid total 
commission to these partners  
of around $11m per annum.

Reducing commissions

The transformation of our Partnerships 
business to a lower commission model 
and our legacy book acquisitions have 
resulted in commission payments 
reducing to 2.2% of gross earned 
premiums in FY22. 

24

MAKING INSURANCE AFFORDABLE AND ACCESSIBLE

MAKING INSURANCE AFFORDABLE AND ACCESSIBLE

25

“Cyclones bring a lot of damage to our 
village. This type of insurance will help 
us buy food and replace or repair our 
damaged possessions. It just costs 
a few bundles of fish to pay for the 
premiums for the whole year.”

– Ledua, Tower Fiji Cyclone Response Cover pilot customer.

MAKING INSURANCE  
AFFORDABLE AND ACCESSIBLE 

Providing affordable and accessible insurance is a priority for Tower, including in  
our Pacific markets, where most people are either not insured or are underinsured.

Low rates of insurance in the Pacific 
are due to a range of issues, including 
the insurability of many Pacific homes, 
the unique ownership structures of 
properties within families, affordability, 
a lack of insurance products to suit 
their needs, or a lack of available 
internet or transportation to access 
insurance products.

We know that not having the right 
cover makes people, communities, and 
economies reliant on aid, which creates 
unnecessary uncertainty and can mean 
it takes more time to recover when the 
worst happens.

As a Kiwi and Pacific insurer, we have 
a responsibility to ensure insurance 
remains accessible and affordable. 
This is a challenge given the current 
inflationary environment and  
increasing risks from large events  
and climate change. 

We are committed to providing 
products that meet our customers’ 
needs, offering insurance services that 
are as affordable and accessible as 
possible, and increasing the number  
of people with appropriate insurance. 

We continuously monitor our  
pricing and benefits to ensure we are 
competitive and offer value for money. 

We have also formed an affordability 
focus group to ensure our team have 
all the right skills necessary to help 
customers navigate affordability issues.

customer is impacted by a weather 
event, regardless of damage and 
without the need for an insurance 
assessor’s signoff. 

In the Pacific, Tower has advocated 
strongly for higher penetration of 
insurance. 

This year we made a submission to 
the Fiji National Financial Inclusion 
Strategy, calling for fast and affordable 
internet access. We participated in an 
industry initiative to develop a financial 
literacy programme for insurance 
with the United Nations Development 
Programme (UNDP). And in February 
we announced a partnership with 
Business Link Pacific to increase 
insurance knowledge in the  
South Pacific.

Cyclone Response Cover

We see the Pacific as an excellent  
test bed for new technology and 
product development. With weather 
events becoming more extreme, 
it’s important for insurers to look at 
different insurance models to help 
communities recover more quickly 
from widespread damage.

Parametric insurance provides a  
rapid cash pay-out when a  

In October 2022, Tower launched 
Cyclone Response Cover, a parametric 
insurance pilot in Fiji, ahead of the 
2022/2023 cyclone season. Cyclone 
Response Cover automatically pays 
customers following cyclone events, 
based on windspeed and proximity.
It aims to help communities recover 
more quickly from a large event and 
offers financial security and peace 
of mind to customers who may not 
benefit from traditional insurance.  
It’s an affordable, lower-cost, lower 
total cover approach and nimbler  
than the assessment-based insurance 
models we have now. It isn’t a silver 
bullet and won’t replace assessment-
based insurance, but it’s part of the 
solution – importantly, it’s a step 
forward in increasing insurance 
accessibility across the Pacific. 

Following the pilot phase, Cyclone 
Response Cover will be available 
to all Tower customers in Fiji for the 
2023/2024 cyclone season. From 
there, Tower will begin to expand  
the product into our other Pacific  
Island markets.

26

INVESTING IN THE PACIFIC

INVESTING IN THE PACIFIC

27

INVESTING IN THE PACIFIC

Tower has been helping to protect Pacific Island customers and communities with 
insurance for more than 140 years.

now also live in Vanuatu and Tonga.  
In April 2022, we launched our 
signature My Tower platform in Fiji, 
followed by My Tower Vanuatu in 
November 2022.

My Tower means our Fiji customers 
no longer need to make the trip to 
one of our branches to make a claim, 
purchase insurance, change their sum 
insured or pay their premiums – all of 
this can now be done online via  
My Tower.

We plan to launch online quote to buy 
and My Tower across all our Pacific 
territories by the end of FY23.

Simplifying our Pacific business

In December 2021, Tower completed 
the acquisition of its subsidiary 
National Pacific Insurance Limited 
(NPI) which operates across Tonga, 
American Samoa and Samoa. Tower 
has begun the process of rebranding 
NPI to Tower.

In June 2022, Tower announced the 
conditional sale of all its shares in 
its Papua New Guinea subsidiary to 
Alpha Insurance Limited. The sale 
was completed in October 2022. It 
delivers good value to shareholders 
and will enable Tower to accelerate 
streamlining and modernising our 
Pacific business operation.

In this time, Tower has been able to 
tap into local talent, expertise and 
important perspectives on issues 
like product development and more 
recently, climate change. 

Our Pacific team has been 
instrumental in the development of 
our parametric insurance pilot and 
in understanding climate change 
impacts on our Pacific customers.  

Our operations hub in Suva is the heart 
of our Pacific arm. In the last two years 
alone, we’ve celebrated significant 
growth in Fiji, creating more than 50 
new jobs for local people, and we 
now have staff in Suva working across 
every Tower business unit. 

This growth both bolsters the local 
economy and safeguards overall 

business continuity and resilience. 
Having people across different regions 
means our team in Fiji can support our 
Pacific customers as well as peaks 
and troughs in customer service calls 
across the Tower Group. 

Beyond investing in talent, we’re also 
investing heavily in digital and data 
technologies to increase insurance 
accessibility and bring a more modern, 
streamlined insurance experience to 
the Pacific region. 

We’ve invested nearly NZ$7m into our 
Pacific digital transformation, and our 
digital platform is now live in every 
Pacific market we operate in.

In March 2022, we launched Fiji and 
the Pacific’s first ever online quote-to 
buy insurance experience, and this is 

1
71%
88%
45%

Core NZ and Pacific personal 
lines platform now live

Increase in Fiji new 
business vs FY21

Of all Fiji new business purchased 
via new digital platform

Of all new business in  
the Pacific purchased via  
new platform

Tower’s core platform has now  
been rolled out across seven Pacific 
countries, supporting a return to 
growth for our Pacific business with 
GWP up 8% to $58m.

28

CLIMATE CHANGE – TACKLING THE CHALLENGE OF A LIFETIME

CLIMATE CHANGE – TACKLING THE CHALLENGE OF A LIFETIME

29

CLIMATE CHANGE – TACKLING THE 
CHALLENGE OF A LIFETIME 

30

CLIMATE CHANGE – TACKLING THE CHALLENGE OF A LIFETIME

CLIMATE CHANGE – TACKLING THE CHALLENGE OF A LIFETIME

31

Tower is focused on managing 
the impacts of climate change, 
both within our business and  
for the communities we serve.

We recognise that we have a 
responsibility to make a positive 
contribution to mitigating 
climate change through our own 
operations, and through our 
influence as a committed Kiwi 
and Pacific business.

32

MANAGING THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

MANAGING THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

33

MANAGING THE IMPACTS 
OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Tower has four main strategies for managing climate change impacts:

1
3

Continuing to expand our risk-based  
pricing strategy to include more  
climate-related hazards.

Implementing a robust reinsurance 
programme to provide protection  
from volatility.

2
4

Budgeting for increasing large 
events in our planning to manage 
Managing the impacts of climate 
financial impacts.
change

Working towards a more sustainable 
future by supporting communities 
through climate change and reducing 
emissions through every aspect of our 
value chain.

Robust reinsurance programme

Climate-related Disclosures

In October 2022, we successfully 
renewed our reinsurance programme 
for the 2023 financial year, obtaining 
comprehensive cover with very 
competitive rates for our home, motor, 
boat and commercial portfolios, across 
New Zealand and the Pacific.

Tower’s reinsurance strategy provides 
protection from volatility caused by 
large events and maintains financial 
flexibility to support growth, while 
underpinning strong solvency.

The New Zealand Government's  
new Climate-related Disclosures 
reporting regime will come into effect 
for accounting periods starting after  
1 January 2023 and will therefore 
apply to Tower’s FY24 reporting.

We see this reporting regime as a 
positive opportunity to inform our 
business strategy and are planning 
to make some early Climate-related 
Disclosures in our FY23 reporting. 

Lifting awareness & education

Tower increased the catastrophe 
upper limit to $934m to reflect 
business growth. The catastrophe 
cover excess is $11.9m, up from  
$11.3m in FY22.

Reinsurers are attracted to Tower’s 
robust risk management capabilities, 
strong underwriting, including our 
approach to risk-based pricing, and 
our dynamic rating capability.

To help raise awareness of risks 
and climate change issues we 
are sharing useful data with New 
Zealand customers via our flood and 
earthquake hazard model. We also 
support scientific research, education 
and innovation through our partnership 
with Waikato University’s Bachelor of 
Climate Change Studies.

We are committed to championing informed and 
pragmatic dialogue on climate change impacts 
and responses. Throughout the year, Tower 
has been vocal on these issues with a range of 
stakeholders and media in New Zealand and in 
the Pacific. We are clear about what’s needed.

Insurers need to develop new products and models.

Local and central government need to invest  
in mitigation solutions for suburbs and cities.

We need urgent changes to building codes and to 
take weather events into consideration as we plan 
new housing developments.

1
2
3

34

SUPPORTING OUR COMMUNITIES THROUGH CLIMATE CHANGE

SUPPORTING OUR COMMUNITIES THROUGH CLIMATE CHANGE

35

SUPPORTING COMMUNITIES 
THROUGH CLIMATE CHANGE

Tower is committed to helping New Zealand and the 
Pacific’s transition to a more sustainable future.

Our greatest opportunity to support 
this aim is by positively influencing and 
supporting our customers through the 
services and products we provide. 

including policies that cover electric 
and hybrid vehicles, e-bikes and 
e-scooters.

Decarbonising transport

Ensuring our product development 
and innovation supports climate 
change resilience and action is a 
priority for Tower. We know traditional 
insurance products fail to adequately 
support many Pacific people who 
either do not have insurance or are 
underinsured. To help build future 
resilience in the face of climate 
change in the Pacific, we are piloting 
parametric insurance with Cyclone 
Response Cover and improving the 
accessibility of insurance products 
through digital investments.

In New Zealand, Tower is supporting 
more sustainable forms of transport 
with innovative insurance offerings 

Since broadening the range of EVs  
we insure in 2021 and the introduction 
of government schemes to incentivise 
uptake of EV and hybrid vehicles, 
sales of EV policies continued to soar, 
with the number of Tower EV policies 
increasing by 78% during 2022.

Sustainability benefit

Our $15,000 sustainability payment, 
on top of the sum insured, provides 
an incentive to choose sustainable 
building materials and features when 
building a new home following a total 
loss from fire or flood.

78%
65%

Growth in EV cover

Growth in hybrid vehicle cover

36

SUPPORTING OUR COMMUNITIES THROUGH CLIMATE CHANGE

SUPPORTING OUR COMMUNITIES THROUGH CLIMATE CHANGE

37

GoCarma carbon feature

This year, we updated our GoCarma 
app to present customers’ 
personalised carbon emissions from 
driving and give feedback on how to 
improve driving to reduce emissions. 

Carbon emissions target

Tower has set a science-based 
reduction target of 21% over five 
years from our 2020 base year. 

We first calculated our carbon 
footprint for two financial years in  
2021 in accordance with the 
requirements of the Greenhouse  
Gas Protocol and ISO 14064-1:2018.

We have ambitiously elected to 
use FY20 (1 October 2019 – 30 
September 2020) as our first year of 
measurement, which includes multiple 
lockdowns in all the markets we 
operate in. While this base year does 
not reflect our pre-Covid footprint, we 
are aiming to incorporate the lessons 
of three years of working remotely and 
travelling less.

We take measuring and reducing our 
emissions seriously as we recognise 
that every effort to reduce emissions 
helps to mitigate global warming.  
Our carbon impacts reach well beyond 
the boundaries of our own operational 
activities and include the activities of 
our whole value chain, including the 
suppliers we work with.

Our emissions profile

Our emissions temporarily reduced in 
FY21 due to the substantial reduction 
in travel and energy use experienced 
by many office-based companies 
throughout the pandemic. As 
expected, our ambitious targets are 
proving challenging as we continue 
to grow and increase customer 

interactions, particularly in the  
Pacific islands. 

This return to normal activities has 
seen our overall carbon footprint 
increase 12% to 617 tCo2e against  
our FY20 baseline year (551 tCo2e).  
This is largely driven by our Pacific 
fleet of 18 vehicles which have 
doubled emissions compared to our 
FY20 base year contributing to a 78% 
increase in our Scope 1 emissions.

We are committed to reducing our 
fleet emissions and have already 
taken actions to curb these, such 
as replacing our New Zealand fleet 
with plug-in hybrid vehicles. This has 
helped manage increases to our New 
Zealand mobile combustion emissions 
in FY22 and we expect to see the full 
benefit of this change in FY23.  
We will transition four of our Pacific 
fleet vehicles to hybrids in FY23.

Some 62% of Tower’s greenhouse 
gas (GHG) emissions come from our 
Pacific operations. While this is largely 
due to vehicle use, it also reflects the 
energy supply in the Pacific compared 
to mostly renewable sources in New 
Zealand. In our Pacific premises we 
rely on generators when the local 
electricity grids regularly fail. In FY23 
we will investigate how we can 
implement more sustainable electricity 
sources for our Pacific properties. 

The move to our new 6 Green Star-
rated building in Auckland has 
helped reduce our corporate office 
emissions and waste in New Zealand, 

contributing to a 30% reduction 
in Scope 2 emissions and an 80% 
decrease in emissions from our 
Auckland premises versus our  
base year.

Air travel accounted for 12% of our 
emissions in FY22. While this was up 
63% from FY21 as we reconnected 
with our people in the Pacific after 
two years of restrictions, it is down 
42% compared to the FY20 base year, 
contributing to a 5% reduction in Scope 
3 emissions. In FY22 we implemented 
a new Sustainable Business Travel 
Policy, which requires staff to first 
consider alternatives to travelling such 
as use of video conference, as well as 
more sustainable ways to travel.

Paper use and waste were minor 
contributors to our carbon footprint  
in FY22.

In FY22 we also developed a Supplier 
Code of Conduct, which sets out our 
environmental, social and governance 
expectations for all our suppliers. In 
FY23 we will work proactively with 
suppliers to understand and reduce 
our broader emissions profile. 

In taking responsibility for our 
emissions, our preferred approach 
is to invest in initiatives that reduce 
gross emissions as much as possible. 
Therefore, we have elected not to 
offset our FY22 emissions.

Emissions by scope

SCOPE

FY20 (TCO2E)

FY21 (TCO2E)

FY22 (TCO2E)

SCOPE 1

SCOPE 2

SCOPE 3

169

180

202

115

165

98

300

126

191

38

SUPPORTING OUR COMMUNITIES THROUGH CLIMATE CHANGE

SUPPORTING OUR COMMUNITIES THROUGH CLIMATE CHANGE

39

NEW 6 GREEN STAR 
HEAD OFFICE 

Tower’s new home at 136 Fanshawe Street was designed, 
developed, and constructed with sustainability in mind. 

The building is equipped with cutting-edge technology aimed 
at saving energy and cutting waste, and features a 6 Green Star 
rating, using the Green Star NZ – Office Built V3 tool. 

40

SUPPORTING CUSTOMERS THROUGH LARGE EVENTS AND EVERYDAY CLAIMS

SUPPORTING CUSTOMERS THROUGH LARGE EVENTS AND EVERYDAY CLAIMS

41

SUPPORTING CUSTOMERS  
THROUGH LARGE EVENTS  
AND EVERYDAY CLAIMS 

42

FY22 LARGE EVENTS AND EVERYDAY CLAIMS 

FY22 LARGE EVENTS AND EVERYDAY CLAIMS 

43

FY22 LARGE EVENTS  
AND EVERYDAY CLAIMS

OCT 21

JAN 22
Hunga Tonga -  
Hunga Ha’apai  
volcanic eruption  
& tsunami

FEB 22
Cyclone Dovi

JUN-JUL 22
Nationwide storms

FEB 22
North & South Island 
floods (incl Westport  
and West Coast)

MAR 22
North Island  
rainstorms

AUG 22
Nelson-Tasman  
floods

SEP 22

359%
$7.7m
68
17.5k
31.3k
11.2k

Increase in mask-related claims, 
mainly for broken or lost hearing aids 
and glasses

In claims related to damage caused 
by children*

Lightning strikes resulting  
in claims

Car windscreens replaced or repaired

Vehicles fixed or replaced (in addition 
to windscreen claims)

Claims for Kiwi and Pacific homes 

*Parents and caregivers at Tower were unsurprised by this statistic

44

FY22 LARGE EVENTS AND EVERYDAY CLAIMS

FY22 LARGE EVENTS AND EVERYDAY CLAIMS 

45

HUNGA TONGA– 
HUNGA HA'APAI  
VOLCANIC  
ERUPTION  
AND TSUNAMI

"One thing that stands 
out for us is honesty. 
Thank you very much 
for always being there 
for us in the bad times, 
during Cyclone Harold 
and the Tsunami.” 

– Marian, Tower Tonga Customer

January 2022 saw a one in a thousand year event; 
the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai volcanic eruption 
and subsequent tsunami in Tonga. The event was 
seen and felt around the globe and was an incredibly 
challenging time for the people of Tonga, including  
our Tower team and customers.

Since then, Tower’s goal has been to 
help the people of Tonga recover as 
quickly as possible, so they can focus 
on rebuilding their lives.

Initial response

The force of the eruption severed 
Tonga’s internet and communications 
cable, with international 
communications not restored until 
five weeks later. However, Tower’s 
operational resilience meant we were 
able to communicate immediately 
with our people to ensure their safety 
and begin to help customers. It also 
meant that our in-country claims 
partner networks could be deployed 
almost immediately to begin assessing 
damage and assisting customers. 

Lodging claims and fast 

Simultaneously, we ran radio ads 
letting all people in Tonga, including 
our customers, know how to protect 
their homes and cars from further 
damage and how to make a claim.

Our locally based staff proactively 
contacted customers to lodge claims, 
and within three weeks almost all 
customers had been contacted and 
the status of their homes and cars  
was known. 

We are proud to say that due to our 
planning for in-country resource in 
case of large events, Tower paid its 
first claim within a month of the event 
as soon as the banking networks were 
re-established. Within two months, 
we had lodged every claim, settled 
many and understood the likely cost 
to Tower. All our customers had a 
settlement pathway in place. At the 
end of the financial year Tower had 
settled 93% of all claims related to  
the event.

Tower is incredibly proud of the 
courage and dedication displayed 
by our teams to do what’s right for 
our customers and really make a 
difference in their lives, during such  
a difficult and traumatic time. 

46

FY22 LARGE EVENTS AND EVERYDAY CLAIMS 

FY22 LARGE EVENTS AND EVERYDAY CLAIMS 

4747

LAKE  
ŌHAU FIRE,  
TWO  
YEARS ON

“You don’t think it will happen to 
you but having gone through 
something like this, you wouldn’t 
go without insurance.”

–  Nyree Schaar, Tower customer & Lake Ōhau resident

October 2020

October 2022

October 2022 marked  
the two year anniversary 
of the Lake Ōhau fire, one 
of New Zealand’s largest 
wildfires on record.

Tower customers Nyree and Pieter 
Schaar, along with their children Josh 
and Emily, cat Whiskers and dog Rex, 
lost their family home of 10 years in the 
fire, alongside nearly 50 other houses.

We caught up with the Schaars in  
their new home, completely rebuilt 
by Tower, amongst one of the most 
stunning landscapes in the country.

Meeting with the Schaars reminded  
us of how important our role is to  
make things easier on people’s  
journey to recovery. 

close to the house and still have a 
home,” says Nyree.

the family. Within a week they’d been 
assigned a Claims Manager.

“He was in contact pretty quickly and 
organised the removal of everything 
from the site. Overall, we’ve been happy 
with the service provided.”

The Schaar family was “so relieved” 
when they got the keys to their new 
home in June 2022.

“We rebuilt the same house with some 
minor changes. We were sitting there 
the first night and all said it felt exactly 
the same, even the cat only took about 
20 minutes before she was settled.”

“I wasn’t sure what we were insured for, 
and I had an awful feeling we weren’t 
insured for enough. I had just been 
burying my head in the sand in a bit of 
a daze. We’d paid to build our home, 
friends and family helped with labour 
and we’d done a lot ourselves. We 
couldn’t afford to replace it.

“By lunch time that day our house 
was gone, and I thought ‘okay this is 
serious now’. I called Tower and they 
were incredibly helpful, they paid us 
$1,000 upfront to buy necessities and 
confirmed we had enough cover to 
rebuild. My reaction was ‘oh thank God’.

“We’ve still got a mortgage. We’d 
probably be living on site right now in a 
caravan if we didn’t have insurance.”

“We knew driving away that it was 
gone. You can’t have flames that  

Over the next week a Tower 
representative checked in daily with 

48

TRANSFORMING OUR CLAIMS EXPERIENCE

TRANSFORMING OUR CLAIMS EXPERIENCE

49

TRANSFORMING  
OUR CLAIMS 
EXPERIENCE

Inflation impacts all facets 
of life, including how far 
your insurance cover will 
stretch. Due to the sharp 
increase in inflation over 
the previous 12 months, 
in FY22 it became more 
expensive to repair and 
rebuild homes, and  
repair or replace cars  
and contents.

Tower’s unique advantage is  
our ability to identify and quickly 
address emerging trends, Thanks to 
our investments in digital and data 
technology, Tower is able to quickly 
identify and address emerging trends, 

In the financial year, we continued 
to take decisive actions to deliver 
improvements, including:

•   Working with our supply chain to 
enhance efficiencies and improve 
our customer experience

•   Launching a new feature that will 
allow us to further automate the 
process of detecting genuine and 
suspicious claims in real time  

•   Continuing to improve our digital 

capability to streamline the claims 
lodgement process, which has seen 
the proportion of New Zealand 
claims lodged online increase from 
31% to 48%.

Our increasing scale is also continuing 
to deliver efficiencies, with Tower’s 
BAU loss ratio being brought back to a 
more normal level of 48.9%, compared 
to 50.2% in the 2021 financial year.

Our new Repair Partners

In June 2022, Tower announced that 
we would reassess our motor repairer 
relationships across the country,  
to evolve to a model that prioritises 
strong partnerships, innovation 
and streamlined experiences for 
customers.

As part of the process, we issued a 
Request for Proposal (RFP) to suppliers 
in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, 
Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin 
to create a new repair network. 

In October 2022, the network for 
the six main centres was finalised, 
consisting of 12 motor Repair Partners 
across 19 locations, who are investing 
in their businesses, looking to innovate, 
and are keen to grow alongside us. 

Each Repair Partner now provides  
a new and improved repair  
experience, where Tower customers 
are pre-authorised.

Tower will commence an RFP for the 
rest of New Zealand and strategically 
source a new Repair Partner network 
in Fiji, in FY23.

Enhancing the customer  
experience with new remote 
assessing innovation

To help speed up motor claims 
processing and repairs and get 
customers back on the road sooner, 
Tower trialled a remote assessment 
tool with a small group of motor 
repairers during 2021. 

In October 2022, the tool went live 
with our Repair Partners, as part of  
our new repair experience offering.

Our remote assessment tool operates 
via a smartphone app that allows 
customers to talk to repairers in real 
time and submit video and images of 
vehicle damage. The same information 
submitted to the repairer during the 
remote assessment is also passed 
via the app to Tower, decreasing 
administration time for repairers and 
making the claims approval process 
faster. 

The tool saves customers an extra 
drive to the workshop and associated 
carbon emissions. 

Detecting potential fraud via AI

In April 2022, Tower implemented  
an AI-based technology which 
automates the process of detecting 
genuine and suspicious claims in real 
time, to allow for a faster process for 
customers in need. 

By putting claims with low risk of  
fraud on a fast track, this new 
technology is standardising and  
further speeding up claims  
screening with greater accuracy.

While it is early days, the results  
are promising. Tower's detection  
rate of potentially unjustified claims 
has improved by 300%, which has  
led to a greater proportion of 
claims either being withdrawn or 
appropriately declined.

50

PUTTING OUR PEOPLE FIRST

PUTTING OUR PEOPLE FIRST

51

PUTTING OUR  
PEOPLE FIRST

52

PUTTING OUR PEOPLE FIRST

PUTTING OUR PEOPLE FIRST

53

We believe that 
genuinely caring 
for our people’s  
wellbeing is 
fundamental to  
a healthy and 
agile culture.

v

54

DIVERSE AND INCLUSIVE TO THE CORE

DIVERSE AND INCLUSIVE TO THE CORE

55

Our new employee benefits

In today’s competitive market for talent, we know 
that people want to work for a company that has 
a strong purpose and whose values align with 
their own. It was important to us that our company 
benefits reflect this, and we introduced a new set of 
employee benefits for all our people in June 2022.

1
2

3

4

Birthday day off
An additional paid day off work.

Eight extra leave days
The ability to purchase eight extra 
annual leave days each year.

Wellbeing leave
The use of our sick leave allowance  
(up to 10 days a year) has now 
been expanded to include time for 
proactively managing personal or 
family wellness.

Flexible working
New guidance which empowers 
leaders and teams to determine 
the best approach for them while 
balancing customer, company, 
team and individual priorities.

These are in addition to our existing benefits 
which include group insurances, discounts 
on insurance, retail partner discounts, 
contemporary parental leave entitlements, 
eyesight testing, study assistance and more.

DIVERSE AND INCLUSIVE  
TO THE CORE

In the 2022 financial year, Tower undertook a programme 
of cultural change and improvement. From November 
2021 to February 2022, we collaborated with diverse 
groups of people from across the business to get a 
shared understanding of who we are now and who we 
want to be in the years to come. The result was a new 
company purpose, values and employee proposition.

The Tower team comes from all walks 
of life and cares for one another. 

as an employer and retention of 
talented employees.

We recognise that a lack of diversity 
excludes minority groups which 
limits diverse thinking and impacts 
mental health and emotional 
wellbeing. Diversity is an important 
part of customer innovation. We 
are committed to having a diverse 
and inclusive workplace that builds 
people’s physical and emotional 
wellbeing.

Investing in a positive business culture 
that prioritises the personal growth of 
our people impacts our attractiveness 

Tower has policies and processes in 
place to ensure equal opportunities for 
roles at Tower. Our recruitment policy 
incorporates cultural considerations for 
conducting interviews and outlines a 
process to ensure all interview panels 
are balanced culturally and by gender. 
Tower offers unconscious bias training 
to all staff.

In FY22 we commenced an emerging 
talent programme, with a focus on 
identifying diverse future leaders.

Our purpose

“To inspire, shape and protect the future for the good  
of customers and communities.” 

‘Inspire’ and ‘shape’ because our innovative and disruptive thinking is driving 
New Zealand and Pacific insurance forward, at a pace nobody else is used to. 
And ‘protect,’ of course, because that is our fundamental role as an insurer. 

Our values

N

S

E

We do what's right

Our people come first

Progress boldly

Our customers are our compass

56

SUPPORTING OUR PEOPLE

SUPPORTING OUR PEOPLE

57

SUPPORTING 
OUR PEOPLE

To support our people’s wellbeing, we:

Hosted mental health first aid training 
seminars

Provided free and anonymous EAP 
counselling sessions 

Introduced meeting-free  
Friday afternoons

Provided staff with onsite Flu vaccinations 
and time off to receive Covid-19 
vaccinations and boosters

Hosted webinars sharing practical tips to 
manage stress and anxiety

Received DVFREE tick certification 
and participated in Shine awareness 
programmes and fundraisers.

To support our diverse people, we:

Achieved Rainbow Tick recertification

Started the Tower Kapa Haka Rōpū 

Celebrate Diwali, Ramadan, Matariki, Pacific 
Language Weeks, Lunar New Year, Pink 
Shirt Day and International Women’s Day

Our approach is working

Across 2021, our employee engagement score improved from 7.1 in the first 
quarter to 7.7 in the last quarter. Employee engagement continued to improve to 
7.8 at the end of FY22.

MIND  
THE GAP

In March 2022, Tower joined the Mind the Gap register as one of the first 50 
businesses in New Zealand to publicly report its gender pay gap. 

While our results aren’t unique to Tower, we are committed to doing everything 
we can to support women to progress in their careers, as they choose. This 
includes using this data to make positive changes across our business where 
needed, starting with our emerging talent programme formed at the end of 
FY22, and by committing to targets to increase gender and ethnic diversity 
across Tower’s leadership population.

-

0.1

%

Gender pay equity gap

When we compare like-for-like roles for 
women and men at Tower in New Zealand, 
our pay equity gap is –0.1% (women are paid 
.1% more than men for the same role).

25.9

%

Gender pay gap

%

2.2

Leadership gender pay gap

Comparing our senior leadership population 
and the average pay gap between men and 
women, our leadership pay gap is 2.2% (men 
are paid 2.2% more than women).

When we take the total salary for all women and divide  
that by the number of women, and the total salary of all 
men and divide that by the number of men, we have a  
gap of 25.9%.

For the most part, this is because we have a larger 
proportion of women in some our New Zealand frontline 
roles, and a greater proportion of men in senior roles.

CELEBRATING OUR PEOPLE

In recognition of Tower as a great place to work, Tower was named an Insurance 
Business New Zealand Top Insurance Employer for 2022

Head of Customer Partnerships and Relationships, Sarah-Jane Wild, named on 
the Insurance Business New Zealand Elite Women 2022 list 

Head of Portfolio Performance, Oliver Bale, Head of Underwriting, Nick Meister, 
and Customer Experience Owner, Krutika Chikara, named on the Insurance 
Business New Zealand Rising Stars 2022 list

Head of Pacific Operations, Ali Wilkinson, winner of the 2022 ANZIIF Making a 
Difference Awards, Claims Award

58

DEVELOPING CAREERS IN THE PACIFIC

DEVELOPING CAREERS IN THE PACIFIC

59

DEVELOPING 
CAREERS IN  
THE PACIFIC

As a major insurer in the Pacific 
and New Zealand, we’re investing 
in the economic future of the 
communities that our people live, 
play and work in.

We do this by creating meaningful job opportunities 
and fostering career development ‘at home’ in the 
Pacific Island nations we operate in. 

Our operations hub in Suva is the heart of our Pacific 
arm. In the last two years alone, we’ve created 50 
new jobs in Fiji and now employ more than 100 
people across the Pacific, with the vast majority 
being local women. Our roles in Fiji comprise the  
full range of corporate positions, including, finance, 
technology, human resources, marketing and 
customer service.

Partnering with our Pacific family adds value to  
both the Pacific and New Zealand economies.  
It also enhances the cultural ties of all countries  
and as the largest insurer in the region, creates 
great, localised experiences for our more than 
30,000 Pacific customers.

60

PROTECTING THE FUTURE

PROTECTING THE FUTURE

61

PROTECTING  
THE FUTURE

62

MANAGING OUR ESG ISSUES

OUR ESG STRATEGY

63

OUR ESG 
STRATEGY

MANAGING OUR ENVIRONMENTAL, 
SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE  
(ESG) ISSUES

As the largest Kiwi insurer, Tower plays a crucial role in protecting New Zealand  
and the Pacific, contributing to their prosperity for future generations. 

Walking the talk authentically on 
sustainability is vital to ensure integrity 
and credibility. That means making sure 
the right foundations are in place and 
ensuring we are always thinking ahead.

below with relevant impacts identified 
and addressed throughout the report. 
The impacts reflect Tower’s business 
operations in both New Zealand and 
the Pacific Islands. 

In 2022 we were pleased to launch 
Tower’s first ESG strategy, which 
guides how we manage relevant 
environmental, social and governance 
issues. This annual report is Tower’s 
first step into sustainability reporting 
with the aim of continuing to improve 
our disclosures and performance. 
This report has been prepared in 
accordance with the Global Reporting 
Initiative (GRI) 2021 standards.

Tower has been part of Kiwi and Pacific 
communities for more than 150 years, 
supporting customers to protect 
the things they love and need. This 
strategy and report provide us with the 
opportunity to be more transparent 
about our broader business activities.

Our approach to identifying  
material impacts

In 2021, we identified a range of 
topics and impacts through research 
and engagement which included 
interviewing a range of stakeholder 
representatives and relevant experts.
We spoke to our Board, shareholders 
and partners, representatives from 
the wider insurance industry and 
financial markets, as well as experts in 
sustainable finance and climate change.

We undertook employee workshops 
involving senior management and a 
diverse range of people and roles from 
across the business.

In 2022, we assessed and prioritised 
the full range of Tower’s sustainability 
impacts using the GRI 3: 2021 
methodology. The full results are listed 

These material issues have  
been reviewed and approved by  
our leadership.

• 

• 

Affordable and accessible 
insurance 

Transparent and fair insurance 

•  Managing the impacts of  

• 

• 

climate change 

Carbon emissions 

Product development and 
innovation

•  Diversity and inclusion 

• 

• 

Employee wellbeing 

Corporate governance 

•  Data protection 

• 

• 

• 

Corporate community citizenship

Environmental footprint

Responsible investment

ESG Governance

Tower’s Board provides the highest 
level of ESG governance at Tower. The 
Board approves our ESG reporting and 
monitors our performance through 
periodic updates from management. 
ESG Governance is formalised through 
an executive level steering committee 
which has responsibility for overseeing 
progress on our initiatives and monitors 
environmental and social risks. Our 
ESG performance is coordinated by 
the Head of Corporate Affairs and 
Sustainability, reporting to the CEO.  
The Board and management will 
continue their focus on ESG governance 
and climate risks and opportunities by 
developing new policies and enhancing 
our governance framework in FY23.

Our ESG targets

We are continuing to develop our 
ESG targets and measures. We have 
identified targets for the following 
material impacts:

Fair and transparent insurance:

• 

80% of all products are WriteMark 
certified by end of FY23, 95% by 
end of FY25.

Affordable & accessible insurance:

• 

• 

• 

40% of transactions in the Pacific 
are completed via digital platform 
by end of FY25.

Consistent digital offerings in 
place across New Zealand and our 
Pacific markets by end of FY23.

1,000 parametric policies in place 
in the Pacific by the end of FY23.

Carbon emissions target:

• 

Tower has set a target, grounded 
in science, of a 21% reduction over 
five years from our 2020 base year.

Diversity & inclusion,  
and wellbeing targets:

• 

Safety – Tower’s safety target is 
zero harm. Tower is committed 
to creating a culture where 
incidents, near misses, hazards and 
discomfort are reported.

•  Diversity – Drive practices and 

outcomes that will result in Tower's 
leadership reflecting the diversity 
(gender and ethnicity) of our 
customers and communities - 
100% of hiring panels, candidate 
shortlists and succession plans 
consist of one woman candidate 
and one ethnically diverse 
candidate. Attrition of diverse talent 
is kept below the level of gender 
and ethnic representation.

64

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

65

MICHAEL STIASSNY

GRAHAM STUART

WENDY THORPE

GERALDINE MCBRIDE

WARREN LEE

MARCUS NAGEL

LLB, BCom, CFInstD 
Chairman 
Non-Executive Director 
Independent 
Director from: 12 October 2012

BCom (Hons), MS, FCA 

Non-Executive Director  
Independent 
Director from: 24 May 2012

Michael is a Chartered Fellow and 
past President of the Institute of 
Directors. He has both a Commerce 
and Law degree from the University 
of Auckland. He is Chairman of Ngāti 
Whātua Ōrākei Whai Rawa Limited 
and New Zealand Automotive 
Industries Ltd, and is a director of a 
number of other companies including 
Tegel Group Holdings Ltd, and New 
Talisman Gold Mines Ltd.

Michael resides in Auckland 
—New Zealand.

With over 30 years of senior 
management experience, Graham  
has held senior leadership roles  
with several major corporates, in  
New Zealand and overseas, the latest 
being the Sealord Group of which he 
was Chief Executive Officer for  
seven years. 

Graham has a Bachelor of  
Commerce (First Class Hons) from 
the University of Otago, a Master of 
Science from Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology and is a Fellow of 
Chartered Accountants Australia and 
New Zealand. Graham has served 
on a number of government bodies 
including the Food & Beverage 
Taskforce and the Māori Economic 
Development Panel. 

Graham resides in Auckland  
—New Zealand.

BA (French), BBus (Accounting), Grad Dip, 
Applied Fin & Inv, Harvard AMP, FFin, GAICD 
Non-Executive Director  
Independent 
Director from: 1 March 2018

Wendy had an extensive executive 
career in financial services, leading 
technology and operations in 
insurance and wealth management. 
Her most recent executive role was 
as Group Executive, Operations for 
AMP Ltd, and she was previously 
Chief Operations Officer and Chief 
Information Officer for AXA  
in Australia.

Wendy is Chair of Online Education 
Services, Chair of Epworth Healthcare, 
and a Non-Executive Director of  
People's Choice Credit Union and 
Data Action. Wendy has a Bachelor 
of Arts from LaTrobe University, a 
Bachelor of Business from Swinburne 
University and a Graduate Diploma 
in Applied Finance and Investment 
from the Securities Institute of 
Australia. She completed the 
Advanced Management Program at 
Harvard Business School, is a Fellow 
of the Financial Services Institute of 
Australasia and a Graduate member 
of the Australian Institute of  
Company Directors. 

Wendy resides in Melbourne 
—Australia.

BSc 

BCom, CA 

Non-Executive Director 
Independent 
Appointed Director: 1 October 2022

Non-Executive Director  
Independent 
Director from: 26 May 2015

MBA (International Management),  
MBA (Banking and Finance) 
Non-Executive Director  
Not Independent  
Director from: 14 January 2019

Geraldine has extensive governance 
and technology industry experience, 
having performed Board and senior 
leadership roles both in New Zealand 
and internationally, with Sky Network 
Television Limited, SAP, Dell and IBM. 
Geraldine is the founder and CEO of 
MyWave.

Geraldine holds a Bachelor of Science 
from Victoria University and is a 
Chartered Member of the NZIOD.

Geraldine was appointed to fill a 
casual vacancy on the Board. She will 
retire at the 2023 Annual Shareholder 
Meeting and will be eligible to stand 
for re-election.

Geraldine resides in Christchurch  
—New Zealand.

Warren has extensive experience in 
the international financial services 
industry. Warren's two most recent 
executive positions were Chief 
Executive Officer of the Victorian 
Funds Management Corporation and 
Chief Executive Officer, Australia and 
New Zealand for AXA Asia Pacific 
Holdings Limited. Warren is currently 
a non-executive director of MetLife 
Limited, MyState Limited, and Avenue 
Hold Limited. He has a Bachelor 
of Commerce from the University 
of Melbourne and is a member of 
Chartered Accountants Australia and 
New Zealand. Warren retired from the 
board on 30 November 2022.

Warren resides in Melbourne 
—Australia.

BOARD  
OF DIRECTORS

Marcus has significant insurance 
industry experience.

For a decade he has performed 
senior leadership roles for Zurich in 
Europe and globally. In his last role 
at Zurich, he served as the Chief 
Executive Officer of Zurich Germany 
managing both life insurance and 
general insurance businesses. He 
has also held the position of Vice 
Chairman of the joint venture with 
ADAC, Germany’s largest Automotive 
Club, Chairman of the direct insurer, 
DA Direct, and Chairman of the life 
insurer, Zurich Deutscher Herold. 
Prior to that, he also managed the 
independent financial adviser/broker 
business for Zurich Global Life.

Marcus holds a Master’s Degree in 
Banking and Finance from Goethe 
University in Frankfurt, Germany and 
Master of International Management 
from the Arizona State University 
Thunderbird School of Global 
Management in Arizona, United States 
of America. Marcus was nominated by 
Bain Capital Credit LP (Bain Capital) to 
represent Bain Capital’s stake in Tower 
(Bain Capital hold 19.99% of Tower’s 
ordinary shares) and his appointment 
was supported by the Tower Board.

Marcus resides in Schindellegi 
—Switzerland. 

 
 
 
66

CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

67

CONSOLIDATED  
FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

68

CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

69

Financial Statements

Consolidated statement of comprehensive income

Consolidated balance sheet

Consolidated statement of changes in equity

Consolidated statement of cash flows

Notes to the consolidated financial statements

1

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4

2

2.1

2.2

2.3

2.4

2.5

2.6

2.7

2.8

2.9

Overview

About this report

Consolidation

Critical accounting judgements and estimates

Segmental reporting

Underwriting activities

Underwriting revenue

Net claims expense

Underwriting expense

Net outstanding claims

Unearned premium liability

Deferred insurance costs

Receivables

Payables

Provisions

2.10

Assets backing insurance liabilities

3

3.1

3.2

3.3

4

4.1

4.2

4.3

4.4

4.5

4.6

4.7

4.8

4.9

4.10

4.11

4.12

Investments

Investment income

Investments

Fair value hierarchy

Risk management

Risk management overview

Strategic risk

Insurance risk

Credit risk

Market risk

Liquidity risk

Capital management risk

Operational risk

Regulatory and compliance risk

Conduct risk

Cyber risk

Climate change risk

70

71

72

73

74

74

74

76

76

78

78

79

79

80

84

85

85

86

87

87

87

87

88

88

89

89

89

89

91

92

93

94

95

95

95

95

95

5

5.1

5.2

5.3

5.4

5.5

6

6.1

6.2

6.3

7

7.1

7.2

7.3

7.4

8

8.1

8.2

8.3

8.4

8.5

8.6

8.7

8.8

Capital structure

Contributed equity

Reserves

Net tangible assets per share

Earnings per share

Dividends

Other balance sheet items

Property, plant and equipment

Intangible assets

Leases

Tax 

Tax expense

Current tax

Deferred tax

Imputation credits

Other information

Notes to the consolidated statement of cash flows

Related party disclosures

Auditor's remuneration

Discontinued operation and asset held for sale

Contingent liabilities

Subsequent events

Capital commitments

Impact of new accounting standards and changes in 
interpretation of current standards

96

96

96

97

97

97

98

98

99

102

104

104

104

105

107

107

107

108

108

109

110

110

111

111

Independent Auditor's report, and Appointed Actuary's report

Independent Auditor's report

Appointed Actuary's report

113

118

70

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET

71

Consolidated statement of comprehensive income

Consolidated balance sheet

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

AS AT 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

Gross written premium

Unearned premium movement

Gross earned premium 

Outward reinsurance premium

Movement in deferred reinsurance premium

Outward reinsurance premium expense

Net earned premium

Claims expense

Less: Reinsurance and other recoveries revenue

Net claims expense

Gross commission expense

Commission revenue

Net commission expense

Underwriting expense

Underwriting profit

Investment income

Investment expense

Other income

Other expenses

Financing and other costs

Profit before taxation from continuing operations

Tax expense

Profit after taxation from continuing operations

Profit after taxation from discontinued operation

Profit after taxation for the year

Items that may be reclassified to profit or loss

Currency translation differences

Items that will not be reclassified to profit or loss

Gain on asset revaluation

Deferred income tax relating to asset revaluation

Other comprehensive loss net of tax

Total comprehensive profit for the year

Earnings per share:

Basic and diluted earnings per share (cents) for continuing operations

Basic and diluted earnings per share (cents)

Profit after taxation attributed to:

Shareholders

Non-controlling interests

Total comprehensive profit attributed to:

Shareholders 

Non-controlling interests

NOTE

2022 
$000

RE-PRESENTED 
2021 
$000

 445,580 

 396,003 

(27,258)

(9,383)

2.1

 418,322 

 386,620 

(66,116)

(152)

(66,268)

 352,054 

(240,147)

15,243 

(60,341)

1,586 

(58,755)

 327,865 

(226,920)

24,601 

Assets

Cash and cash equivalents

Investments

Receivables 

Current tax asset

Assets classified as held for sale

Deferred tax asset

Deferred insurance costs

Right of use assets

2.1

2.2

2.1

2.3

3.1

7.1

8.4

5.2

5.2

5.4

5.4

(224,904)

(202,319)

Property, plant and equipment 

Intangible assets

Total assets

Liabilities

Payables

Unearned premiums

Outstanding claims

Lease liabilities

Provisions

Current tax liabilities

Liabilities classified as held for sale

Deferred tax liabilities

Total liabilities

Net assets

Equity

Contributed equity

Accumulated losses

Reserves

Total equity attributed to shareholders

Non-controlling interests

Total equity

The above statement should be read in conjunction with the accompanying notes.

The financial statements were approved for issue by the Board on 23 November 2022.

(14,390)

 5,105 

(9,285)

(94,220)

23,645 

 1,498 

(338)

1,355 

(63)

(897)

25,200 

(7,526)

17,674 

1,181 

18,855 

(17,667)

 6,461 

(11,206)

(87,160)

 27,180 

 559 

(384)

707 

(52)

(363)

 27,647 

(9,245)

18,402 

913 

19,315 

3,948 

(1,213)

 – 

 – 

3,948 

22,803 

4.43 

4.73

18,803 

52 

18,855 

22,737 

66 

22,803 

159 

(16)

(1,070)

18,245 

4.21 

4.43

18,683 

632 

19,315 

17,729 

516 

18,245 

NOTE

2022 
$000

2021 
$000

8.1

3.2

2.7

7.2a

8.4

7.3a

2.6

6.3a(i)

6.1

6.2

2.8

2.5

2.4

6.3a(ii)

2.9

7.2b

8.4

7.3b

5.1

5.2

84,502

258,634 

242,089

13,069 

20,811 

23,893 

37,819 

23,326 

5,417 

94,653 

116,129 

277,470 

216,925 

12,901 

 – 

24,450 

31,967 

25,577 

9,374 

88,592 

804,213 

803,385 

58,911 

238,116 

124,531 

35,054 

11,873 

136 

9,258 

8,806 

486,685 

317,528 

460,191 

(41,212)

(101,451)

317,528 

 – 

69,977 

212,275 

122,338 

39,421 

6,709 

170 

 – 

2,775 

453,665 

349,720 

492,424 

(39,995)

(105,385)

347,044 

2,676 

317,528 

349,720 

The above statement should be read in conjunction with the accompanying notes.

Michael P Stiassny 

Chairman 

Graham R Stuart 

Director 

 
 
72

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS

73

Consolidated statement of changes in equity

Consolidated statement of cash flows

YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

Year Ended 30 September 202

Balance as at 30 September 2021

Comprehensive income

Profit for the year

Currency translation differences

Total comprehensive income

Transactions with shareholders

Capital return to shareholders

Purchase of non-controlling interests

Dividends paid

Other

Total transactions with shareholders

At the end of the year

Year Ended 30 September 2021

Balance as at 30 September 2020

Comprehensive income

Profit for the year

Currency translation differences

Gain on asset revaluation

Deferred income tax relating to asset revaluation

Total comprehensive income

Transactions with shareholders

Dividends Paid

Other 

Total transactions with shareholders

At the end of the year

ATTRIBUTED TO SHAREHOLDERS

CONTRIBUTED 
EQUITY
$000

ACCUMULATED 
LOSSES
$000

RESERVES
$000

NON-CONTROLLING 
INTEREST
$000

TOTAL EQUITY
$000

492,424 

(39,995)

(105,385)

2,676 

349,720 

 – 

 – 

 – 

(30,634)

(1,599)

 – 

 – 

(32,233)

460,191 

18,803 

 – 

18,803 

 – 

 – 

(20,028)

8 

(20,020)

(41,212)

 – 

3,934 

3,934 

 – 

 – 

 – 

 – 

 – 

(101,451)

52 

14 

66 

 – 

(2,742)

 – 

 – 

(2,742)

 – 

18,855 

3,948 

22,803 

(30,634)

(4,341)

(20,028)

8 

(54,995)

317,528 

 492,424 

(48,107)

(104,431)

 2,160 

 342.046 

 – 

 – 

 – 

 – 

 – 

 – 

 – 

 – 

18,683 

 – 

 – 

 – 

18,683 

(10,541)

(30)

(10,571)

 – 

(1,097)

159 

(16) 

(954)

 – 

 – 

 – 

632 

(116)

 – 

 – 

516 

 – 

 – 

 – 

 19,315 

(1,213)

159 

(16) 

18,245 

(10,541)

(30)

(10,571)

492,424 

(39,995)

(105,385)

2,676 

349,720 

The above statement should be read in conjunction with the accompanying notes.

Cash flows from operating activities

Premiums received 

Interest received 

Fee and other income received

Reinsurance and other recoveries received

EQC settlement receipt

Motor premium refund payments

Reinsurance paid

Reinsurance paid in relation to settlement of EQC receivable

Claims paid

Employee and supplier payments

Income tax paid

Operating activities cashflow from discontinued operations

Net cash inflow from operating activities

Cash flows from investing activities

Proceeds from sale of interest bearing investments

Proceeds from sale of unlisted equity investments

Payments for purchase of interest bearing investments

Payments for purchase of intangible assets 

Payments for purchase of customer relationships 

Payments for purchase of property, plant & equipment

Investing activities cashflow from discontinued operations

Net cash outflow from investing activities

Cash flows from financing activities

Payments for capital return to shareholders

Purchase of non-controlling interests

Received from lessor on signing of new lease

Dividends paid

Facility fees and interest paid

Payments relating to lease liabilities

Financing activities cashflow from discontinued operations

Net cash outflow from financing activities

Net (decrease)/increase in cash and cash equivalents

Effect of foreign exchange rate changes

Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year 

Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year 

Cash from discontinued operations

Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year from continuing operations

The above statement should be read in conjunction with the accompanying notes.

2022 
$000

RE-PRESENTED 
2021 
$000

425,677 

389,236 

6,519 

4,063 

11,745 

 – 

 – 

(57,256)

 – 

(238,483)

(90,191)

(1,768)

(522)

59,784 

5,268 

6,212 

17,668 

52,883 

(1,351)

(54,288)

(10,741)

(213,756)

(92,384)

(1,928)

1,276 

98,095 

181,412 

156,544 

 – 

(181,578)

(14,695)

(6,089)

(2,617)

(103)

(23,670)

(30,634)

(4,341)

 – 

(20,028)

(897)

(6,044)

(1,766)

(63,710)

(27,596)

3,765 

116,129 

92,298 

(7,796)

84,502 

25 

(190,548)

(8,866)

(14,434)

(3,163)

1,220 

(59,222)

 – 

 – 

10,944 

(8,866)

(378)

(2,684)

(1,287)

(2,271)

36,602 

(581)

80,108 

116,129 

 – 

116,129 

 8.4 

  The 2022 balance represents the purchase of Westpac and TSB's rights and obligations relating to servicing a portfolio of insurance underwritten by Tower. The 2021 balance represents the 

purchase of ANZ's rights and obligations relating to servicing a portfolio of insurance underwritten by Tower. Please refer to note 6.2 for more information. 

74

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

75

Notes to the consolidated financial statements

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

OVERVIEW

This section provides information that is helpful to an overall understanding of the financial statements and the areas of critical accounting 
judgements and estimates included in the financial statements. It also includes a summary of Tower's operating segments. 

1.1 About this Report

a. Entities reporting

The financial statements presented are those of Tower Limited (the Company) and its subsidiaries. The Company and its subsidiaries together are referred 
to in this financial report as Tower or the Group. The address of the Company's registered office is 136 Fanshawe Street, Auckland, New Zealand.

During the periods presented, the principal activity of the Group was the provision of general insurance. The Group predominantly operates in New 
Zealand with some of its operations based in the Pacific Islands region.

The financial statements were authorised for issue by the Board of Directors on 23 November 2022. The entity’s owners or others do not have the power 
to amend the financial statements after issue.

b. Statutory base

Tower Limited is a company incorporated in New Zealand under the Companies Act 1993 and listed on the NZX Main Board and the Australian Securities 
Exchange. The Company is a reporting entity under Part 7 of the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013. 

c. Basis of preparation

The Company is a for-profit entity and the financial statements have been prepared in accordance with New Zealand Generally Accepted Accounting 
Practice (NZ GAAP). They comply with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), New Zealand Equivalents to International Financial Reporting 
Standards (NZ IFRS) and other applicable financial reporting standards, as appropriate for Tier 1 for-profit entities.

The financial statements of the Group have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of Part 7 of the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 and 
the NZX Main Board Listing Rules.

The Group financial statements are presented in New Zealand dollars and rounded to the nearest thousand dollars. They have been prepared  in 
accordance with the historical cost basis except for certain financial instruments that are stated at their fair value.

d. Re-presentation of comparatives

The Group's Papua New Guinea Operations ("disposal group") constitutes a discontinued operation and is classified as held for sale as at 30 September 
2022.  Profit or loss information for the current period is prepared on a continuing basis with net results from discontinued operations presented 
separately. Profit or loss information for 2021 has been re-presented for comparability. Refer to note 8.4 for further details.

Where necessary, comparative information has been reclassified for consistency with the current year presentation.

1.2 Consolidation

a. Principles of consolidation

The Group financial statements incorporate the assets and liabilities of all subsidiaries of the Company at balance date and the results of all subsidiaries 
for the year. 

Subsidiaries are those entities over which the consolidated entity has control, being power over the investee; exposure, or rights to variable returns from 
its involvement with the investee; and the ability to use its power over the investee to affect the amount of the investor’s returns.

The results of any subsidiaries acquired during the year are consolidated from the date on which control was transferred to the consolidated entity and 
the results of any subsidiaries disposed of during the year are consolidated up to the date control ceased. During the year ended 30 September 2022, 
Tower Limited acquired the minority shareholding of National Pacific Insurance Limited. This is now 100% owned by Tower Limited. 

The acquisition of controlled entities from external parties is accounted for using the acquisition method of accounting. Non-controlling interests in the 
results and equity of subsidiaries are shown separately in the statement of comprehensive income, statement of changes in equity and balance sheet 
respectively. Acquisition related costs are expensed as incurred.

When the Group ceases to have control, any retained interest in the entity is re-measured to its fair value at the date when control is lost, with the change 
in carrying amount recognised in profit or loss.

Intercompany transactions and balances between Group entities are eliminated on consolidation. 

1.2 Consolidation (continued)

b. Foreign currency

(i)  Functional and presentation currencies

The financial statements of each Group entity are presented in the currency of the primary economic environment in which the entity operates. The 
Group financial statements are presented in New Zealand dollars and rounded to the nearest thousand dollars unless stated otherwise. 

(ii)  Transactions and balances

In preparing the financial statements of the individual entities, transactions denominated in foreign currencies are translated into the entities 
functional and reporting currency using the exchange rates in effect at the transaction dates. Monetary items receivable or payable in a foreign 
currency are translated at reporting date at the closing exchange rate. 

Translation differences on non-monetary items such as financial assets held at fair value through profit or loss are reported as part of their fair value 
gain or loss. 

Exchange differences arising on the settlement or retranslation of monetary items at year end exchange rates impact profit after tax in the 
consolidated statement of comprehensive income unless the items form part of a net investment in a foreign operation. In this case, exchange 
differences are taken to the Foreign Currency Translation Reserve and recognised (as part of comprehensive profit) in the statement of 
comprehensive income and the statement of changes in equity.

(iii)  Consolidation

For the purpose of preparing consolidated financial statements the assets and liabilities of subsidiaries with a functional currency different to the 
Company are translated at the closing rate at the balance date. Income and expense items for each subsidiary are translated at a weighted average 
of exchange rates over the period, as a surrogate for the spot rates at transaction dates. Foreign currency translation differences are taken to the 
Foreign Currency Translation Reserve and recognised in the statement of comprehensive income and the statement of changes in equity.

Goodwill and fair value adjustments arising on the acquisition of a foreign operation are treated as assets and liabilities of the foreign operation and 
are translated at the closing rate with movements recorded through the Foreign Currency Translation Reserve in the statement of changes in equity.

On disposal of a foreign entity, the deferred cumulative amount recognised in equity relating to that particular foreign operation is recognised in the 
statement of comprehensive income.

c. Subsidiaries

The table below lists Tower Limited's principal subsidiary companies and controlled entities. All entities have a balance date of 30 September. 

NAME OF COMPANY

Parent Company

New Zealand general insurance operations

Tower Limited

Subsidiaries

Overseas general insurance operations

Tower Insurance (Cook Islands) Limited

Tower Insurance (Fiji) Limited

Tower Insurance (PNG) Limited (refer Note 8.4)

National Pacific Insurance Limited ("NPI") (refer Note 5.1)

National Pacific Insurance (Tonga) Limited (refer Note 5.1)

National Pacific Insurance (American Samoa) Limited (refer Note 5.1)

Tower Insurance (Vanuatu) Limited

Management service operations

Tower Services Limited

INCORPORATION

2022

2021

HOLDINGS

NZ

Parent

Parent

Cook Islands

Fiji

PNG

Samoa

Tonga

American Samoa

Vanuatu

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

71%

71%

71%

100%

NZ

100%

100%

76

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

77

1.3 Critical accounting judgements and estimates

In preparing these financial statements management is required to make estimates and related assumptions about the future. The estimates and related 
assumptions are based on experience and other factors that are considered to be reasonable, and are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to the 
estimates are recognised in the period in which they are revised, or future periods if relevant. The key areas in which estimates and related assumptions 
are applied are as follows: 

 — Net outstanding claims 

 — Liability adequacy test 

 — Intangible assets 

  note 2.4

  note 2.5

  note 6.2

 — Lease liabilities (incremental borrowing rate) 

  note 6.3a(ii)

 — Deferred tax 

  note 7.3

1.4 Segmental reporting

a. Operating segments

Tower operates in two geographical segments, New Zealand and the Pacific region. New Zealand comprises the general insurance business 
underwritten in New Zealand. Pacific Islands comprises the general insurance business underwritten in the Pacific by Tower subsidiaries and branch 
operations. Other contains balances relating to Tower Services Limited (management services entity), and also includes intercompany eliminations and 
group diversification benefits.

The Group does not derive revenue from any individual or entity that represents 10% or more of the Group's total revenue.

The Pacific Islands operating segment excludes the disposal group and assets and liabilities held for sale. The prior year comparatives have been 
re-presented accordingly. Intercompany transactions with the disposal group are eliminated within continuing operations, refer note 8.4.

1.4 Segmental reporting (continued)

b. Financial performance of continuing operations

Year Ended 30 September 2022

Gross written premium

Gross earned premium

Outward reinsurance premium

Net earned premium

Net claims expense

Net commission expense

Underwriting expense

Underwriting profit/(loss)

Net investment income

Other expenses

Profit before tax from continuing operations

Profit after tax from continuing operations

Year Ended 30 September 2021 (Re-presented)

Gross written premium

Gross earned premium

Outward reinsurance premium

Net earned premium

Net claims expense

Net commission expense

Underwriting expense

Underwriting profit

Net investment income

Other expenses

Profit before tax from continuing operations

Profit after tax from continuing operations

c. Financial position of continuing operations

Additions to non-current assets  
30 September 2022

Additions to non-current assets  
30 September 2021

Total assets 30 September 2022

Total assets 30 September 2021

Total liabilities 30 September 2022

Total liabilities 30 September 2021

NEW ZEALAND  

PACIFIC ISLANDS  

$000

$000

OTHER
$000

TOTAL
$000

395,490 

369,871 

(51,026)

318,845 

(207,184)

(8,048)

(76,089)

27,524 

1,023 

192 

28,739 

21,642 

351,058 

340,568 

(44,918)

295,650 

(195,343)

(9,762)

(76,519)

14,026 

43 

182 

14,251 

8,855 

50,090 

48,451 

(15,242)

33,209 

(18,066)

(1,237)

(18,131)

(4,225)

137 

203 

(3,885)

(4,314)

44,945 

46,052 

(13,837)

32,215 

(6,888)

(1,444)

(10,641)

13,242 

132 

110 

13,484 

9,620 

 – 

 – 

 – 

 – 

445,580 

418,322 

(66,268)

352,054 

346 

(224,904)

 – 

 – 

346 

 – 

 – 

346 

346 

 – 

 – 

 – 

 – 

(9,285)

(94,220)

23,645 

1,160 

395 

25,200 

17,674 

396,003 

386,620 

(58,755)

327,865 

(88)

(202,319)

 – 

 – 

(88)

 – 

 – 

(88)

(73)

(11,206)

(87,160)

27,180 

175 

292 

27,647 

18,402 

NEW ZEALAND  

PACIFIC ISLANDS  

$000

$000

OTHER
$000

TOTAL
$000

29,547 

51,970 

723,805 

708,527 

426,930 

405,058 

883 

430 

74,539 

92,843 

51,462 

43,660 

(4,327)

26,103 

 – 

52,400 

(14,942)

(10,615)

(965)

(617)

783,402

790,755 

477,427 

448,101 

Additions to non-current assets include additions to property, plant and equipment, right of use assets, intangible assets and investments in subsidiaries.

78

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

79

1.4 Segmental reporting (continued)

Definition

An operating segment is a group of assets and operations engaged in providing products or services that are subject to risks and returns that are 
different to those of other operating segments. Operating segments are reported in a manner consistent with the internal reporting provided to the 
chief operating decision-maker (the Chief Executive Officer) who reviews the operating results on a regular basis and makes decisions on resource 
allocation and assessing performance.

2. UNDERWRITING ACTIVITIES

This section provides information on Tower's underwriting activities. 

Tower collects premiums from customers in exchange for providing insurance coverage. These premiums are recognised as revenue when they 
are earned by Tower, with a liability for unearned premiums recognised on the balance sheet.

When customers suffer a loss that is covered by their policy, Tower will make payments to customers or suppliers, which it recognises as claims 
expenses. To ensure Tower’s obligations to customers are properly recorded within the financial statements, Tower recognises provisions for 
outstanding claims.

To manage Tower’s risk and optimise its returns, Tower reinsures some of its exposure with reinsurance companies. The premiums paid to 
reinsurers are recognised as an expense, while recoveries from reinsurers are recognised as revenue.

2.1 Underwriting Revenue

Composition

Gross written premium

Movement in unearned premium liability

Gross earned premium

Reinsurance and other recoveries revenue

Reinsurance commission 

Insurance administration services commission

Commission revenue

Underwriting revenue

Recognition and measurement

2022 
$000

2021 
$000

 445,580 

 396,003 

(27,258)

(9,383)

 418,322 

 386,620 

 15,243 

 24,601 

 3,971 

 1,134 

 5,105 

 5,343 

 1,118 

 6,461 

 438,670 

 417,682 

Gross earned premium is recognised in the period in which the premiums are earned during the term of the contract, excluding taxes and levies 
collected on behalf of third parties. It includes a provision for expected future premium cancellations (which is offset against gross premium 
receivables, see note 2.7), and customer remediation (see note 2.9). The proportion of premiums not earned in the consolidated statement of 
comprehensive income at reporting date is recognised in the consolidated balance sheet as unearned premiums. 

Reinsurance and other recoveries on paid claims, reported claims not yet paid, claims incurred but not reported and claims incurred but not 
enough reported are recognised as revenue. Recoveries are measured as the expected future receipts and recognised when the claim is incurred.

Reinsurance commission revenue includes reimbursements by reinsurers to cover part of Tower's management and sales expense over the term 
of the reinsurance agreements. Reinsurance commission income can also include a proportion of expected profitability of business ceded to the 
reinsurer. The final value of the variable commission is based on the achievement of a hurdle rate over time. This revenue is recognised over the 
term of the reinsurance agreements dependent on the profitability of proportional arrangement which is reassessed at each reporting date.

Insurance administration services commission includes a percentage of levies collected on behalf of third parties and is recognised at the point 
the levy is collected.

2.2 Net claims expense 

Composition

EXC. CANTERBURY EARTHQUAKE

CANTERBURY EARTHQUAKE

TOTAL

2022 
$000

2021 
$000

Gross claims expense

Reinsurance and other recoveries revenue

Net claims expense

231,034 

(13,613)

217,421 

226,611 

(23,396)

203,215 

Recognition and measurement

2022 
$000

9,113 

(1,630)

7,483 

2021 
$000

309 

(1,205)

(896)

2022 
$000

2021 
$000

240,147 

(15,243)

224,904 

226,920 

(24,601)

202,319 

Net claims expense is measured as the difference between net outstanding claims liability at the beginning and end of the financial year plus any 
claims payments made net of reinsurance and other recoveries received during the financial year. Please refer to note 2.4 for more information.

Additional disclosures related to the Canterbury earthquake events in 2010 and 2011 are provided in note 2.4..

2.3 Underwriting expense

Composition

People costs

People costs capitalised during the year

Technology 

Amortisation 

Depreciation 

External fees

Marketing

Communications

Miscellaneous

Movement in deferred acquisition costs   

Claims related management expenses reclassified to claims expense

Service fees charged to discontinued operations     

Underwriting expenses

2022 
$000

2021 
$000

84,160 

(7,557)

14,556 

14,723 

4,992 

10,594 

11,757 

3,039 

3,258 

(6,511)

(37,085)

(1,706)

94,220 

64,626 

(3,569)

14,320 

12,556 

4,440 

10,300 

8,477 

3,829 

4,319 

877 

(31,320)

(1,695)

87,160 

 Includes $2.7m (2021: $2.3m) of depreciation on right of use assets. See note 6.3b for further information.  

 2021 included a writedown for a deficiency on the liability adequacy test of $2.5m, refer note 2.6. This resulted in a lower amortisation expense of deferred acquisition costs in 2022.  

 Refer note 8.4 for further detail.

80

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

81

2.4 Net outstanding claims

a. Composition

Central estimate of future cash flows

Claims handling expense

Risk Margin

Gross outstanding claims

Reinsurance recoveries

Net outstanding claims

Net claim payments within 12 months

Net claim payments after 12 months

Net outstanding claims

Recognition and measurement

EXC. CANTERBURY EARTHQUAKE

CANTERBURY EARTHQUAKE

TOTAL

2022 
$000

2021 
$000

2022 
$000

2021 
$000

2022 
$000

2021 
$000

89,404 

5,564 

5,051 

100,019 

(10,293)

89,726 

76,422 

13,304 

89,726 

87,535 

5,430 

6,724 

99,689 

(18,970)

80,719 

69,687 

11,032 

80,719 

18,056 

772 

5,684 

24,512 

(3,787)

20,725 

8,497 

12,228 

20,725 

16,402 

1,314 

4,933 

22,649 

(3,880)

18,769 

7,508 

11,261 

18,769 

107,460 

103,937 

6,336 

10,735 

6,744 

11,657 

124,531 

122,338 

(14,080)

110,451 

84,919 

25,532 

110,451 

(22,850)

99,488 

77,195 

22,293 

99,488 

Gross outstanding claims liability comprises a central estimate of future cash outflows and a risk margin for uncertainty. 

The outstanding claims liability is measured at the central estimate of future cash outflows relating to claims incurred prior to the reporting date 
including direct and indirect claims handling costs. The liability is measured based on the advice of the Appointed Actuary or on valuations which 
have been peer reviewed by the Appointed Actuary. It is intended to include no deliberate or unconscious bias toward over or under-estimation. 
Given the uncertainty in establishing the liability, it is likely the final outcome will differ from the original liability established. Changes in the claim 
estimates are recognised in profit or loss in the reporting period in which the estimates are changed.

The gross outstanding claim liabilities also include a risk margin that relates to the inherent uncertainty in the central estimate of the future 
payments. The risk margin represents the amount by which the liability recognised in the financial statements is greater than the actuarial estimate. 
Tower currently applies a 75% probability of adequacy to the outstanding claims liability which means there is a 1-in-4 chance all future claim 
payments will exceed the overall reserve held.

Discounting has been applied to the provision for outstanding claims relating to the Canterbury earthquakes, using spot rates derived from 
government issued bonds.  The overall discount, at 30 September 2022, is equivalent to using a uniform discount rate of 4.2% per annum.  At the 
previous valuation of the Canterbury earthquakes liability, discounting was not applied as it was considered immaterial in a lower interest rate 
environment.  Discounting has also not been allowed for on other outstanding claims as the expected timeframe for paying these claims is short, 
and the impact of discounting is considered to be immaterial.

Uncertainties surrounding the liability estimation process include those relating to the available data, actuarial models and assumptions, the 
statistical uncertainty associated with the general insurance run-off process and external risks.

Net outstanding claims liability is calculated by deducting reinsurance and other recoveries from gross outstanding claims. Reinsurance and other 
recoveries on outstanding claims are recognised as income with the corresponding asset being recognised on the balance sheet. 

2.4. Net outstanding claims (continued) 

b. Reconciliation of movements in net outstanding claims liability

2022
$000

2021
$000

GROSS

REINSURANCE

NET

GROSS

REINSURANCE

NET

Balance brought forward

Claims expense – current year

Claims expense – prior year

Incurred claims recognised in profit or loss  
from continuing operations

Incurred claims recognised in profit or loss  
from discontinued operations

Claims paid and reinsurance and other 
recoveries raised from continuing and 
discontinued operations

Foreign exchange

Liabilities reclassified as held for sale 

122,338 

248,024 

(5,970)

(22,850)

(20,429)

4,491 

99,488

227,595

(1,479)

107,747

234,675

(5,772)

(12,889)

(22,171)

(2,464)

94,858 

212,504 

(8,236)

240,147 

(15,243)

224,904 

226,920

(24,601)

202,319 

1,907 

(695)

1,212

1,983 

(34)

1,949 

(239,706)

24,604 

(215,102)

(213,350)

14,397 

(198,953)

1,826 

(1,981)

(347)

451 

1,479

(1,530)

(962)

 – 

277 

 – 

(685)

 – 

Outstanding claims

124,531 

(14,080)

110,451 

122,338

(22,850)

99,488

 Refer note 8.4.

c. Development of claims

The following table shows the development of net outstanding claims relative to the current estimate of ultimate claims costs for the five most recent years.

ULTIMATE CLAIMS COST ESTIMATE

PRIOR
$000

2018
$000

2019
$000

2020 
$000

2021 
$000

2022
$000

TOTAL 
$000

At end of incident year

One year later

Two years later

Three years later

Four years later

Ultimate claims cost

Cumulative payments

Central estimate

Claims handling expense

Risk margin

Net outstanding claim liabilities

Reinsurance recoveries

Gross outstanding claim liabilities

147,806 

146,214 

147,073 

144,041 

146,234 

143,209 

145,752 

143,233 

146,157 

146,157 

 – 

158,309 

183,003 

200,370 

154,825 

153,470 

 – 

 – 

181,656 

 – 

 – 

 – 

 – 

 – 

 – 

 – 

143,233 

153,470 

181,656 

200,370 

(145,627)

(142,612)

(150,821)

(173,193)

(134,491)

15,237

530 

621 

2,649 

8,463 

65,879 

93,379 

6,337 

10,735 

110,451 

14,080 

124,531 

All amounts in this note exclude discontinued operations, consistent with other profit or loss disclosures.

Prior year numbers have been restated at current year exchange rates to reflect the underlying development of claims.

d. Actuarial information

The estimation of outstanding claims as at 30 September 2022 has been carried out by:

(i)  Geoff Atkins, BA (ActuarDc), FIAA, FIAL, FANZIIF, Appointed Actuary – Canterbury earthquake claims; and

(ii)  John Feyter, B.Sc., FNZSA – all other outstanding claims

The New Zealand actuarial assessments are undertaken in accordance with the standards of the New Zealand Society of Actuaries, in particular 
Professional Standard No. 30 "Valuations of General Insurance Claims". The Actuaries were satisfied as to the nature, sufficiency and accuracy of the data 
used to determine the outstanding claims liability. The outstanding claims liability is set by the Actuaries at a level that is appropriate and sustainable to 
cover the Group's claims obligations after having regard to the prevailing market environment and prudent industry practice.

82

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

83

2.4. Net outstanding claims (continued) 

e. Canterbury earthquakes

Cumulative impact of Canterbury earthquakes

As at 30 September 2022, Tower has 36 claims remaining to settle (2021: 33) as a result of the earthquakes impacting the Canterbury region during 2010 
and 2011. The following table presents the cumulative impact of the four main Canterbury earthquake events on the consolidated statement of 
comprehensive income.

2.4. Net outstanding claims (continued) 

Canterbury Earthquake outstanding claims liability

Assumptions are made for the estimation of outstanding claims related to the Canterbury earthquakes.  The key assumptions are estimated ultimate 
costs (including building costs) for settling open claims, and the numbers of new overcap claims, litigated claims, re-opened claims and their associated 
costs.  Other elements of judgement include the apportionment of claim costs between the four main earthquake events, future claim management 
expenses and assessment of the risk margin.

Earthquake claims estimate net of EQC payments

Reinsurance recoveries

Claim expense net of reinsurance recoveries

Reinsurance expense

Cumulative impact of Canterbury earthquakes before tax

Income tax

Cumulative impact of Canterbury earthquakes after tax

Canterbury earthquake impact on profit or loss before tax

 Net claims (gain)/expense 

Critical accounting estimates and judgements

Outstanding claims liability (excluding Canterbury Earthquakes)

2022 
$000

2021 
$000

(953,531)

733,720 

(219,811)

(25,045)

(244,856)

(944,418)

732,090 

(212,328)

(25,045)

(237,373)

68,560 

66,464 

(176,296)

(170,909)

2022 
$000

2021 
$000

7,483 

(896)

ASSUMPTION

Number of future new overcap and new litigated claims

Average cost of new overcap or new litigated claim

Provision for re-opened claims

Additional portfolio-level provision for incurred but not enough reported

New overcap and new litigated claims

2022 
$000

2021 
$000

 46 

 38 

 114,000 

121,000

 1,070,000 

 2,400,000 

2,355,000

1,274,000

New overcap claims are typically for properties that have previously been managed by EQC but where damage is now assessed as being more extensive 
than previously thought and there is now an insurance claim payable.

New litigated claims are existing or future new claims that are referred to either the Insurance Tribunal or the High Court for resolution. Costs for new 
litigated claims are assumed to be substantially higher than costs for other overcap claims. Only a small number of new litigated claims is now expected.

Provision for re-opened claims

Re-opened claims arise where additional liability arises for additional scope not previously identified or where a repair has failed or where another 
expense is payable for a claim that is currently closed.

f. Sensitivity Analysis

The impact on profit or loss of changes in key assumptions used in the calculation of the outstanding claims liabilities is summarised below. Each change 
has been calculated in isolation from the other variables and is stated before income tax.

Outstanding claims excluding Canterbury earthquake

The estimation of the outstanding claims liability involves a number of key assumptions. Tower's estimation uses Company specific data, relevant industry 
data and general economic data for each major class of business. The estimation process factors in a number of considerations including the risks to 
which the business is exposed to at a point in time, claim frequency and severity, historical trends in the development of claims as well as legal, social 
and economic factors that may affect each class of business.

ASSUMPTION

Expected future claims development proportion

Claims handling expense ratio

Risk margin

Expected future claims development proportion

2022 
$000

20.3%

6.6%

6.0%

2021 
$000

19.7%

6.7%

9.1%

Expected future claims development

Claims handling expense ratio 

Risk margin

Canterbury earthquake outstanding claims

This is the proportion of additional claims cost that is expected to be recognised in the future for claims that have already been reported. The assumption 
is expressed as a proportion of current case estimates for open claims and the resulting amount is recognised in the balance sheet as an outstanding 
claims liability. 

Claims handling expense ratio 

This reflects the expected cost to administer current open and future claims. The ratio is calculated based on historical experience of claims handling costs.

Number of new overcap or new litigated claims

Risk margin 

Risk margins are calculated for outstanding claims in each country separately and a diversification benefit is calculated taking into account the 
uncorrelated effect of random risk. The total risk margin percentage shown is calculated on a weighted average basis. The decrease in the risk margin 
this year reflects the reassessment of uncertainty on claim outcomes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Change in average cost of a new overcap or new litigated claim

Number of reopened claims

Change in average cost of a reopened claim

MOVEMENT IN 
ASSUMPTION

 + 10%

 - 10%

 + 10%

 - 10%

 + 10%

 - 10%

MOVEMENT IN 
ASSUMPTION

 + 35%

- 35%

+ 20%

- 20%

 + 35%

 - 35%

 + 20%

 - 20%

IMPACT ON PROFIT OR (LOSS)

2022
$000

(1,419) 

1,419

(556) 

556

(505) 

505

2021
$000

(1,339)

1,339

(543) 

543

(672) 

672

IMPACT ON PROFIT OR (LOSS)

2022
$000

(1,817)

1,817 

(1,038)

1,038 

(375)

375 

(214)

214 

2021
$000

(1,610)

1,610 

(920)

920 

(840)

840 

(480)

480 

84

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

85

2.5 Unearned premium liability

Reconciliation

Opening balance

Premiums written during the year from continuing operations

Premiums earned during the year from continuing operations

Unearned premium movement from continuing operations

Premiums written during the year from discontinued operations

Premiums earned during the year from discontinued operations

Unearned premium movement from discontinued operations

Foreign exchange movements

Liabilities reclassified as held for sale

2022 
$000

2021 
$000

 212,275 

 203,452 

 445,580 

 396,003 

(418,322)

(386,620)

27,258

8,055

(8,684)

(629)

3,957

(4,745)

9,383

8,678

(8,910)

(232)

(328)

–

2.6 Deferred insurance costs

Reconciliation

DEFERRED ACQUISITION COSTS

DEFERRED OUTWARDS  
REINSURANCE EXPENSE

DEFERRED INSURANCE COSTS

2022 
$000

2021 
$000

2022 
$000

2021 
$000

2022 
$000

2021 
$000

Balance bought forward

21,116

25,220

10,851

9,447

31,967

34,667

Costs deferred

Amortisation expense

Writedown due to LAT deficiency

Foreign exchange movements

Asset reclassified as held for sale

48,192

(42,765)

 –   

247

(248)

40,323

(41,897)

(2,534)

4

_

Closing balance

26,542

21,116

17,283

(17,073)

 –   

1,303

(1,087)

11,277

17,968

(16,428)

 –   

(136)

_

10,851

65,475

(59,838)

 –   

1,550

(1,335)

37,819

58,291

(58,325)

(2,534)

(132)

–

31,967

Unearned premium liability from continuing operations

 238,116 

 212,275 

Deferred insurance costs are expected to be amortised within 12 months from reporting date.

All unearned premiums will be earned in the 12 months after 30 September 2022 and therefore are current liabilities. The unearned premium liability is 
presented net of cancellation provisions.

Recognition and measurement

Unearned premium liability is the portion of premiums written that are yet to be earned in the consolidated statement of comprehensive income.  
It is calculated based on the term of the risk and in accordance with the expected pattern of the incidence of risk underwritten using an appropriate 
pro-rated method.

Adequacy of unearned premium liability

Tower undertakes a liability adequacy test ("LAT") to determine whether the unearned premium liability is sufficient to pay future claims net of 
reinsurance recoveries. 

If the present value of expected future net cash flows relating to current insurance contracts, plus a risk margin, exceeds the unearned premium 
liabilities less related deferred acquisition costs and intangible assets, then the unearned premium liability is deemed deficient. This deficiency is 
immediately recognised in profit or loss. In recognising the deficiency, Tower will first write down any related deferred acquisition costs or intangible 
assets before recognising an unexpired risk liability.

The unearned premium liability as at 30 September 2022 was sufficient for the New Zealand business (2021: $2.0m deficiency). The unearned 
premium liabilities as at 30 September 2022 for each Pacific entity was also sufficient (2021: all sufficient with the exception of Fiji and Vanuatu where a 
total deficiency of $0.5m was recognised).

%

Central estimate net claims as a % of unearned premium liability

Risk margin as a % of net claims

Critical accounting estimates and judgements

2022

2021

45.5%

11.2%

45.2%

11.0%

The LAT is conducted using a central estimate of premium liability adjusted for risk margin and it is carried out on an individual country basis. The 
test is based on prospective information and so is heavily dependent on assumptions and judgements.

Recognition and measurement

Acquisition costs comprises costs incurred in obtaining and recording general insurance contracts such as advertising expenses, sales expenses 
and other underwriting expenses. These costs are initially capitalised and then expensed in line with the earning pattern of the related premium.

Deferred acquisition costs at the reporting date represent the acquisition costs related to unearned premium.

Outwards reinsurance expense reflects premiums ceded to reinsurers and is recognised as an expense in accordance with the pattern of 
reinsurance service received. Deferred outwards reinsurance expense at the reporting date represents outwards reinsurance expenses related to 
unearned premium.

2.7 Receivables

Composition

Gross premium receivables

Provision for expected future premium cancellations

Premium receivable

Reinsurance recoveries 

Canterbury earthquake reinsurance recoveries

Other recoveries

Reinsurance and other recoveries

Finance lease receivables

Prepayments

Other receivables 

Receivable from discontinued operations 

Receivables

Receivable within 12 months

Receivable in greater than 12 months

Receivables

 Refer note 8.4 for further detail.

2022 
$000

2021 
$000

200,715

(651)

200,064

15,847 

3,787 

11,378

31,012

2,375 

4,411 

2,401

1,826

178,213 

(655)

177,558 

20,326 

3,880 

5,207 

29,413 

4,278 

3,279 

2,397 

–

242,089 

216,925 

241,742 

214,504 

347 

2,421 

242,089 

216,925 

86

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

87

2.7 Receivables (continued)

Recognition and measurement

Receivables (inclusive of GST) are recognised at fair value and are subsequently measured at cost less any impairment.

Tower's premium receivables and reinsurance and other recoveries arise from insurance contracts. These receivables are impaired if there is 
objective evidence that Tower will not be able to collect all amounts due according to the original terms of the receivable. 

The remainder of Tower's receivables are assessed for impairment based on expected credit losses.

Finance lease receivables

Tower entered into a sub-lease for its previous Auckland premises. The sub-lease is for the remaining non-cancellable term of the head lease and 
therefore is classified as a finance lease. The profile of the net receipts is illustrated in the table below:

Less than one year

Between one and five years

Total undiscounted finance lease receivable

Unearned finance income

Net investment in the finance lease

2.8 Payables

Composition

Trade payables

GST payable

EQC & Fire and Emergency New Zealand levies payable

Reinsurance premium payable

Unsettled investment purchases

Other

Payables

Payable within 12 months

Payable in greater than 12 months

Payables

Recognition and measurement

2022 
$000

 2,074 

 347 

 2,421 

(46)

 2,375 

2021 
$000

2,019 

2,421 

4,440 

(162)

4,278

2022 
$000

2021 
$000

 14,672 

 25,951 

 11,583 

 3,696 

 –   

 3,009 

 58,911 

11,452 

23,264 

10,857 

6,343 

11,456 

6,605 

69,977 

 58,911 

69,977 

 –   

 – 

 58,911 

69,977 

Payables are recognised where goods or services that have been received or supplied and have been invoiced or formally agreed with the 
supplier.  Payables are stated at the fair value of the consideration to be paid in the future inclusive of GST. GST payable represents the net amount 
payable to the respective tax authorities.

2.9 Provisions

Composition

Annual leave and other employee benefits

Customer remediation 

Provisions

Payable within 12 months

Payable in greater than 12 months

Provisions

2022 
$000

 8,219 

 3,654 

 11,873 

 10,716

1,157

 11,873 

2021 
$000

6,709 

 – 

6,709 

6,235 

474 

6,709 

  This is a one-off provision for customer remediation arising from an error in the calculation of multi-policy discounts.

Recognition and measurement

Tower recognises a provision when it has a present obligation as a result of a past event and it is more likely than not that an outflow of resources 
will be required to settle the obligation. Tower's provision represents the best estimate of the expenditure required to settle the present obligation 
at the end of the reporting period.

2.10 Assets backing insurance liabilities

Tower has determined that all assets within its insurance companies are held to back insurance liabilities, with the exception of: (i) property, plant and 
equipment; (ii) right of use assets, (iii) intangible assets; and (iv) investments in operating subsidiaries. Assets backing insurance liabilities are managed in 
accordance with approved investment mandate agreements on a fair value basis and are reported to the Board on that basis.

3. INVESTMENTS

Tower invests funds collected as premiums and provided by shareholders to ensure it can meet its obligations to pay claims and expenses and to 
generate a return to support its profitability. Tower has a low risk tolerance and therefore the majority of its investments are in investment grade 
supranational and government bonds, and term deposits.

3.1 Investment income

Interest income

Net realised loss

Net unrealised loss

Investment income

2022 
$000

6,835 

(2,028)

(3,309)

 1,498 

2021 
$000

5,127 

(2,152)

(2,416)

559 

Net realised losses relate to the maturity of fixed interest bonds, with interest coupon rates higher than market rates, purchased at higher than face value. 
The corresponding higher interest received is reflected in the interest income amount.

Recognition and measurement

Tower's investment income is primarily made up of realised and unrealised interest income on fixed interest investments and fair value gains or 
losses on its investment assets. Both are recognised in the period that they are earned through profit or loss. 

88

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

89

3.2 Investments

Fixed interest investments

Property investment

Investments

Recognition and measurement

2022 
$000

2021 
$000

258,600 

277,436 

34 

34 

258,634 

277,470 

Tower's investment assets are designated at fair value through profit or loss. Investment assets are initially recognised at fair value and are remeasured to 
fair value through profit or loss at each reporting date. Tower's approach to measuring the fair value of these assets is covered in the note 3.3. 

Purchases and sales of investments are recognised at the date which Tower commits to buy or sell the assets (i.e. trade date). Investments are 
derecognised when the rights to receive future cash flows from the assets have expired, or have been transferred, and substantially all the risks and 
rewards of ownership have transferred.

3.3 Fair value hierarchy

Tower designates its investments at fair value through profit or loss in accordance with its Treasury policy. It categorises its investments into three levels 
based on the inputs available to measure fair value:

Level 1 

Fair value is calculated using quoted prices in active markets. Tower currently does not have any Level 1 investments.

Level 2 

Investment valuations are based on direct or indirect observable data other than quoted prices included in Level 1. Level 2 inputs include: (1) 
quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities; (2) quoted prices for assets or liabilities that are not traded in an active market; or (3) other 
observable market data that can be used for valuation purposes. Tower investments included in this category include government and 
corporate debt, where the market is considered to be lacking sufficient depth to be considered active, and part ownership of a property that 
is rented out to staff.

Level 3 

Investment valuation is based on unobservable market data. Tower currently does not have any Level 3 investments.

As at 30 September 2022

Fixed interest investments

Property investment

Investments

As at 30 September 2021

Fixed interest investments

Property investment

Investments

LEVEL 1
$000

LEVEL 2
$000

LEVEL 3
$000

TOTAL
$000

 – 

 – 

 – 

 – 

 – 

 – 

258,600 

34 

258,634 

277,436 

34 

277,470 

 – 

 – 

 – 

 – 

 – 

 – 

258,600 

34 

258,634 

277,436 

34 

277,470 

There have been no transfers between levels of the fair value hierarchy during the current financial period (2021: nil).

4. RISK MANAGEMENT

Tower is exposed to multiple risks as it works to set things right for its customers and their communities whilst maximising returns for its 
shareholders. Everyone across the organisation is responsible for ensuring that Tower's risks are managed and controlled on a day-to-day basis.

4.1 Risk management overview

Tower’s approach to achieving effective risk management is to embed a risk-aware culture where everyone across the organisation (including contractors 
and third parties) is responsible for managing risk.

Tower’s Board expresses its appetite for risk in a Risk Appetite Statement, which:

(i)  Gives clear concise guidance to management of parameters for risk taking.

(ii)  Embeds risk management into strategic and decision-making processes.

(iii)  Facilitates risk to be managed at all levels of the organisation through a structured process to identify risk, and the allocation of clear, personal 

responsibility for management of identified risks by assigned risk owners.

The Board then approves and adopts: (i) the Risk Management Framework (RMF) which is the central document that explains how Tower effectively 
manages risk within the business; and (ii) the Reinsurance Management Strategy (ReMS) which describes the systems, structures, and processes which 
collectively ensures Tower's reinsurance arrangements and operations are prudently managed. These documents are approved annually by the Board.

The Board has delegated its responsibility to the Risk Committee to provide oversight of risk management practices and provide advice to the Board and 
management when required. In addition, the Risk Committee also monitors the effectiveness of Tower’s risk management function which is overseen by 
the Chief Risk Officer (CRO). The CRO provides regular reports to the Risk Committee on the operation of the RMF.

Tower has embedded the RMF with clear accountabilities and risk ownership to ensure that Tower identifies, manages, mitigates and reports on all key 
risks and controls through the three lines of defence model.

(i)  First line: Operational management has ownership, responsibility and accountability for directly identifying, assessing, controlling and mitigating key 

risks which prevent them from achieving business objectives.

(ii)  Second Line: Tower’s Risk, Compliance and Conduct Function is responsible for developing and implementing effective risk, compliance and conduct 
management processes; providing advisory support to the first line of defence and constructively challenging operational management and risk and 
obligation owners to ensure positive assurance.

(iii)  Third line: Internal Audit is responsible and accountable for providing an independent and objective view of the adequacy and effectiveness of the 

Group’s risk management, governance and internal control framework. Internal audit, along with other groups such as external audit, report 
independently to the Board and/or the Audit Committee.

The RMF is supported by a suite of policies that address the risks and compliance obligations covered in this section.

4.2 Strategic risk 

Strategic risk is the risk that internal or external factors compromise Tower's ability to execute its strategy or achieve its strategic objectives. Strategic risk 
is managed through:

(i)  Monitoring and managing performance against Board approved plan and targets.

(ii)  Board leading an annual strategy and planning process which considers our performance, competitor positioning and strategic opportunities.

(iii)  Identifying and managing emerging risks using established governance processes and forums.

4.3 Insurance risk

Insurance risk is the risk that for any class of risk insured, the present value of actual claims payable will exceed the present value of actual premium 
revenues generated (net of reinsurance). This risk is inherent in Tower's operations and arises and manifests through underwriting, insurance 
concentration and reserving risk.

90

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

91

4.3 Insurance risk (continued)

a. Underwriting risk

Underwriting risk refers to the risk that claims arising are higher (or lower) than assumed in pricing due to bad experience including catastrophes, 
weakness in controls over underwriting or portfolio management, or claims management issues. Tower has established the following key controls to 
mitigate this risk:

(i)  Use of comprehensive management information systems and actuarial models to price products based on historical claims frequencies and claims 
severity averages, adjusted for inflation and modelled catastrophes, trended forward to recognise anticipated changes in claims patterns after 
making allowance for other costs incurred by the Group.

4.4 Credit risk

Credit risk is the risk of loss that arises when a counterparty fails to meet their financial obligations to Tower in accordance with the agreed terms. Tower's 
exposure to credit risk primarily results from transactions with security issuers, reinsurers and policyholders and is set out below.

a. Investment and treasury

Tower manages its investment and treasury credit risks in line with limits set by the Board: 

(i)  New Zealand cash deposits that are internally managed are limited to banks with a minimum Standard & Poor's (S&P) AA- credit rating.

(ii)  Passing elements of insurance risk to reinsurers. Tower's Board determines a maximum level of risk to be retained by the Group as a whole.

(ii)  Cash deposits and investments that are managed by external investment managers are limited to counterparties with a minimum S&P A- credit rating.

Tower's reinsurance programme is structured to adequately protect the solvency and capital positions of the insurance business. The adequacy of 
reinsurance cover is modelled by assessing Tower's exposure under a range of scenarios. The plausible scenario that has the most financial 
significance for Tower is a major Wellington earthquake. Each year, as part of setting the coming year's reinsurance cover, comprehensive modelling 
of the event probability and amount of the Group's exposure is undertaken. 

(iii)  Underwriting limits are in place to enforce appropriate risk selection criteria and pricing with specific underwriting authorities that set clear 

parameters for the business acceptance.

b. Concentration risk

Concentration risk refers to the risk of underwriting a number of like risks, where the same or similar loss events have the potential to produce claims 
from many of Tower's customers at the same time. Tower is particularly subject to concentration risks in the following variety of forms:

(i)  Geographic concentration risk – Tower purchases a catastrophe reinsurance programme to protect against a modelled 1-in-1000 years whole of 

portfolio catastrophe loss. 

(ii)  Product concentration risk – Tower's business is weighted towards the NZ general insurance market where its risks are concentrated in house 

insurance (Home & Contents) and motor insurance. Tower limits its exposure through proportionate reinsurance arrangements. The table below 
illustrates the diversity of Tower's operations.

GROSS WRITTEN PREMIUM (%)

NZ

PACIFIC 

TOTAL

NZ

PACIFIC 

TOTAL

2022

2021

Home & Contents

Motor

Commercial

Liability

Workers compensation

Other

Total

51%

35%

1%

1%

0%

0%

88%

3%

3%

5%

0%

1%

0%

54%

38%

6%

1%

1%

0%

12%

100%

52%

34%

1%

1%

0%

1%

89%

4%

3%

4%

0%

0%

0%

11%

56%

37%

5%

1%

0%

1%

100%

  The Pacific Islands operating segment excludes the disposal group and the prior year comparatives have been re-presented accordingly.

Tower has limited exposure to long-tail classes (which comprises part of "liability" and "workers compensation"). Long-tail classes have increased 
uncertainty of the ultimate cost of claims due to the additional period of time to settlement.

c. Reserving risk

Reserving risk is managed through the actuarial valuation of insurance liabilities and monitoring of the probability of adequacy booked reserves. The 
valuation of the net central estimate is performed by qualified and experienced actuaries. The central estimate is subject to a comprehensive review at 
least annually.

(iii)  Tower holds deposits and invests in Pacific regional investment markets through its Pacific Island operations to comply with local statutory 

requirements and in accordance with Tower investment policies. These deposits and investments generally have low credit ratings representing the 
majority of the value included in the 'Below BBB' and 'not rated' categories in the table below. This includes deposits and investments with Australian 
bank subsidiaries that comprise 55% (2021: 88%) of the 'not rated' category. 

CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS

FIXED INTEREST INVESTMENTS

TOTAL

2022
$000

2021
$000

2022
$000

2021
$000

2022
$000

2021
$000

 –   

 –   

66,228

 83,614 

 –   

 –   

 1,614 

 16,660 

84,502

 –   

 –   

 9,173 

 23,342 

 116,129 

 119,198 

 110,957 

 24,399 

 –   

 2,009 

 2,071 

 94,430 

 143,548 

 33,100 

 –   

 2,226 

 4,166 

 119,198 

177,185

 24,399 

 –   

 3,623 

 18,731 

 94,430 

 227,162 

 33,100 

 –   

 11,399 

 27,508 

 258,634 

 277,470 

343,136

 393,599 

AAA

AA

A

BBB

Below BBB

Not rated

Total

b. Reinsurance

Tower manages its reinsurance programme in line with the ReMS. Tower seeks to manage the quantum and volatility of insurance risk in order to reduce 
exposure and overall cost.

Tower's policy is to only deal with reinsurers with a credit rating of S&P A- or better unless local statutory requirements dictate otherwise. Additional 
requirements of the policy are for no individual reinsurer to have more than 25% share of the overall programme and Tower is prohibited from offering 
inwards reinsurance to external entities. The following table provides details on Tower's exposure to reinsurance recoveries: 

AAA

AA

A

BBB

Below BBB

Not rated

Total

OUTSTANDING CLAIMS

PAID CLAIMS

REINSURANCE ON:

2022
$000

 – 

5,830

8,319

 9 

 102 

 220 

2021
$000

 – 

 12,005 

 10,805 

 – 

 – 

 40 

2022
$000

 – 

2,929

2,220

 – 

 3 

 2 

2021
$000

 – 

 1,028 

 320 

 – 

 – 

 4 

TOTAL

2022
$000

 – 

 8,759 

 10,539 

 9 

 105 

 222 

2021
$000

 –   

 13,033 

 11,125 

 –   

 –   

 44 

14,480

 22,850 

5,154

 1,352 

 19,634 

 24,202 

 
92

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

93

4.4 Credit risk (continued)

4.5 Market risk (continued)

The following table provides further information regarding the ageing of reinsurance recoveries on paid claims at the balance date.

The following table demonstrates the impact of the New Zealand dollar weakening or strengthening against the most significant currencies for which 
Tower has foreign exchange exposure holding all other variables constant.

 NOT DUE
$000

 1 MONTH
$000

 1 TO 2 MONTHS
$000

 2 TO 3 MONTHS
$000

 OVER 3 MONTHS
$000

 TOTAL 
$000

 PAST DUE

5,154

 1,352 

 –   

 –   

 –   

 –   

 –   

 –   

 –   

 –   

5,154

 1,352 

As at 30 September 2022

Reinsurance recoveries on paid claims

As at 30 September 2021

Reinsurance recoveries on paid claims

c. Premium receivable

Tower's premium receivable balance primarily relates to policies which are paid on either a fortnightly or monthly basis. Payment default or policy 
cancellation – subject to the terms of the policyholder's contract – will result in the termination of the insurance contract eliminating both the credit risk 
and the insurance risk.

 NOT DUE 
$000

 1 MONTH
$000

 1 TO 2 MONTHS
$000

 2 TO 3 MONTHS
$000

 OVER 3 MONTHS
$000

 TOTAL 
$000

 PAST DUE

As at 30 September 2022

Net premium receivable

As at 30 September 2021

Net premium receivable

192,464

 5,933 

 1,188 

 384 

95

200,064

 169,915 

 5,514 

 1,484 

 562 

 83 

 177,558 

   This includes premiums that are less than 30 days outstanding (which are owed but not past due) of $4.0m (2021: $5.5m).

4.5 Market risk 

Market risk is the risk of adverse impacts on investment earnings resulting from changes in market factors. Tower's market risk is predominately as a 
result of changes in the value of the New Zealand dollar (currency risk) and interest rate movements. Tower's approach to managing market risk is 
underpinned by its Treasury Policy as approved by the Board.

a. Currency risk

Tower's currency exposure arises from the translation of foreign operations into Tower's functional currency (currency translation risk) or due to 
transactions denominated in a currency other than the functional currency of a controlled entity (operational currency risk). The currencies giving rise to 
this risk are primarily the US dollar, Fijian dollar and Papua New Guinea (PNG) kina.

Tower's principal currency risk is currency translation (where movement impacts equity). Tower generally elects not to hedge this risk as it is difficult 
given the size and nature of the currency markets in the Pacific. Tower seeks to minimise its net exposure to foreign operational risk by actively seeking to 
return surplus cash and capital to the parent company.

Operational currency risk impacts profit and generally arises from:

(i)  Procurement of goods and services denominated in foreign currencies. Tower may enter into hedges for future transactions, using authorised 

instruments, provided that the timing and amount of those future transactions can be estimated with a reasonable degree of certainty.

(ii)  Investment assets managed by the external investment manager that are denominated in foreign currencies. Tower's Board set limits for the 
management of currency risk based on prudent asset management practice. Regular reviews are conducted to ensure that these limits are 
adhered to.

New Zealand Dollar – USD

Currency strengthens by 10%

Currency weakens by 10%

New Zealand Dollar – Fijian Dollar

Currency strengthens by 10%

Currency weakens by 10%

New Zealand Dollar – PNG Kina

Currency strengthens by 10%

Currency weakens by 10%

b. Interest rate risk

DIRECT IMPACT ON EQUITY

IMPACT ON PROFIT OR (LOSS)

2022
$000

2021
$000

2022
$000

2021
$000

(793)

969

(854)

1,044

(629)

769

(581)

710

(1,667)

2,037

(743)

908

113

(138)

(74)

90

44

(54)

23

(28)

(38)

47

30

(36)

Tower is exposed to interest rate risk through its holdings in interest-bearing assets. Interest-bearing assets with a floating interest rate expose Tower to 
cash flow interest rate risk, whereas fixed interest investments expose Tower to fair value interest rate risk.

Tower's interest rate risk primarily arises from fluctuations in the valuation of fixed-interest investments recognised at fair value and from the underwriting 
of general insurance contracts, which have interest rate exposure due to the use of discount rates in calculating the value of insurance liabilities.

Fixed-interest investments are measured at fair value through profit or loss. Movements in interest rates impact the fair value of interest-bearing financial 
assets and therefore impact profit or loss (there is no direct impact on equity). The impact of a 1% increase or decrease in interest rates on fixed interest 
investments is shown below (holding everything else constant).

Interest rates increase by 1% (2021: 0.5%)

Interest rates decrease by 1% (2021: 0.5%)

IMPACT ON PROFIT OR (LOSS)

2022
$000

(1,617)

1,690

2021
$000

(988)

960

Tower manages its interest rate risk through Board approved investment management guidelines that give regard to policyholder expectations and risks, 
and to target surplus for solvency as advised by the Appointed Actuary.

4.6 Liquidity risk

Liquidity risk arises where liabilities cannot be met as they fall due as a result of insufficient funds and/or illiquid asset portfolios. Tower mitigates this risk 
through maintaining sufficient liquid assets to ensure that it can meet all obligations on a timely basis.

Tower is primarily exposed to liquidity risk through its obligations to make payment for claims of unknown amounts on unknown dates. Fixed-interest 
investments can generally be readily sold or exchanged for cash to settle claims and are managed in accordance with the policy of broadly matching the 
overall maturity profile to the estimated pattern of claim payments. This is illustrated in the table below:

NET OUTSTANDING CLAIMS LIABILITY

CASH AND INVESTMENTS

2022
$000

2021
$000

2022
$000

2021
$000

Floating interest rate (at call)

 – 

 –   

Within 3 months

3 to 6 months

6 to 12 months

After 12 months

Total

 45,224 

 20,726 

 18,969 

 25,532 

 110,451 

 42,949 

 17,070 

 17,176 

 22,293 

 99,488 

84,649

 28,181

 44,940 

 55,407 

129,959

343,136

 116,217 

 75,129 

 31,890 

 47,381 

 122,982 

 393,599 

94

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

95

4.7 Capital management risk

4.8 Operational risk

Capital risk is the risk that capital is insufficient or not of the best form to provide a buffer against losses arising from unanticipated events, while also 
maximising the efficient use of capital with a view to enhancing growth and returns, and adding long-term value to Tower's shareholders.

Tower has a documented description of its capital management process which sets out Tower's principles, approaches, and processes in relation to 
capital management that enables it to operate at an appropriate level of target solvency capital which is within the bounds of Tower's risk appetite. 

The capital management process allows the Board, management, rating agencies and the regulator to understand Tower's approach to capital 
management, including requirements for formulating capital targets, and monitoring, reporting and remediating capital as required.

The operation of the capital management process is reported annually to the Board together with a forward-looking estimate of expected capital 
utilisation and capital resilience. In addition, Tower carries out stress, reverse stress and scenario testing to ensure the level of capital is appropriate given 
its risk appetite.

a. Regulatory solvency capital

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) is the prudential regulator and supervisor of all insurers carrying on insurance business in New Zealand, and is 
responsible for administering the Insurance (Prudential Supervision) Act 2010. Tower measures the adequacy of capital against the Solvency Standards 
for Non-life Insurance Business published by the RBNZ alongside additional capital held to meet RBNZ minimum requirements and any further capital as 
determined by the Board.

Foreign operations are subject to regulatory oversight in the relevant jurisdiction. It is Tower's policy to ensure that each of the licenced insurers in the 
Group maintain an adequate capital position within the requirements of the relevant regulator.

During the year ended 30 September 2022 the Group complied with all externally imposed capital requirements (2021: complied).

Tower Limited's Group and Parent solvency margin are illustrated in the table below.

Operational risk is the risk of loss due to inadequate or failed internal processes or systems, human error or from external events.

Tower's approach is to proactively manage our operational risks to mitigate potential customer detriment, regulatory or legal censure, financial and 
reputational impacts.

Tower has in place appropriate operational processes and systems, including prevention and detection measures. These include processes which seek 
to ensure Tower can absorb and/or adapt to internal or external occurrences that could disrupt business operations.

Management and staff are responsible for identifying, assessing, recording and managing operational risks in accordance with their roles and 
responsibilities. Associated controls for identified risks are recorded and then actively monitored and managed through our enterprise risk management 
system (ERMS). Incidents are managed by the first line of defence and overseen by the second line of defence, with ongoing reporting to management 
and the Board Risk Committee.

Tower also maintains and regularly updates its Crisis Management, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans to minimise the impact of material 
incidents or crisis events and to support continuity of critical systems and processes.

4.9 Regulatory and compliance risk

Regulatory and compliance risk is defined as the risk of legal, regulatory or reputational impacts arising from failure to manage compliance obligations, or 
failure to anticipate and prepare for changes in the regulatory environment.

Tower, via its ERMS, has in place an obligations management framework. The framework provides operational and managerial oversight of applicable 
and relevant regulatory compliance obligations to Tower and supports Tower in discharging its obligations under legislation across NZ & the Pacific.

Tower engages with regulators and regularly monitors developments in regulatory requirements to support ongoing compliance.

2022  
$000

2021 
$000

4.10 Conduct risk

PARENT

GROUP

PARENT

GROUP

Conduct risk is defined as the risk that conduct may contribute to poor outcomes for customers.

Actual solvency capital

Minimum solvency capital

Solvency margin

Solvency ratio

136,423

66,530

69,893

205%

171,647

79,018

92,629

217%

 179,439 

 66,252 

 113,187 

271%

214,128

79,927

134,201

268%

   Tower is required to maintain a solvency margin of at least $15m (2021: $25m), due to a license condition issued by the RBNZ.

In October 2020, the RBNZ commenced consultation on a review of the Insurance (Prudential Supervision) Act 2010. As part of the overall process, the 
RBNZ issued an exposure draft on an interim solvency standard (ISS) in July 2021 which anticipated the introduction of IFRS 17. The final ISS was issued in 
October 2022.

Tower will apply the new ISS from 1 October 2023.  The ISS: combines requirements for life and non-life insurers, which were previously separate 
standards; proposes enhancements to the transparency of solvency reporting; provides for increased prudential supervision for insurers operating close 
to their minimum solvency margin; and imposes some changes that will impact solvency margins. The change in the ISS which is expected to have the 
largest impact on Tower's solvency margin, the introduction of the operational risk capital charge, will be phased in over the four years to 2026. While 
Tower is still assessing the ISS in its final form, Tower expects to maintain an appropriate capital position under the ISS.

b. Capital composition

The balance sheet capital mix at reporting date is shown in the table below:

Total equity attributed to shareholders

c. Financial strength rating

2022
$000

2021
$000

 317,528 

 347,044 

Tower Limited has an insurer financial strength rating of "A- (Excellent)" and a long-term issuer credit rating of "a-" as affirmed by international rating 
agency AM Best Company Inc. in April 2022.

Tower manages Conduct risk through a number of measures including undertaking ongoing product reviews to ensure products are delivering good 
customer outcomes, reviewing customer feedback to identify conduct trends or issues, completing quality assurance reviews, managing vulnerable 
customers, holding workshops with frontline staff to identify potential conduct issues and embedding and monitoring controls across the business to 
deliver fair customer outcomes.

Tower's approach to managing conduct risk is set out in its Conduct Governance Framework. The framework is a collation of policies, frameworks and 
processes and ensures there's robust governance in place to oversee Tower's conduct risk profile including reporting to the Management and Board 
Committees.

4.11 Cyber risk

Cyber risk is any risk associated with financial loss, disruption or damage to the reputation of Tower resulting from either the failure, or unauthorised or 
erroneous use of its information systems.

Tower’s approach to Cyber risk is to proactively protect against, monitor for and respond to those cyber threats seen to be targeting the organisation. 
Tower continues to monitor evolving key cyber risks, which are being discussed and reviewed on a monthly basis through our Management Risk and 
Conduct Committee and on a quarterly basis with the Risk Committee. Risk mitigation is achieved through ongoing investment in Tower’s Security 
programme and Tower’s dedicated security function. 

4.12 Climate change risk

Climate change risk is the risk associated with the unpredictable nature and impacts of weather events which may increase in frequency and severity 
over time due to changes in climate.

Tower’s RMF considers environmental and emerging risks, which are regularly reported to the Board. Tower's approach to managing climate change risk 
includes leading the market by continuing to expand our risk-based pricing strategy for climate-related hazards, maintaining a robust reinsurance 
programme to provide protection from volatility in weather events, planning for increasing large events over time in our budget process to limit financial 
impacts, and supporting communities through climate change via product development and education of customers.

Tower considers that climate change risk does not impact the valuation of the majority of Tower's assets and liabilities, where these assets are expected 
to be realised in one year or less. For non-current assets, Tower has looked to its short-medium term forecasting, which implicitly includes allowances for 
the risk of climate change in forecasts of the severity and frequency of future claims, including large events. These forecasts show continued profitability 
for Tower, which supports the carrying value of non-current assets. Accordingly, Tower does not consider that climate change risk has a material impact 
on the assets and liabilities recorded in these financial statements, as at 30 September 2022.

96

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

97

5. CAPITAL STRUCTURE

This section provides information about how Tower finances its operations through equity. Tower's capital position provides financial security to its 
customers, employees and other stakeholders whilst operating within the capital requirements set by regulators.

5.1 Contributed equity

Opening balance

Return of share capital to shareholders 

Purchase of non-controlling interests   

Total contributed equity

Represented by:

Opening balance
Cancellation of shares on return of capital

Total shares on issue

2022
$000

2021
$000

492,424 

(30,634)

(1,599)

460,191 

492,424 

 – 

 – 

492,424 

421,647,258 

421,647,258 

(42,163,271)

 – 

379,483,987 

421,647,258 

  On 9 March 2022 the Group completed its ordinary share buy-back for a consideration of $30.6m (including transaction costs). This resulted in 42.2m shares being cancelled during the year 

ended 30 September 2022.

     On 14 October 2021 Tower Limited reached an agreement to increase its shareholding in National Pacific Insurance Limited from 71.39% to 93.88% for a consideration of $3.4m. Tower Limited 

subsequently commenced a process to acquire the remaining 6.12% shareholding which completed on 17 December 2021 for a consideration of $0.9m.

Ordinary shares issued by the Company are classified as equity and are recognised at fair value less direct issue costs. All shares rank equally with one 
vote attached to each share. There is no par value for each share.

5.2 Reserves

Opening balance

Currency translation differences arising during the year

Foreign currency translation reserve

Opening balance

Gain on revaluation

Deferred tax on revaluation

Asset revaluation reserve

Capital reserve

Separation reserve 

Reserves

2022
$000

2021
$000

(6,082)

3,934 

(2,148)

1,707 

 – 

 – 

1,707 

(4,985)

(1,097)

(6,082)

1,564 

159 

(16)

1,707

11,990 

(113,000)

(101,451)

11,990

(113,000)

(105,385)

  The separation reserve was created in 2007 at the time of the demerger of the New Zealand and Australian businesses in accordance with a ruling provided by the Australian Tax Office (ATO). It 

will be carried forward indefinitely as a non-equity reserve to meet the requirements of the ATO.

5.2 Reserves (continued)

Recognition and measurement

The assets and liabilities of entities whose functional currency is not the New Zealand dollar are translated at the exchange rates ruling at balance 
date. Income and expense items are translated at a weighted average of exchange rates over the period approximating spot rates at the 
transaction dates. Exchange rate differences are taken to the foreign currency translation reserve.

Tower's land and buildings are valued at fair value less accumulated depreciation. Any surplus on revaluation of these items is transferred directly 
to the asset revaluation reserve unless it offsets a previous decrease in value recognised in profit or loss in which case it is recognised in the 
consolidated statement of comprehensive income.

5.3 Net tangible assets per share

Net tangible assets per share

2022
$000

2021
$000

 0.55 

0.57

Net tangible assets per share have been calculated using the net assets as per the balance sheet adjusted for intangible assets (including goodwill) and 
deferred tax assets divided by total shares on issue. 

5.4 Earnings per share

Profit from continuing operations attributable to shareholders ($ thousands)

Profit from discontinued operations attributable to shareholders ($ thousands)

2022

2021

17,622 

1,181

17,770 

913

Weighted average number of ordinary shares for basic and diluted earnings per share (number of shares)

397,851,001 

421,647,258 

Basic and diluted earnings per share (cents) for continuing operations

Basic and diluted earnings per share (cents)

4.43

4.73

4.21

4.43

The basic and diluted average numbers of ordinary shares shown above are used for calculating all earnings per share measures including those for 
profit after tax from discontinued operations (note 8.4).

5.5 Dividends

On 30 June 2022, Tower paid an interim dividend of 2.5 cents per share (2021: 2.5 cents per share), with the cash impact of $9.5m (2021: $10.5m).

On 23 November 2022, the Board approved a final dividend of 4 cents per share (2021: 2.5 cents per share), with the dividend being payable on 1 
February 2023. The anticipated cash impact of the final dividend is approximately $15.2m (2021: $10.5m).

98

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

99

6. OTHER BALANCE SHEET ITEMS

This section provides information about assets and liabilities not included elsewhere.

6.1 Property, plant and equipment

Composition:

30 September 2022

Composition:

Cost   

Accumulated depreciation   

Property, plant and equipment

Reconciliation:

Opening balance

Depreciation 

Additions

Disposals

Foreign exchange movements

Assets reclassified as held for sale 

Closing Balance

LAND AND  
BUILDINGS
$000

OFFICE EQUIPMENT  

AND FURNITURE
$000

MOTOR VEHICLES
$000

COMPUTER 
EQUIPMENT
$000

 – 

 – 

 – 

4,102 

 – 

 – 

 – 

456 

(4,558)

 – 

4,547 

(2,303)

2,244 

1,968 

(422)

814 

(85)

(23)

(8)

2,244 

1,949 

(979)

970 

769 

(288)

500 

 – 

15 

(26)

970 

5,237 

(3,034)

2,203 

2,535 

(1,577)

1,277 

(4)

(23)

(5)

2,203 

TOTAL
$000

11,733 

(6,316)

5,417 

9,374 

(2,287)

2,591 

(89)

425 

(4,597)

5,417 

  Assets reclassified as held for sale include the Suva building ($4.5m) and the assets of discontinued operations. Refer to Note 8.4.

    During the year, and following the decommissioning of several legacy ‘on premise’ IT systems, a review of property, plant & equipment with zero book values was completed. As a consequence, 

property, plant and equipment with a total cost and accumulated depreciation of $12.6m were written off as they are no longer in use. As the assets had zero book values, there was no impact 

on profit or loss from these write-offs.

30 September 2021

Composition:

Cost

Accumulated depreciation

Property, plant and equipment

Reconciliation:

Opening balance

Depreciation for continuing operations

Depreciation for discontinued operations

Additions

Revaluations

Disposals

Foreign exchange movements

Closing Balance

4,102 

 – 

4,102 

4,035 

 – 

 – 

 – 

159 

 – 

(92)

4,102 

4,257 

(2,289)

1,968 

2,989 

(838)

(90)

1,437 

 – 

(1,527)

(3)

1,968 

1,616 

(847)

769 

1,083 

(242)

(18)

 – 

 – 

(34)

(20)

769 

17,292 

(14,757)

2,535 

1,934 

(1,104)

(2)

1,654 

 – 

56 

(3)

2,535 

27,267 

(17,893)

9,374 

10,041 

(2,184)

(110)

3,091 

159 

(1,505)

(118)

9,374 

6.1 Property, plant and equipment (continued)

Recognition and measurement

Property, plant and equipment is initially recorded at cost including transaction costs and subsequently measured at cost less any accumulated 
depreciation and impairment losses.

Depreciation is calculated using the straight line method to allocate the asset's cost or revalued amounts, net of any residual amounts, over their 
useful lives. The assets' useful lives are reviewed and adjusted if appropriate at each balance date. An asset's carrying amount is written down 
immediately to its recoverable amount if it is considered that the carrying amount is greater than its recoverable amount.

Furniture & fittings 

5-9 years 

Leasehold property improvements 

3-12 years 

Motor vehicles 

Computer equipment  

5 years 

3-5 years 

Land and buildings are shown at fair value, based on periodic valuations by external independent appraisers less subsequent depreciation for 
buildings. Any accumulated depreciation at the date of revaluation is eliminated against the gross carrying amount of the asset and the net amount 
is restated to the revalued amount of the asset.

6.2 Intangible assets

a. Amounts recognised in the balance sheet

30 September 2022

Composition:

Cost 

Accumulated amortisation 

Intangible Assets

Reconciliation:

Opening balance

Amortisation

Additions

Disposals

Transfers to property, plant and equipment

Closing Balance

GOODWILL
$000

SOFTWARE 
$000

CUSTOMER 
RELATIONSHIPS  
$000

17,744 

 – 

17,744 

17,744 

 – 

 – 

 – 

 – 

17,744 

79,259 

(25,801)

53,458 

48,527 

(9,764)

16,934 

(184)

(2,055)

53,458 

34,745 

(11,294)

23,451 

22,321 

(4,959)

6,089 

 – 

 – 

23,451 

TOTAL 
$000

131,748 

(37,095)

94,653 

88,592 

(14,723)

23,023 

(184)

(2,055)

94,653 

During the year, and following the decommissioning of several legacy IT systems, a review of intangible assets with zero book values was completed. As a consequence, intangible assets with a 

total cost and accumulated amortisation of $32.8m were written off as they are no longer in use. As the assets had zero book values, there was no impact on profit or loss from these write-offs.

 
 
 
 
 
  
100

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

101

6.2a Amounts recognised in the balance sheet (continued) 

6.2a Amounts recognised in the balance sheet (continued) 

30 September 2021

Composition:

Cost

Accumulated amortisation

Intangible Assets

Reconciliation:

Opening balance

Amortisation

Additions

Disposals

Transfers to property, plant and equipment

Closing Balance

GOODWILL
$000

SOFTWARE 
$000

CUSTOMER 
RELATIONSHIPS  
$000

17,744 

 – 

17,744 

17,744 

 – 

 – 

 – 

 – 

17,744

98,850 

(50,323)

48,527 

47,866 

(8,205)

10,528 

(237)

(1,425)

48,527

28,656 

(6,335)

22,321 

12,238 

(4,351)

14,434 

 – 

 – 

22,321

TOTAL 
$000

145,250 

(56,658)

88,592 

77,848 

(12,556)

24,962 

(237)

(1,425)

88,592

In the year ended 30 September 2021, Tower acquired and assumed ANZ's rights and obligations related to servicing the insurance polices of a group of customers already underwritten by Tower, 

and entered into a non-compete agreement for a period of 5 years. In the year ended 30 September 2022, Tower acquired and assumed Westpac's and TSB Bank's rights and obligations relating 

to servicing the insurance polices of two further groups of customers already underwritten by Tower.  The amounts capitalised includes the price paid and associated acquisition/migration 

costs. The assets will be amortised over 5 year (the ANZ non-compete agreement) or 10 years (for other customer relationships), with the pattern of amortisation being aligned with expected net 

cashflow benefits over this period.

Recognition and measurement

Intangible assets are assets without physical substance. They are recognised as an asset if it is probable that expected future economic benefits 
attributable to the asset will flow to Tower and that costs can be measured reliably.

Application software and customer relationships are recorded at cost less accumulated amortisation and impairment. Application software is 
amortised on a straight line basis over the estimated useful life of the software. Customer relationships are amortised over the estimated useful life 
in accordance with the pattern of economic benefit consumption. 

Internally generated intangible assets are recorded at cost which comprise all directly attributable costs necessary to create, produce and prepare 
the asset to be capable of operating in the manner intended by management. Amortisation of internally generated intangible assets begins when 
the asset is available for use and is amortised on a straight line basis over the estimated useful life.

The useful lives for each category of intangible assets with a finite life are as follows:

 — capitalised software: 3-5 years for general use computer software and 3-10 years for core operating system software

 — customer relationships: 5-10 years

Goodwill (i.e. assets with an indefinite useful life) generated as a result of business acquisition is initially measured as the excess of the purchase 
consideration over the fair value of the net identifiable assets and liabilities acquired. Goodwill is not subject to amortisation but is tested for 
impairment annually or more frequently where there are indicators of impairment.

Critical accounting estimates and judgements 

The customer relationships asset predominantly consists of customer relationship asset with a useful life equivalent to the customer base’s 
expected lifespan of ten years with the exception of one asset with an additional non-compete component that has a contracted useful live of 
five years. 
Where applicable the estimated capitalised cost related to the customer relationships asset has been apportioned between the two asset 
components by valuing the non-compete at the differential in net present value of the asset from improved customer retention over the non-
compete period, pro-rated over the full asset value. This valuation is calculated with reference to cash flow forecasts that combine past experience 
with future expectations based on prevailing and anticipated market factors, expected retention rates (86-94%) and a discount rate of 12.5% for 
each customer relationship asset. 

b. Impairment testing

An impairment charge is recognised in profit or loss when the carrying value of the asset, or cash-generating unit (CGU), exceeds the calculated 
recoverable amount.

(i)   Software and customer relationships

Software and customer relationships are reviewed at each reporting date by determining whether there is an indication that the carrying values may 
be impaired. If an indication exists, the asset is tested for impairment. A loss is recognised for the amount by which the carrying value exceeds the 
asset's recoverable value.

There were no indications of impairment during the year and therefore these assets were not tested for impairment (2021: no indications).

Critical accounting estimates and judgements

The recoverable amount for software and customer relationships is determined by reference to a value in use calculation based on (i) cash flow 
forecasts that combine past experience with future expectations based on prevailing and anticipated market factors; and (ii) a discount rate that 
appropriately reflects the time value of money and the specific risks associated with the assets. 

Value-in-use calculations involve the use of accounting estimates and assumptions to determine the projected net cash flows, which are 
discounted using an appropriate discount rate to reflect current market assessment of the risks associated with the assets. An impairment charge 
for capitalised software is incurred where there is evidence that the economic performance of the asset is not as intended by management. 
Customer relationships represent the present value of future benefits expected to arise from existing customer relationships. The assumptions for 
the useful life are based on historical information. 

(ii)  Goodwill

Goodwill is deemed to have an indefinite useful life and is tested annually for impairment or more frequently where there is an indication that the 
carrying value may not be recoverable.

Goodwill is allocated to cash generating units (CGUs) expected from synergies arising from the acquisition giving rise to goodwill. Tower's goodwill is 
allocated to the New Zealand general insurance CGU.

Tower undertook an annual impairment review and no loss has been recognised in 2022 as a result (2021: nil). COVID-19 impacts were again taken 
into account when performing the review.

Critical accounting estimates and judgements

The recoverable amount of the New Zealand general insurance business is assessed by determining its value in use by discounting the future 
cash flows generated from the continuing use of the unit (2021: the recoverable amount was assessed with reference to appraisal value 
techniques, which is a common practice for insurance companies). A base discount rate of 14.5% was used in the calculation (2021: 12.0%). The 
cash flows are based on management's plans and forecasted profits for FY23 -FY25 (2021: FY22 -FY24). The projected cash flows are determined 
based on past performance and management's expectations for market developments with a terminal growth rate of 3% (2021: 2.5%). 

The overall valuation is sensitive to a range of assumptions including the discount rate and the terminal growth rate. Reasonable changes to these 
assumptions will not result in an impairment.

102

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

103

6.3 Leases

a. Amounts recognised in the Balance Sheet

(ii) Right of use assets

30 September 2022

Composition:

Cost

Accumulated depreciation

Right of use assets

Reconciliation:

Opening balance

Depreciation

Additions

Disposals

Revaluations

Net foreign exchange movements

Assets reclassified as held for sale

Right of use assets

30 September 2021

Composition:

Cost

Accumulated depreciation

Right of use assets

Reconciliation:

Opening balance

Depreciation for continuing operations

Depreciation for discontinued operations

Additions 

Disposals

Revaluations

Net foreign exchange movements

Right of use assets

OFFICE SPACE
$000

MOTOR  

VEHICLES
$000

TOTAL
$000

26,977 

(3,651)

23,326 

25,569 

(2,702)

438 

(37)

968

(347)

(563)

23,326 

 – 

 – 

–

8 

(3)

 – 

(5)

 – 

 – 

 – 

–

OFFICE SPACE
$000

MOTOR  

VEHICLES
$000

26,901 

(1,332)

25,569 

7,189 

(2,242)

(162)

24,332 

(3,308)

(3)

(237)

25,569 

25 

(17)

8 

22 

(14)

 – 

 – 

 – 

 – 

 – 

8 

26,977 

(3,651)

23,326 

25,577 

(2,705)

438 

(42)

968

(347)

(563)

23,326 

TOTAL
$000

26,926 

(1,349)

25,577 

7,211 

(2,256)

(162)

24,332 

(3,308)

(3)

(237)

25,577 

6.3a. Amounts recognised in the Balance Sheet (continued)

(ii)   Lease liabilities

Composition:

Current

Non-current

Lease liabilities

Due within 1 year

Due within 1 to 2 years

Due within 2 to 5 years

Due after 5 years

Discount

Lease liabilities

Recognition and measurement

2022
$000

2021
$000

6,237 

28,817 

35,054 

6,237 

4,440 

11,990 

15,876 

(3,489)

35,054 

6,082 

33,339 

39,421 

6,082 

6,041 

12,055 

19,514 

(4,271)

39,421 

Lease liabilities are recognised at the date Tower has the right to use the corresponding asset. Lease liabilities are initially measured as the present 
value of expected lease payments under lease arrangements. Lease liability will include any option to extend where it is reasonably certain that the 
option will be exercised. The lease payments are discounted using the incremental borrowing rate as the interest rate in the lease cannot be readily 
determined. The incremental borrowing rate is the rate of interest that Tower would have to pay to borrow over a similar term, and with a similar 
security, the funds necessary to obtain an asset of a similar value to the right of use asset in a similar economic environment. Tower's incremental 
borrowing rate is based on bonds issued by financial institutions with similar credit rating and maturity profile. Incremental borrowing rates used 
during the year ranged between 1.9% and 5.0% (2021: between 1.9% and 3.6%).  

Subsequent repayments are split between principal and interest cost where the finance cost represents the time value of money and is charged to 
the profit or loss over the lease period. The discount rate applied is unchanged from that applied at the initial recognition of the lease, unless there 
are material changes to the lease.

b. Amounts recognised in the consolidated statement of comprehensive income

CLASSIFICATION

Depreciation and impairment

Underwriting expense & corporate and other expenses

Interest expense

Gain on disposal

Lease expense

Finance costs

Other Income

c. Amounts recognised in the consolidated statement of cash flows

2022
$000

(2,705)

(897)

12 

(3,590)

2021
$000

(2,252)

(363)

1,179 

(1,436)

2022
$000

2021
$000

(6,044)

(2,684)

  In August 2021 Tower entered into a new lease with a 10 year term for its Auckland premises. Tower recognised an initial right of use asset of $24.0m and an initial lease liability of $33.3m with 

the difference primarily representing lease incentives. Tower has assumed no renewals of the lease past the initial 10 year term for the right of use asset and lease liability.

Recognition and measurement

Total cash outflow for lease principal payments

Right of use assets are recognised when Tower has the right to use the corresponding assets. Right of use assets are measured at cost comprising 
the initial measurement of the lease liability adjusted for any lease payments made at or before the commencement date less any lease incentives 
received; and indirect costs; and restoration costs. Right of use assets are generally depreciated over the shorter of the asset's useful life and the 
lease term on a straight line basis.

 
 
104

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

105

7. TAX

This section provides information on Tower's tax expense during the year and its position at balance date.

7.1 Tax expense

Composition

Current tax 

Deferred tax

Adjustments in respect of prior years

Tax expense

Tax expense from continuing operations

Tax expense from discontinued operations

Reconciliation of prima facie tax to income tax expense

Profit before tax from continuing operations

Profit before tax from discontinued operations

Profit before taxation

Prima facie tax expense at 28% (2021: 28%)

Adjustments in respect of prior years

Tax effect of non-deductible expenses and non-taxable income

Foreign tax credits written off

Other

Tax expense

Recognition and measurement

2022
$000

1,159

6,593

292 

8,044

7,526

518

2021
$000

3,745

5,785

(395)

9,135

9,245

(110)

2022
$000

2021
$000

25,200 

1,699

26,899

7,532

293 

(732) 

371 

580

8,044

27,647 

803

28,450

7,966

(395)

796 

861 

(93)

9,135

Tax expense is calculated on the basis of the applicable tax rates that have been enacted or substantively enacted at the end of the reporting 
period in the jurisdictions Tower operates in. There have been no tax rate changes during the year in these jurisdictions.  Current tax expense 
relates to tax payable for the current financial reporting period while deferred tax will be payable in future periods.

7.2 Current tax

a. Current tax asset

Excess tax payments related to prior periods 

Excess tax payments related to current period   

Current tax assets

 Expected to be recovered from 2024 as per the Board approved operational plan for 2023 to 2025. 
   Excess tax payment made in the Pacific Islands during the reporting period.

2022
$000

2021
$000

12,038 

1,031 

13,069 

12,038 

863 

12,901 

7.2 Current tax (continued)

b. Current tax liability

The current tax liability balance of $136k (2021: $170k) relates to taxes payable to offshore tax authorities in the Pacific Islands.

Recognition and measurement

Overpayment of tax in the current and prior periods is recognised as a current tax asset. Current tax assets are measured at the amount expected 
to be recovered from the taxation authorities, using the tax rates and tax laws that have been enacted or substantively enacted by the end of the 
reporting period.

7.3 Deferred tax 

a. Deferred tax asset

Composition

Tax losses recognised

Software, property, plant and equipment

Leases

Provisions and accruals

Recognised in profit or loss

Impact through other comprehensive income

Recognised in comprehensive profit or loss

Set-off of deferred tax liabilities pursuant to NZ IAS 12

Deferred tax asset

Deferred tax asset from continuing operations

Deferred tax asset from discontinued operations

Reconciliation of movements

Opening balance

Movements recognised in profit or loss

Deferred tax asset pre NZ IAS 12 set off

2022
$000

23,716

1.989

352

5,258

31,315

2021
$000

24,116 

2,834

373 

4,165 

31,488 

 – 

 – 

31.315

31,488 

(7,278)

24,037

23,893

144

(7,038)

24,450

24,450

–

2022
$000

2021
$000

31,488 

(173)

31,315

35,397 

(3,909)

31,488 

106

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

107

7.3 Deferred tax (continued)

b. Deferred tax liability

Composition

Deferred acquisition costs

Customer relationships

Software, property, plant and equipment

Other 

Recognised in profit or loss

Asset revaluation

Recognised in comprehensive profit or loss

Set-off of deferred tax liabilities pursuant to NZ IAS 12

Deferred tax liability

 Primarily relates to withholding tax on undistributed profit from the Pacific Islands.

Reconciliation of movements

Opening balance

Movements recognised in other comprehensive income

Movements recognised in profit or loss

Deferred tax liability pre NZ IAS 12 set off

Recognition and measurement

2022
$000

(7,016)

(4,412)

(4,163)

(203)

(15,794)

(290)

(16,084)

7,278 

(8,806)

2022
$000

(9,813)

148

(6,419) 

(16,084)

2021
$000

(5,481)

(3,433)

–

(461)

(9,375)

(438)

(9,813)

7,038 

(2,775)

2021
$000

(7,921)

(16)

(1,876)

(9,813)

Deferred tax is income tax which is expected to be payable or recoverable in the future as a result of the unwinding of temporary differences. 
These arise from differences in the recognition of assets and liabilities for financial reporting and from the filing of income tax returns. Deferred tax 
is recognised on all temporary differences, other than those arising from (i) goodwill or (ii) from the initial recognition of assets and liabilities in a 
transaction (other than in a business combination) that affects neither the accounting nor taxable profit or loss.

At the reporting date, the Group has recognised a deferred tax asset in respect of its unused tax losses of $84.7m (2021: $86.1m). 

Deferred tax is calculated at the tax rates that are expected to apply to the year when the liability is settled or the asset realised, based on tax rates 
and tax laws that have been enacted or substantively enacted at balance date.

Deferred tax assets and liabilities are offset when there is a legally enforceable right to set off current tax assets against current tax liabilities and when 
they relate to income taxes levied by the same taxation authority and the Group intends to settle its current tax assets and liabilities on a net basis. 

Critical accounting judgements and estimates

Deferred tax assets are recognised for all unused tax losses to the extent it is probable that taxable profits will be available against which the losses 
can be utilised. Significant management judgement is required to determine the amount of deferred tax assets that can be recognised based on 
the likely timing and quantum of future taxable profits.

This assessment is completed on the basis of the approved strategic plans of Tower Limited and subsidiaries. Tower's ability to utilise these tax 
losses depends on the future profitability, shareholder continuity and no major change in Tower's business. The enactment of the new business 
continuity test in the Income Tax Act 2007 on 30 March 2021 for carrying forward tax losses means that Tower is able to carry forward its tax losses 
even if there is a significant shareholding change, as long as the business continuity test is met.

7.4 Imputation credits

The Group imputation credit account reflects the imputation credits held by the Company as the representative member of the Group.

Imputation credits available for use in subsequent reporting periods

8. OTHER INFORMATION

This section includes additional disclosures which are required by financial reporting standards.

8.1 Notes to the consolidated statement of cash flow

Composition 

Cash at bank

Deposits at call

Cash and cash equivalents

The average interest rate at 30 September 2022 for deposits at call is 2.89% (2021: 0.25%).

Reconciliation of profit for the year to cash flows from operating activities

Profit after taxation from continuing operations

Adjusted for non-cash items

Depreciation of property, plant and equipment

Depreciation, impairment and disposals of right of use assets

Amortisation of intangible assets

Financing costs

Fair value losses on financial assets

Gain on disposal of fixed assets

Change in deferred tax

Adjusted for movements in working capital 

Change in receivables

Change in payables

Change in taxation

Net cash inflows from operating activities from continuing operations

Cashflows from operating activities from discontinued operations

Net cash inflows from operating activities

2022
$000

2021
$000

271

271

2022
$000

2021
$000

54,422 

30,080 

84,502 

88,740 

27,389 

116,129 

2022
$000

2021
$000

17,674

18,402

2,287 

2,705 

14,723 

897 

5,337 

(24)

6,452 

(30,495)

41,445

(695)

60,306 

(522)

59,784

2,182 

2,252 

12,556 

363 

4,568 

319 

5,731 

41,957 

6,888 

1,601 

96,819 

1,276 

98,095 

108

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

109

8.2 Related party disclosures

8.4 Discontinued operation and asset held for sale

Tower considers key management personnel to consist of the Board of Directors, Chief Executive Officer and executive leadership team. Information 
regarding individual director and executive compensation is provided in the Corporate Governance section of the annual report.

Salaries and other short term employee benefits paid

Long term benefits

Termination benefits

Director fees

Related party remuneration

2022
$000

4,466

773

748

676

6,663

2021
$000

4,799 

260 

486 

723 

6,268 

Tower insurance products are available to all key management personnel on the same terms as available to other employees. In addition, Tower 
purchases indemnity insurance for all directors both past and present covering liabilities and legal expenses incurred whilst in office.

The Board has decided to implement a share based long term incentive scheme with effect from 1 October 2022.

During the year ended 30 September 2022, Tower Limited acquired the minority shareholding of National Pacific Insurance Limited. Refer Note 5.1.

Definition

Key management personnel are those persons having authority and responsibility for planning, directing and controlling the activities of the entity, 
directly or indirectly, including any director (whether executive or otherwise) of that entity.

8.3 Auditor's remuneration

Audit of financial statements 

Other assurance services   

Total fees paid to Group's auditors

Fees paid to subsidiaries' auditors different to Group auditors:

Audit of financial statements     

Auditors remuneration

2022
$000

612

63

675

16

691

2021
$000

599

60

659

14

673

  Audit of financial statements includes fees for both the audit of annual financial statements and the review of the interim financial statements. PwC Fiji performs the audits of all overseas 

incorporated subsidiaries with the support of PwC New Zealand and other PwC network firms. $129.6k is paid to other PwC network firms (non New Zealand) for their audit services.

On 10 June 2022 Tower announced the conditional sale of all of its shares in its Papua New Guinea subsidiary to Alpha Insurance Limited for a sale price 
of AUD 7.9m, subject to settlement adjustments. The sale was still conditional as at 30 September 2022 and so the Group's Papua New Guinea 
Operations constitutes a discontinued operation and is classified as held for sale as at 30 September 2022.  Subsequently, the sale became 
unconditional and was completed on 28 October 2022, for a revised price of PGK 22m, subject to settlement adjustments and transaction costs. The 
estimated gain on sale that will be included in profit or loss after tax, including reclassifications of amounts in the foreign currency translation reserve, is 
approximately $2.1m, however at the time these financial statements were prepared a final calculation of the gain on sale had not been completed

At 30 September 2022, Tower was actively marketing the Suva building for sale. The recoverable amount of the building of $4.5m is included in the 
property, plant and equipment disclosed below. The sale is expected to be completed within a year from the reporting date.

The sale of the Suva building was approved by the Board on 3 November 2022. Refer note 8.6.

Assets and liabilities classified as held for sale

Assets classified as held for sale

Cash and cash equivalents

Investments

Receivables

Current tax assets

Deferred tax assets

Deferred insurance costs

Right of use assets

Property, plant and equipment 

Total assets classified as held for sale

Liabilities classified as held for sale

Payables   

Unearned premiums

Outstanding claims

Lease liabilities

Provisions

Total liabilities classified as held for sale

Net assets classified as held for sale

2022
$000

7,796

3,580

2,565

315

144

1,335

479

4,597

 20,811 

1,965

4,745

1,981

519

48

 9,258 

 11,553 

  Other assurance services includes annual solvency return assurance and Pacific Island regulatory return audits. The other assurance services for the year ended 30 September 2021 were 

  Property, plant and equipment disclosed above includes the Suva building carrying value of $4.5m.

completed during the year ended 30 September 2022.

 The audit of Tower Insurance (Vanuatu) Limited was performed by Law Partners (2021: Law Partners).

  As at 30 September 2022, Tower PNG owed other members of the Tower Group of $1.8m.. The liabilities from discontinued operations disclosed above are stated without adjustment for these 

intercompany transactions.

The cumulative currency translation losses recognised in other comprehensive income in relation to the discontinued operation as at 30 September 
2022 were $2.7m.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
110

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

111

8.4 Discontinued operation and asset held for sale (continued)

Profit from discontinued operation

Gross written premium

Unearned premium movement

Gross earned premium 

Outward reinsurance premium

Movement in deferred reinsurance premium

Outward reinsurance premium expense   

Net earned premium

Claims expense

Less: Reinsurance and other recoveries revenue

Net claims expense

Gross commission expense

Commission revenue

Net commission expense

Underwriting expense   

Underwriting profit

Investment income

Other income/(expense)

Financing and other costs

Profit before taxation

Tax expense

Profit after taxation from discontinued operation

2022
$000

 8,055 

 629 

 8,684 

(3,187)

(58)

(3,245)

 5,439 

(1,907)

695 

(1,212)

(310)

288 

(22)

(2,559)

 1,646 

50 

15 

(12)

 1,699 

(518)

 1,181 

2021
$000

8,678 

232 

8,910 

(3,426)

(46)

(3,472)

 5,438 

(1,983)

34 

(1,949)

(391)

292 

(99)

(2,591)

 799 

21 

(2)

(15)

 803 

110 

 913 

Tower PNG paid fees to other members of the Tower Group of $2.4m during the financial year ended 30 September 2022 (2021: $2.5m), relating to the provision or reinsurance, management 

and other services. These amounts are included within the reinsurance premium expense and underwriting expense lines above, and are then eliminated within continuing operations.

Earnings per share

2022

2021

Basic and diluted earnings per share (cents) for discontinued operations

 0.30 

 0.22 

The currency translation differences recognised in other comprehensive income during the period ending 30 September 2022 in relation to the 
discontinued operation were $1.1m.

8.5 Contingent liabilities

The Group is occasionally subject to claims and disputes as a commercial outcome of conducting insurance business. Provisions are recorded for these 
claims or disputes when it is probable that an outflow of resources will be required to settle any obligations. Best estimates are included within claims 
reserves for any litigation that has arisen in the usual course of business. 

The Group has no other contingent liabilities. 

8.6 Subsequent events

On 6 October 2022, Tower entered an agreement with Kiwibank to purchase the rights and obligations relating to servicing the insurance polices of a 
group of customers underwritten by Tower for $5.9m payable on 1 December 2022.

On 28 October 2022, Tower completed the sale of Tower Insurance (PNG) Limited, refer note 8.4 for more information. 

On 3 November 2022, the Board approved the sale of Suva building at a price of FJD 8.2m which, after allowing for transaction costs and taxes, is greater 
than the book value of this asset recorded in these financial statements. The estimated gain on sale to be recognised in profit or loss after tax is 
approximately $1.1m, however at the time these financial statements were prepared a final calculation of the gain on sale had not been completed. 

On 23 November 2022, the Board approved a full year dividend of 4 cents per share, with the dividend being payable on 1 February 2023 as specified by 
Note 5.5. The anticipated cash impact of the final dividend is approximately $15.2m.

8.7 Capital commitments

As at 30 September 2022, Tower has nil capital commitments (2021: nil).

8.8 Impact of new accounting standards and changes in interpretation of current accounting standards

New accounting standards

No new accounting standards were implemented during the year with a material effect on Tower.

Issued and effective

The only new or revised accounting standard that is expected to have a material impact on Tower’s financial statements is NZ IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts 
(“IFRS 17”).  Other new or revised accounting standards that will be mandatory in future financial years are not expected to have a material impact. 

IFRS 17

IFRS 17 is effective for periods beginning on or after 1 January 2023. Tower will apply the standard for the year ending 30 September 2024, with the 
comparative period for the year ending 30 September 2023.  Tower expects to apply the standard using the full retrospective approach.

IFRS 17 replaces the current guidance in NZ IFRS 4 Insurance Contracts (“IFRS 4”), and establishes principles for the recognition, measurement, 
presentation and disclosure of insurance contracts. The standard introduces substantial changes in the presentation of financial statements and 
disclosures, introducing new balance sheet and income statement line items and increased disclosure requirements compared with existing reporting. 

IFRS 17 contains three new measurement models. The general model measures insurance contracts based on the fulfilment cash flows (the present 
value of estimated future cash flows with an explicit risk adjustment for non-financial risk) and the contractual service margin (the unearned profit that 
will be recognised as services are provided over the coverage period). A modified version of the general model (the variable fee approach) is applied to 
insurance contracts with direct participation features, and a simplified measurement model (the premium allocation approach, or “PAA”) is permitted in 
certain circumstances. The PAA is similar to the current measurement model used for general insurance. Tower expects all its current insurance contracts 
and reinsurance contracts will meet the requirements of the PAA.

Under the PAA, insurance and reinsurance contracts will be aggregated together into portfolios based on the contracts having similar risks and being 
managed together, and then divided into groups based on the expected profitability of contracts and the periods in which the contracts are 
written. Insurance contracts and reinsurance contracts are measured separately. Under the aggregation requirements, the identification and 
measurement of contracts that are expected to be loss making will be performed at a lower granularity than occurs for the liability adequacy test under 
current accounting standards, with any loss component recognised on initial recognition.

IFRS 17 makes changes to the way that discount rates are applied to future cash flows, with discount rates required to reflect the time value of money, 
the characteristics of the cash flows and the liquidity characteristics of the insurance contracts. Tower has determined that it will not discount insurance 
assets and liabilities for remaining coverage unless the time between the provision of the services and the premiums received will be more than one year. 
Insurance assets and liabilities for incurred claims will be discounted to reflect the time value of money. The methodology for deriving the discount rate is 
currently being finalised, with Tower expecting to apply the bottom-up approach, whereby a risk-free yield curve is adjusted through the addition of an 
illiquidity premium.

IFRS 17 allows a choice between expensing acquisition costs related to the fulfilment cash flows immediately, or deferring them. Tower expects to defer 
acquisition costs and amortise them over the coverage period of the related insurance contracts.

IFRS 17 requires a risk adjustment for non-financial risk to be applied to reflect the compensation an entity requires for bearing uncertainty about the 
amount and timing of cash flows. This differs from the risk margin used under IFRS 4, which reflects the inherent uncertainty in the central estimate of 
future claims cash flows. Tower is developing its framework for determining the risk adjustment and expects to use a confidence level approach. 

      
112

NOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

INDEPENDENT AUDITORS REPORT

113

8.8 Impact of new accounting standards and changes in interpretation of current accounting standards (continued)

IFRS 17 also introduces significant changes to the presentation of insurance contracts. Assets and liabilities related to portfolios of insurance contracts 
and reinsurance contracts will be shown separately on the balance sheet, replacing current insurance related line such as premium receivables, deferred 
insurance costs and unearned premiums. In the consolidated statement of comprehensive income Tower will present income and expenses related to 
insurance contracts gross of reinsurance, which will be disclosed separately.

Tower has a programme to assess the impact of adopting NZ IFRS 17 and to project manage the transition to the new standard including system 
development. Tower has completed a proposed accounting policy framework under NZ IFRS 17, subject to approval by the Board, and systems 
development work is in the implementation phase.

IFRS 17 is not expected the change the underlying economics or cash flows of Tower’s business, although it may impact how profit emerges on a 
year-to-year basis, and it will change the presentation in the financial statements. Due to the complexity of the requirements within the standard and with 
global interpretations continuing to change, some material judgements and accounting policy choices are still under consideration by Tower, and 
therefore a full assessment of the financial impact of IFRS 17 has not yet been completed.

Independent auditor’s report  
To the shareholders of Tower Limited 

Our opinion  
In our opinion, the accompanying consolidated financial statements of Tower Limited (the Company), 
including its subsidiaries (the Group), present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the 
Group as at 30 September 2022, its financial performance and its cash flows for the year then ended 
in accordance with New Zealand Equivalents to International Financial Reporting Standards (NZ IFRS) 
and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).  

What we have audited 
The Group's consolidated financial statements comprise: 

● 
● 
● 
● 
● 

the consolidated balance sheet as at 30 September 2022; 

the consolidated statement of comprehensive income for the year then ended; 

the consolidated statement of changes in equity for the year then ended; 

the consolidated statement of cash flows for the year then ended; and 

the notes to the consolidated financial statements, which include significant accounting policies 
and other explanatory information. 

 Basis for opinion  
We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (New Zealand) (ISAs 
(NZ)) and International Standards on Auditing (ISAs). Our responsibilities under those standards are 
further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the consolidated financial statements 
section of our report.  

We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis 
for our opinion.  

Independence 
We are independent of the Group in accordance with Professional and Ethical Standard 1 International 
Code of Ethics for Assurance Practitioners (including International Independence Standards) (New 
Zealand) (PES 1) issued by the New Zealand Auditing and Assurance Standards Board and the 
International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (including International Independence 
Standards) issued by the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA Code), and we 
have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements.  

Our firm carries out other assurance services for the Group over solvency and regulatory insurance 
returns. In addition, certain partners and employees of our firm may deal with the Group on normal 
terms within the ordinary course of trading activities of the Group. The provision of these other 
services and relationships have not impaired our independence as auditor of the Group. 

Key audit matters  
Key audit matters are those matters that, in our professional judgement, were of most significance in 
our audit of the consolidated financial statements of the current year. These matters were addressed 
in the context of our audit of the consolidated financial statements as a whole, and in forming our 
opinion thereon, and we do not provide a separate opinion on these matters. 

PricewaterhouseCoopers, PwC Tower, 15 Customs Street West, Private Bag 92162, Auckland 1142 New Zealand 
T: +64 9 355 8000, www.pwc.co.nz 

 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
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INDEPENDENT AUDITORS REPORT

INDEPENDENT AUDITORS REPORT

115

Description of the key audit matter 

How our audit addressed the key audit matter 

Description of the key audit matter 

How our audit addressed the key audit matter 

The outstanding claims liability includes a 
risk margin that allows for the inherent 
uncertainty in the central estimate of future 
claim cash outflows. In determining the risk 
margin, the Group makes judgements 
about the volatility of each class of 
business written and the correlation 
between different geographical locations. 
Refer to note 2.4 to the consolidated 
financial statements. 

(2) Recoverability of the deferred tax 
asset arising from tax losses 
(2022: $23,716,000, 2021: $24,116,000) 
The majority of the Group’s deferred tax 
asset arises from tax losses. We 
considered recoverability of the deferred 
tax asset a key audit matter because 
utilisation of the asset is sensitive to the 
Group’s expected future profitability and 
sufficient continuity of the ultimate 
shareholders or business continuity. 
Management judgement is involved in 
forecasting the timing and quantum of 
future taxable profits, which are inherently 
uncertain, and whether it is probable the 
tax losses will be utilised in the foreseeable 
future. 
Refer to note 7.3 to the consolidated 
financial statements. 

 In considering the recoverability of the deferred tax 
asset arising from tax losses we performed the 
following procedures: 
●  compared the previous management budget with 

actual results to assess the reliability of 
management’s forecasting; 

●  considered the reasonableness of the 

assumptions in the year ending 30 September 
2023 operational plan on the forecast utilisation 
of tax losses; 

●  assessed the Group’s ability to maintain 

sufficient continuity of the ultimate shareholders 
or to meet the business continuity test and 
therefore its entitlement to offset the tax losses 
against future taxable profits; and 

●  determined whether it was probable (more likely 
than not) that the tax losses would be utilised in 
the foreseeable future. 

(1) Valuation of outstanding claims 
(2022: $124,531,000, 2021: $122,338,000) 
We considered the valuation of outstanding 
claims a key audit matter as it involves an 
estimation process combined with 
significant judgements and assumptions, 
made by management, to estimate future 
cash outflows to settle claims. 
The outstanding claims liability includes a 
central estimate of the future cash outflows 
relating to claims incurred, as at and prior 
to the reporting date, and the expected 
costs of handling those claims. There is 
uncertainty over the amount that reported 
claims and claims incurred at the reporting 
date but not yet reported to the Group will 
ultimately be settled at. The estimation 
process relies on the quality of underlying 
claims data and the use of informed 
estimates to determine the quantum of the 
ultimate loss. 
Key actuarial assumptions applied in the 
valuation of outstanding claims (excluding 
Canterbury earthquakes) include: 
●  expected future claims development 

proportion; and 

●  claims handling expense ratios. 
Outstanding claims in relation to the 
Canterbury earthquakes have a greater 
degree of uncertainty and judgement. This 
mainly arises due to the uncertainty as to 
further deterioration of open known claims, 
the Earthquake Commission (EQC) 
reporting of new claims to the Group which 
have gone over the $100,000 statutory 
liability cap (over cap claims), new litigation 
claims, reopening of closed claims, 
expected claims costs for open claims and 
estimates of future claims management 
expenses. 
Changes in assumptions can lead to 
significant movements in the outstanding 
claims liability. 

 Claims data is a key input to the actuarial estimates. 
Accordingly, we: 
●  evaluated the design effectiveness and tested 

controls over claims processing; 

●  assessed a sample of claim case estimates at 

the year end to check that they were supported 
by an appropriate management assessment and 
documentation; 

●  assessed, on a sample basis, the accuracy of 

previous claim case estimates by comparing to 
the actual amount settled during the year and 
analysed any escalation in the claim case 
estimate to determine whether such escalation 
was based on new information available during 
the year; 
inspected a sample of claims paid during the 
year to confirm that they are supported by 
appropriate documentation and approved within 
delegated authority limits; and 
tested the integrity of data used in the actuarial 
models by agreeing relevant model inputs, such 
as claims data, to source, on a sample basis. 

● 

● 

Together with our actuarial experts, we: 
●  considered the work and findings of the actuaries 

engaged by Tower; 

●  evaluated the actuarial models and 

methodologies used, and any changes to them, 
by comparing with generally accepted models 
and methodologies applied in the sector; 
●  assessed key actuarial judgements and 

● 

assumptions and challenged them by comparing 
with our expectations based on Tower’s 
experience, our own sector knowledge and 
independently observable industry trends (where 
applicable); 
tested on a sample basis, the underlying 
calculations in certain valuation models; and 
●  assessed the risk margin by comparing to known 
industry practice. In particular we focused on the 
assessed level of uncertainty in the central 
estimate and the inherent uncertainty in the 
remaining Canterbury earthquake claims and 
consistency of the risk margin with prior periods. 

PwC 

57 

PwC 

56 

 
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
116

INDEPENDENT AUDITORS REPORT

INDEPENDENT AUDITORS REPORT

117

Our audit approach 
 Overview 

Overall group materiality: $4.5 million, which represents 
approximately 1% of gross written premium from continuing and 
discontinued operations. 
We chose gross written premium as the benchmark because, in our 
view, it is the benchmark against which the performance of the 
Group is most commonly measured by users, and is a generally 
accepted benchmark for insurance companies. 

A full scope audit was performed for the Company based on its 
financial significance to the Group. Specified audit procedures were 
performed on financial statement line items of certain subsidiaries 
and analytical review procedures were performed on remaining 
Group entities. 

As reported above, we have two key audit matters, being: 

●  Valuation of outstanding claims 
●  Recoverability of the deferred tax asset arising from tax losses 

 As part of designing our audit, we determined materiality and assessed the risks of material 
misstatement in the consolidated financial statements. In particular, we considered where 
management made subjective judgements; for example, in respect of significant accounting estimates 
that involved making assumptions and considering future events that are inherently uncertain. As in all 
of our audits, we also addressed the risk of management override of internal controls, including among 
other matters, consideration of whether there was evidence of bias that represented a risk of material 
misstatement due to fraud. 

Materiality 
The scope of our audit was influenced by our application of materiality. An audit is designed to obtain 
reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free from material 
misstatement. Misstatements may arise due to fraud or error. They are considered material if, 
individually or in aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of 
users taken on the basis of the consolidated financial statements.  

Based on our professional judgement, we determined certain quantitative thresholds for materiality, 
including the overall Group materiality for the consolidated financial statements as a whole as set out 
above. These, together with qualitative considerations, helped us to determine the scope of our audit, 
the nature, timing and extent of our audit procedures and to evaluate the effect of misstatements, both 
individually and in aggregate, on the consolidated financial statements as a whole. 

How we tailored our group audit scope 
We tailored the scope of our audit in order to perform sufficient work to enable us to provide an opinion 
on the consolidated financial statements as a whole, taking into account the structure of the Group, the 
accounting processes and controls, the industry and countries in which the Group operates. 

Other information  
The Directors are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the 
information included in the Annual Report, but does not include the consolidated financial statements 
and our auditor's report thereon. The Annual Report is expected to be made available to us after the 
date of this auditor's report.  

Our opinion on the consolidated financial statements does not cover the other information and we will 
not express any form of audit opinion or assurance conclusion thereon.  

In connection with our audit of the consolidated financial statements, our responsibility is to read the 
other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent 
with the consolidated financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit, or otherwise 
appears to be materially misstated.  

When we read the other information not yet received, if we conclude that there is a material 
misstatement therein, we are required to communicate the matter to the Directors and use our 
professional judgement to determine the appropriate action to take. 

Responsibilities of the Directors for the consolidated financial statements 
The Directors are responsible, on behalf of the Company, for the preparation and fair presentation of 
the consolidated financial statements in accordance with NZ IFRS and IFRS, and for such internal 
control as the Directors determine is necessary to enable the preparation of consolidated financial 
statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.  

In preparing the consolidated financial statements, the Directors are responsible for assessing the 
Group’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going 
concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the Directors either intend to liquidate 
the Group or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.  

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the consolidated financial statements 
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial 
statements, as a whole, are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to 
issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, 
but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (NZ) and ISAs will always 
detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are 
considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence 
the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these consolidated financial statements.  

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the consolidated financial statements is 
located at the External Reporting Board’s website at: 

https://www.xrb.govt.nz/assurance-standards/auditors-responsibilities/audit-report-1/ 

This description forms part of our auditor’s report. 

Who we report to 
This report is made solely to the Company’s shareholders, as a body. Our audit work has been 
undertaken so that we might state those matters which we are required to state to them in an auditor’s 
report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume 
responsibility to anyone other than the Company and the Company’s shareholders, as a body, for our 
audit work, for this report or for the opinions we have formed. 

The engagement partner on the audit resulting in this independent auditor’s report is Karen Shires.  

For and on behalf of:  

Chartered Accountants   
23 November 2022 

     Auckland 

PwC 

58 

PwC 

59 

 
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
118

APPOINTED ACTUARY'S REPORT

APPOINTED ACTUARY'S REPORT

119

APPOINTED  
ACTUARY'S REPORT

120

APPOINTED ACTUARY'S REPORT

APPOINTED ACTUARY'S REPORT

121

23 November 2022 

The Directors 
Tower Limited 
136 Fanshawe Street 
Auckland 1010 

Dear Directors 

Review of Actuarial Information contained in the financial statements 

As required by Section 78 of IPSA the Appointed Actuary, Geoff Atkins of Finity Consulting, has reviewed the 
actuarial information contained in, or used in the preparation of, the financial statements at 30 September 
2022.  Geoff Atkins and Finity have no relationship with or interest in Tower other than being a provider of 
actuarial services. 

I prepared the actuarial valuation of liabilities remaining from the Canterbury Earthquakes and reviewed the 
actuarial valuations of insurance liabilities for the New Zealand business and the Pacific Islands businesses.  I 
reviewed the other actuarial information as specified by IPSA in Section 77, including the solvency calculations 
for the financial statements.   

No limitations were placed on me in performing the review and all data and information requested was 
provided. 

Nothing has come to my attention that would lead me to believe that any of the actuarial information 
contained in, or used in the preparation of, the financial statements is not appropriate. 

In my opinion the company has maintained a solvency margin in excess of the minimum required as at 30 
September 2022. 

The report is being provided for the sole use of Tower for the purpose state above.  It is not intended, nor 
necessarily suitable, for any other purpose and should only be relied on for the purpose for which it is intended. 

Yours sincerely   

Geoff Atkins (Appointed Actuary) 
Fellows of the New Zealand Society of Actuaries  

Anagha Pasche 
Fellows of the New Zealand Society of Actuaries 

 
 
 
 
 
122

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AT TOWER

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AT TOWER

123

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE 
AT TOWER

124

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AT TOWER

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AT TOWER

125

This section of the Annual Report provides an overview of the corporate 
governance principles, policies and processes adopted and followed by 
Tower’s Board during the year ending 30 September 2022 (FY22)

The Board is committed to achieving the highest 
standards of corporate governance, ethical behaviour, 
and accountability. When there are developments in 
corporate governance practices, the Board reviews 
these against Tower’s practices and updates Tower’s 
practices where appropriate, including seeking external 
advice to encourage an environment of continuous 
improvement in Board performance.

For the reporting period to 30 September 2022, the 
Board considers that Tower’s corporate governance 
practices have materially adhered to the NZX Corporate 
Governance Code (NZX Code). Further information about 
the extent to which Tower has complied with each of 
the NZX Code recommendations is set out in Tower’s 
corporate governance statement, available on Tower’s 
website at tower.co.nz/investor-centre.

The following policies and company documentation are 
available on Tower’s website (https://www.tower.co.nz/
investor-centre/corporate-governance/policies):

STATUTORY DISCLOSURES

DIVERSITY 

Gender Diversity

The below table provides a quantitative breakdown 
as to the gender composition of Tower’s Directors 
and Officers, and other employee groups as at 30 
September 2022, compared to 30 September 2021, 
including subsidiaries. The Executive Leadership 
team includes the Chief Executive Officer and those 
employees who report directly to the Chief Executive 
Officer. The Senior Leadership Team refers  
to employees in remuneration band 8 and above.   
Total Company figures exclude the Board of Directors, 
and include permanent and fixed term employees,  
and the employees of Tower’s Pacific Island subsidiaries.

GROUP

% GROUP

NUMBER

% GROUP

NUMBER

30 SEPTEMBER 2022

30 SEPTEMBER 2021

•  Tower Limited Constitution 
•  Corporate Governance Statement
•  Board Charter 
•  Board Protocols 
•  Audit Committee Terms of Reference
•  Risk Committee Terms of Reference
•  Remuneration & Appointments Committee  

Terms of Reference 

•  Director and Executive Remuneration Policy 
•  Insider Trading and Market Manipulation Policy 
•  Corporate Disclosure Policy 
•  External Audit Independence Policy
•  Health and Safety Policy 
•  Code of Conduct Policy 
•  Diversity and Inclusion Policy 

Board of Directors

Males

Females

Gender Diverse

Executive Leadership team 

Males

Females

Gender Diverse

Senior Leadership team 

Males

Females

Employees

Males

Females

Total company 

Males

Females

Total employees

80%

20%

0%

88%

12%

0%

63%

37%

38%

62%

39%

61%

83%

17%

0%

67%

33%

0%

42%

58%

40%

60%

40%

60%

4

1

0

7

1

0

27

16

268

446

302

463

765

5

1

0

6

3

0

11

15

293

447

310

465

775

126

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AT TOWER

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AT TOWER

127

Evaluation from the Board on Tower’s 
performance with respect to diversity  
and inclusion

Tower has a diversity and inclusion policy, focussing on  
 the following categories:

•  Gender diversity
•  Age and career progression
•  Ethnicity and Pacific and Māori inclusion 
•  LGBTIQ+ identification and inclusion
•  Accessibility 

The Board considers there has been continued progress 
on initiatives focused around the pillars of gender, culture, 
sexuality, age and accessibility in FY22.  

Tower’s bi-annual engagement survey is a key way of 
measuring progress diversity and inclusion activities.  
In the most recent survey, Tower’s diversity and inclusion 
score increased by 0.1 over FY22. This places Tower in 
the top 25% of the finance industry (and is higher than 
our overall engagement score of 7.8), which the Board 
considers demonstrative of the progress that we have 
made over the last 12 months. 

Diversity and Inclusion score

 8.8

0 

0.5 above Finance benchmark

In the top 25% of Finance

Gender

Representation

10

Tower’s overall female representation remains consistent 
year-over-year at 60% female / 40% male. In FY22 Tower 
captured data in respect of other gender identities for the 
first time. 

0% 

20% 

40% 

60% 

80% 

100%

  Female 59.92%       

  Male 39.10%       

  Other gender identity 0.98%

Gender pay gap

Tower has calculated its gender pay gap for New 
Zealand team members. When comparing like-for-like 
roles for women and men at Tower in New Zealand, 
Tower’s pay equity gap is 0.1%. Comparing our senior 
leadership population and the average pay gap between 
men and women, our leadership pay gap is 2.2% (men 
are paid 2.2% more than women).  

The overall gender gap is 25.9%. For the most part, this is 
because we have a larger proportion of women in some 
our New Zealand frontline roles, and a larger proportion 
of men in senior roles. 

Tower is proud to have contributed to MindtheGap NZ 
Public Pay Gap registry, and shares its gender pay gap 
information on its external careers page to increase 
visibility and accountability. Tower intends to extend its 
pay gap reporting to include Māori and Pacific data.  

Inclusion

In 2022, Tower was re-accredited by the Rainbow Tick, 
reflecting Tower's commitment to valuing people in 
the workplace, and embracing the diversity of sexual 
and gender identities. The number of Tower employees 
identifying as part of the Rainbow community fell from 
93 to 81 (12.7% to 9.7%).  There was also an increase in 
the percentage of individuals either leaving the question 
blank or choosing not to disclose from 77 to 167 (12.9% 
to 19.9%). Alongside the collection of data to understand 
gender identities, Tower has developed guidelines to 
support Tower individuals who are transitioning.

Tower also maintained domestic violence abuse charity 
Shine’s DVFree Tick for creating a domestic violence-
free workplace. This reflects Tower's commitment 
to ensuring our people feel safe and have the 
appropriate channels to raise any domestic violence 
they may experience with a group of trained Tower First 
Responders. 

Throughout FY22, Tower has sponsored and celebrated 
a number of events celebrating diversity including a 
company-wide zoom chat with Black Fern Ruby Tui, 
Fijian and Samoan language weeks, and Diwali, together 
with a celebration of Te Reo Māori during Te Wiki o te 
Reo Māori 2022.

CURRENT ETHNICITY BREAKDOWN

BAND-7

8

9

10

EXEC

TOTAL

HIRES

TOTAL

NET

FY22 HIRES

African

Asian

Chinese

Fijian

Fijian Indian

Filipino

Indian

Māori

Samoan

Sri Lankan Tamil

Afrikaner

Australian

British

Danish

English

European

German

Irish

n
a
e
p
o
r
u
E
-
n
o
N

n
a
e
p
o
r
u
E

New Zealand European

South African European

Prefer not to disclose/did not disclose

Total

Ethnicity 

Representation

–

3

2

2

–

3

4

2

–

1

–

–

1

–

1

3

1

1

24

2

5

55

1

–

–

–

–

–

3

1

1

–

1

–

–

1

1

1

–

1

10

–

–

21

–

–

1

1

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

2

–

–

–

–

–

6

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

1

–

–

3

–

–

6

–

–

10

10

–

–

–

–

1

–

–

–

–

–

–

1

–

–

2

2

–

–

2

–

–

8

–

–

1

1

–

1

1

–

–

–

–

1

1

–

1

1

1

1

11

1

3

25

26

73

5

104

4

18

-14

3

3

In FY22, Tower broadened the range of ethnicities its 
employees can identify as. This has enabled Tower to 
identify that 53% of its workforce is made up of diverse, 
non-European ethnicities, with 42% of the workforce 
being made up of European ethnicities, and 5% of the 
workforce preferring not to disclose. 

Achieving representation of diverse ethnicities at 
leadership levels has proven challenging in a very 
competitive labour and hiring market where immigration 
into New Zealand has only recovered to around 1/3 of 
pre-pandemic levels. A breakdown of the ethnicity of 
Tower's senior staff is set out in the table above.

Tower Talent Programmes

In FY22, two targeted talent development programmes 
were introduced with a view to identify, retain and 
accelerate the development of diverse talent.

The Talent & Culture Group (TCG) is made up of 12 senior 
leaders identified from Tower’s executive team from a 
pool of high-potential talent and potential successors.  
The Emerging Talent Programme (ETP) pilot was 
launched in late FY22 targeting diverse talent at all levels 
at Tower.

The TCG was launched in January 2022, and the 
group has played a significant role in defining and 
implementing key initiatives across Tower related to 
talent and culture. Achievements include the definition of 
Tower’s new Purpose and Values, and embedding those 
values into the performance framework.

In September 2022 Tower commenced a pilot for 
an Emerging Talent Programme comprising 13 staff 
from Claims, Partnerships, Sales & Service and 
Technology divisions. Participants come from a range of 
backgrounds, genders and ethnicities. 

The purpose of the programme is to:  

•  develop emerging talent at Tower, providing growth 

opportunities for a diverse pipeline of talented people 
in the business 

•  give participants a chance to broaden their horizons at 
Tower, get exposure, learn skills and build relationships 
outside of the areas they normally work 

•  over time increase diversity across all levels at Tower  

As part of the programme, participants will have access 
to learning experiences including team activities, focus 
groups, guest speakers, mentoring sessions, action 
learning projects and opportunities to build networks. 

128

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AT TOWER

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AT TOWER

129

BOARD COMMITTEES
During FY22 the Board comprised the following 
members:

Micheal Stiassny (Chair), Graham Stuart, Steve Smith  
(until 2 February 2022), Warren Lee, Wendy Thorpe, 
Marcus Nagel.

The Board has determined, based on information 
provided by directors regarding their interests, and 
the criteria for independence contained in the Board 
and Director Protocols, that as at 30 September 2022, 
Mr Stiassny, Mr Stuart, Mr Lee and Ms Thorpe were 
independent. The Board determined that Mr Nagel 
was not independent due to his relationship with 
Tower’s largest shareholder. The criteria for assessing 
independence contained in the Board and Director 
protocols is benchmarked against the RBNZ and NZX 
independence requirements.

During FY22 the Board had the following committees:

Audit Committee

Members: Graham Stuart (Chair), Michael Stiassny, Steve 
Smith (retired 2 February 2022), Warren Lee (retired 30 
November), Wendy Thorpe, Marcus Nagel.

Risk Committee

Members: Warren Lee (Chair) until 31 August 2022 
(retired 30 November 2022), Wendy Thorpe (Chair) from 
1 September 2022, Michael Stiassny, Graham Stuart, 
Steve Smith (retired 2 February 2022), Marcus Nagel.

Remuneration and Appointments Committee

Members: Michael Stiassny (Chair), Graham Stuart, Steve 
Smith (retired 2 February 2022), Warren Lee (retired 30 
November 2022), Wendy Thorpe, Marcus Nagel.

Other committees

Tower’s Board may establish sub-committees from time 
to time. In 2022, a Results Sub-Committee was convened 
on two occasions.

Board and Committee meeting attendance

The following numbers of Board and Committee 
meetings were held during the year from 1 October 2021 
to 30 September 2022:

•  Board meetings – 12
•  Audit Committee meetings – 3
•  Risk Committee meetings – 4
•  Remuneration and Appointments Committee – 6
•  Results Sub-Committee – 2

All executive members have a standing invitation to 
attend all Board meetings, although they do not always 
attend the entire meeting. 

The Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief 
Risk Officer, General Counsel & Company Secretary 
attend all Audit Committee and Risk Committee 
meetings by standing invitation. 

The Chief Executive Officer, Chief People Officer 
and General Counsel & Company Secretary attend 
all meetings of the Remuneration and Appointment 
Committee by standing invitation.

All Board, Audit, Risk and Remuneration and 
Appointment Committee meetings are attended by 
the General Counsel & Company Secretary who is 
responsible for taking accurate minutes of each meeting 
and ensuring that Board procedures are observed. 

Director attendance at Board and Committee meetings held in the year to 30 September 2022 is set out below:

BOARD

AUDIT COMMITTEE

RISK COMMITTEE

REMUNERATION 
AND APPOINTMENTS 
COMMITTEE

RESULTS  

SUB-COMMITTEE

Meetings held 

Michael Stiassny 

Steve Smith (retired 2 February 2022)

Graham Stuart

Warren Lee

Wendy Thorpe

Marcus Nagel

12

11

6

12

12

12

11

3

2

1

3

3

3

3

4

3

2

4

4

4

4

6

6

3

6

6

6

4

2

2

1

2

–

–

–

Remuneration

Director Remuneration 

REMUNERATION AND BENEFITS RECEIVED BY TOWER  
SUBSIDIARY DIRECTORS 

IN THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

The Board’s approach is to remunerate directors at a 
similar level to comparable Australasian companies, 
with a small premium to reflect the complexity of the 
insurance and financial services sector. At the Annual 
Shareholders’ Meeting in February 2004 shareholders 
approved a maximum payment of NZ$900,000 per 
annum for director fees.  

Tower seeks external advice when reviewing Board 
remuneration. The Remuneration and Appointments 
Committee is responsible for assisting directors with the 
review of directors’ fees. Remuneration is considered 
through the lens of the Director and Executive 
Remuneration Policy to ensure that directors and 
executives are remunerated in a fair and reasonable 
manner, and that such remuneration is transparently 
communicated to relevant stakeholders.

Non-executive directors are also paid additional fees for 
sitting on certain Board Committees.

Annual fees as approved by the Board with effect from  
1 October 2020 are:

TOWER LIMITED  
BOARD/COMMITTEE FEES

CHAIR (NZ$) MEMBER (NZ$)

Base fee – Board of directors

 180,000

 100,000

Audit Committee

Risk Committee

 10,000 (included in base 
Director fee)

10,000 (included in base 
Director fee)

Remuneration and Appointments Committee

–

–

The total of the remuneration received by each for the 
year ended 30 September 2022 are set out below (NZ$, 
and exclusive of GST, if any):

REMUNERATION AND BENEFITS  

RECEIVED BY TOWER LIMITED DIRECTORS IN THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022  

Michael Stiassny

Graham Stuart

Steve Smith

Warren Lee (Chair of Risk Committee until 1 September 2022)

Wendy Thorpe (Chair of Risk Committee commencing 1 September 2022)

Marcus Nagel

180,000  

110,000 

38,333

109,166 

100,833

100,000

Rodney Reid, Director, National Pacific 
Insurance Limited (retired 3 October 
2021)

Heseti Vaai, Director, National Pacific 
Insurance Limited (retired 1 December 
2021)

Isikeli Tikoduadua, Director Tower 
Insurance (Fiji) Limited and, National 
Insurance Company (Holdings) Pte 
Limited

Barry Whiteside, Director Tower 
Insurance (Fiji) Limited

Ernie Gangloff, Director Tower 
Insurance (PNG) Limited (retired 28 
October 2022)

1625 Samoan Tala

1625 Samoan Tala

18,000 Fijian Dollars 

20,000 Fijian Dollars 

50,000 Kina

Directors of Tower Limited and its subsidiaries are 
reimbursed for out of pocket expenses incurred in the 
course of their activities as directors, including travel and 
other expenses. As these expenses are not in the nature of 
remuneration or benefits, they are not listed here.

No employee of Tower Limited or its subsidiaries who acts 
as a director of a subsidiary receives any remuneration 
for their role as a director of that subsidiary. The number 
of employees who receive remuneration of more than 
$100,000 is included in the remuneration table on 
page 132. Auditor fees paid on behalf of Tower and its 
subsidiaries are disclosed in the financial statements

CEO and senior executive remuneration

The Board’s approach to remunerating the Chief Executive 
Officer and other key executives is to provide market-
based remuneration packages comprising a blend of 
fixed and variable remuneration, with clear links between 
individual and company performance, and reward. This 
approach is intended to encourage Tower’s executives 
to meet Tower’s short and long-term objectives. The 
Remuneration and Appointments Committee reviews the 
remuneration packages of the Chief Executive Officer 
and the Chief Executive Officer’s direct reports at least 
annually. 

The Chief Executive Officer, Mr Blair Turnbull, is 
remunerated through a combination of a base salary 
of $650,000, (inclusive of a Kiwisaver contribution) 
and variable performance incentives including a Short 
Term Incentive (STI) and a Long Term Incentive (LTI). 
The maximum STI is currently $325,000 per annum 
based on meeting key financial and non-financial and 
operational performance measures. The maximum LTI per 
annum is currently $975,000 (total) should Tower deliver 
Total Shareholder Return performance relative to the 
performance of companies within the NZX50 index.

In FY22, Mr Turnbull was eligible for an STI payment of 
$181,675, and an LTI payment of $650,000.

130

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AT TOWER

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AT TOWER

131

Employee remuneration

FROM

TO

2021

2022

The table below sets out the number of employees or 
former employees of Tower (excluding directors and 
former directors and employees of Tower’s subsidiaries) 
who received remuneration and other benefits valued 
at or exceeding $100,000 for the years ended 30 
September 2022 and 2021. Remuneration includes 
base salary, performance payments and redundancy or 
other termination payments. The 2022 figures include 
company contributions of 3% of gross earnings for those 
individuals who are members of a KiwiSaver scheme. 
These contributions are not included in the 2021 figures. 
The remuneration bands are expressed in New Zealand 
Dollars.

100,000

109,999

110,000

119,999

120,000

129,999

130,000

139,999

140,000

149,999

150,000

159,999

160,000

169,999

170,000

179,999

180,000

189,999

190,000

199,999

200,000

209,999

210,000

219,999

220,000

229,999

230,000

239,999

240,000

249,999

250,000

259,999

260,000

269,999

270,000

279,999

280,000

289,999

300,000

309,999

310,000

319,999

320,000

329,999

330,000

339,999

340,000

349,999

350,000

359,999

380,000

389,999

400,000

409,999

440,000

449,999

450,000

459,999

470,000

479,999

490,000

499,999

530,000

539,999

560,000

569,999

610,000

619,999

650,000

659,999

23

19

16

8

7

8

5

2

1

2

1

1

3

2

0

2

2

0

3

0

0

1

1

2

1

0

0

0

1

0

0

1

1

1

0

32

22

29

25

18

16

15

3

10

8

8

0

3

1

1

0

2

1

3

2

2

1

0

0

0

1

1

1

0

1

1

0

0

0

1

Total

115

209

SECURITY HOLDER INFORMATION

Substantial product holders  
(as at 30 September 2022) 

The names and holdings of Tower’s substantial product 
holders based on notices filed with Tower under the 
Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 as at 30 September 
2022 are:

NAME

TOTAL ORDINARY 
SHARES 

14

15

16

17

18

19

Bain Capital Credit LP, Bain Capital Investments 
(Europe) Limited and Dent Issuer Designated Activity 
Company

Salt Funds Management Limited

Accident Compensation Corporation

Investment Services Group Limited

New Zealand Funds Management Limited on behalf 
of itself and its wholly owned subsidiary New Zealand 
Funds Superannuation Limited

67,464,858

29,607,771

36,239,113

20,589,363

26,615,216

These totals may differ from the shareholdings described 
in other sections on this report.

Largest shareholders  
(as at 15 November 2022)

The names and holdings of the 20 largest registered 
Tower shareholders as at 15 November 2022 were:

NAME

TOTAL 
ORDINARY 

SHARES %UNITS

Investment Custodial Services Limited  


3,512,373

0.93

TEA Custodian Limited Client Property 
Trust Account – NZCSD 

3,027,220

0.80

HSBC Nominees A/C NZ Superannuation 
Fund Nominees Limited – NZCSD 


2,971,425

0.78

Rural Equities Limited

2,025,000

0.53

New Zealand Depository Nominee 
Limited 

Hobson Wealth Custodian Limited 


20

Forsyth Barr Custodians Limited 
<1-CUSTODY>

1,956,528

0.52

1,945,628

0.51

1,779,617

0.47

Totals: Top 20 holders of ORDINARY SHARES (Total)

267,501,618

70.49

Securities held by Directors

At 30 September 2022, directors, or entities related to 
them held relevant interests (as defined in the Financial 
Markets Conduct Act 2013) in Tower Limited shares as 
follows:

ORDINARY SHARES

DIRECTOR 

Michael Stiassny

Graham Stuart

Wendy Thorpe

Warren Lee

Marcus Nagel

BENEFICIAL

624,897 

202,500 

14,625 

108,450  

56 

Dent Issuer Designated Activity Company

75,896,447

20.00

Accident Compensation Corporation – 
NZCSD 

36,318,045

9.57

Citibank Nominees (New Zealand) 
Limited – NZCSD 

31,063,105

8.19

National Nominees Limited – NZCSD 


16,060,989

4.23

Director trading in Tower securities

In FY22, all directors had shares cancelled as part of 
a compulsory share buyback. There were no other 
acquisitions or disposals of Tower shares by its directors.

NUMBER OF SHARES  

CANCELLED ON 9 MARCH 2022

CONSIDERATION ($NZ) 
($NZ0.72 PER SHARE)

Lennon Holdings Limited

15,800,000

4.16

Michael Stiassny

HSBC Nominees (New Zealand) Limited 
– NZCSD 

14,499,664

3.82

BNP Paribas Nominees (NZ) Limited – 
NZCSD 

13,959,307

3.68

Masfen Securities Limited 

11,430,000

3.01

Graham Stuart

Wendy Thorpe

Warren Lee

Marcus Nagel

JBWere (NZ) Nominees Limited  


11,090,058

2.92

Shareholder analysis

69,433

22,500

1,625

12,050

6

49,991.76

16,200

1,170

8,676

4.32

HSBC Nominees (New Zealand) Limited 
A/C State Street – NZCSD 

7,762,443

2.05

Public Trust – NZCSD 

JP Morgan Chase Bank NA NZ Branch 
– Segregated Clients Acct – NZCSD 


BNP Paribas Nominees (NZ) Limited – 
NZCSD

6,125,000

1.61

6,116,713

1.61

4,162,056

1.10

Tower’s shares are quoted on both the NZSX and ASX. 
As at 30 September 2022, 16,301 Tower shareholders 
held less than A$500 of Tower shares (i.e., less than a 
marketable parcel as defined in the ASX Listing Rules), 
amounting to a total of 6,249,528 of the Tower shares  
on issue. 

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

12

11

13

132

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AT TOWER

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AT TOWER

133

In comparison, a ‘minimum holding’ under the NZX 
Listing Rules means a holding of shares having a value 
of at least NZ$1,000. As at 16 November 2022, 19,861 
Tower shareholders held less than NZ$1,000 of Tower 
Shares (being, a parcel size of 1,667 at $0.60 per share), 
amounting to a total of 10,187,831 of the Tower shares on 
issue.

Total voting securities 

HOLDING RANGE 

ORDINARY SHARES

NUMBER OF HOLDERS

379,483,987

24,116

15 November 2022

16 November 2022 
(prior to compulsory 
buyback completed 
March 2022)

transactions and matters involving the directors must 
be recorded. The interests register for Tower Limited 
is available for inspection on request by shareholders. 
Tower’s constitution provides that an ‘interested’ director 
may not vote on a matter in which he or she is interested 
unless the director is required to sign a certificate in 
relation to that vote pursuant to the Companies Act 1993, 
or the matter relates to a grant of an indemnity pursuant 
to section 162 of the Companies Act 1993.

During the year to 30 September 2022, pursuant to 
section 140 of the Companies Act 1993 Tower’s directors 
disclosed new interests and cessations of interest as 
noted in the table below. Disclosures made since 30 
September 2022 are also noted.

421,647,258

24,577

Warren Lee

Tower’s ordinary shares each carry a right to vote on any 
resolution on a poll at a meeting of shareholders. Holders 
of ordinary shares may vote at a meeting in person, or by 
proxy, representative or attorney.

The address and telephone number of the office at which 
the register of Tower securities is kept is set out in the 
directory at the back of this Annual Report.

Spread of Shareholders   
(as at 15 November 2022)

HOLDING RANGE 

HOLDER 
COUNT 

HOLDER 
COUNT %

HOLDING 
QUANTITY 
(ORDINARY 
SHARES)

HOLDING 
QUANTITY % 

1 – 1,000

1,001 – 5,000

5,001 – 10,000

10,001 – 100,000

100,001 and over

17,747

4280

711

1124

221

73.65

17.79

2.96

4.67

7,002,966

8,839,842

5,029,859

34,171,798

.12

324,442,522

Total

24, 137

100

379,483,987

1.84

2.32

1.33

8.91

85.63

100

Indemnity and insurance 

In accordance with section 162 of the Companies Act 
1993 and Tower's constitution, Tower has provided 
insurance for and indemnities to, directors and 
employees of Tower for losses from actions undertaken 
in the course of their duties. The insurance includes 
indemnity costs and expenses incurred to defend an 
action that falls outside the scope of the indemnity. 
Particulars have been entered in the Interests Register 
pursuant to section 162 of the Companies Act 1993

Interests register

Tower and its subsidiaries are required to maintain an 
interests register in which the particulars of certain 

MyState Limited

MyState Bank Limited

TPT Wealth Limited

Avenue Hold Limited (ceased 4 July 2022)
Avenue Bank Limited (ceased 4 July 2022)
MetLife Insurance Limited

MetLife General Insurance Limited

Warakirri Asset Management Limited

Warakirri Holdings Pty Limited

Flinders Investment Partners Pty Limited

Michael Stiassny

Bengadol Corporation Limited

Emerald Group Limited

Gadol Corporation Limited

Geffen Holdings Limited

Michael Spencer Limited

Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Housing Trustee Limited

Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Whai Rawa Limited

Poukawa Estate Limited

Ted Kingsway Limited

Whai Rawa GP Limited

Whai Rawa Kainga Development Limited

LPF Group Limited

MS10 Limited

Morgan HoldCo Limited

Remuera Investments Limited

Te Waenga Ltd

Tegel Group Holdings Ltd

New Talisman Gold Mines Ltd

New Zealand Automotive Investments Limited 
(from 21 August 2022)

Graham Stuart

Leroy Holdings Limited

EROAD Limited

VinPro Limited

NorthWest Healthcare Properties Management Limited

Metro Performance Glass Limited

H4G Group Limited, trading as Vet South and VetNZ 
(from 1 February 2022)

Director

Director

Director

Director

Director

Director

Director

Director

Director

Director 

Director

Director

Director

Director

Director

Director

Chair

Director

Director

Director

Director

Director

Director

Director

Director

Director

Director

Director

Director

Director

Chair

Director

Chair

Director

Chair

Wendy Thorpe

Online Education Services Pty Limited

Chair

Very Special Kids (ceased 25 October 2021)

Epworth Foundation (Epworth Healthcare)

Ausgrid Asset Partnership (ceased 25 June 2022)

Ausgrid Operator Partnership (ceased 25 June 2022)

Plus ES Partnership (ceased 25 June 2022)

Australian Central Credit Union Ltd T/A People’s Choice 

Credit Union

Epworth Geelong Limited

Data Action (from 3 October 2022)

auDA (from 16 November 2022)

Marcus Nagel

3Arrow AG
Jarowa AG

Barry Whiteside

Kontiki Finance

Pacific Catastrophe Risk Insurance Company

Bayly Trust

Isikeli Tikoduadua

Merchant Finance

Vodafone Fiji 

Fiji Commerce Commission 

iTaukei Land Trust Board 

Special Administrators for Suva City and Lami Town

USP MBA Advisory Committee 

Blair Turnbull

InsurtechNZ

Insurance Council of New Zealand

Ernie Gangloff

Gangloff Consulting Limited

Gangloff Projects Limited

Pacific Training Consortium Limited

BSP Financial Group Limited

New Britain Palm Oil Limited

Highlands Pacific Limited

Business Incubation Solution Limited

BSP Finance (Fiji) Pte Limited

Institute of National Affairs Inc.

University Rugby Football Union Club

Capital Rugby Union Inc.

Veialawa Rereiwasaliwa

Bank of Baroda – Fiji Operations

Director

Director

Director/Trustee

Chairman

Director

Commissioner

Director

Chairman

Chairman 

Co-Chair

Board member

Managing Director

Director

Director

Director

Director

Director

Director

Director

President

President

Treasurer

Member, Local 
Advisory Board

Angus Shelton

Shelton Contracting Limited

Director

Director

Chair

Director

Director

Director

Director

Director

Director

Director

Director
Director

Specific disclosures of interest 

Directors made disclosures in respect of the 
implementation of Tower Limited’s capital return to 
shareholders whereby the company cancelled 1 share for 
every 10 shares held on the record date of 8 March 2022.  
Details of the shares cancelled are set out on page 131.

Directors also disclosed the monetary value of dividends 
received during the year.

NATURE OF  
INTEREST

MONETARY 
VALUE

Michael Stiassny Shareholder of 

17,358 Based on a Dividend 

694,330 shares in 
Tower Limited

Shareholder of 
624,897 shares in 
Tower Limited

Shareholder of 
225,000 shares in 
Tower Limited

Shareholder of 
202,500 shares in 
Tower Limited

Shareholder of 
16,250 shares in 
Tower Limited

Shareholder of 
14,625 shares in 
Tower Limited

Shareholder of 62 
shares in Tower 
Limited

Shareholder of 56 
shares in Tower 
Limited

Beneficial 
Shareholder of 
120,500 shares in 
Tower

Beneficial 
Shareholder of 
108,450 shares in 
Tower Limited

Shareholder of 
110,000 shares in 
Tower Limited

of NZ$0.025 per 
share declared on 
24 November 2021

1562 Based on a Dividend 

of NZ$0.0025 per 
share declared on 
24 May 2022

5625 Based on a Dividend 

of NZ$0.025 per 
share declared on 
24 November 2021

506 Based on a Dividend 

of NZ$0.0025 per 
share declared on 
24 May 2022

406 Based on a Dividend 

of NZ$0.025 per 
share declared on 
24 November 2021

37 Based on a Dividend 

of NZ$0.0025 per 
share declared on 
24 May 2022

2 Based on a Dividend 
of NZ$0.025 per 
share declared on 
24 November 2021

0.14 Based on a Dividend 

of NZ$0.0025 per 
share declared on 
24 May 2022

3013 Based on a Dividend 

of NZ$0.025 per 
share declared on 
24 November 2021

271 Based on a Dividend 

of NZ$0.0025 per 
share declared on 
24 May 2022

2750 Based on a Dividend 

of NZ$0.025 per 
share declared on 
26 May 2021

Graham Stuart

Wendy Thorpe

Marcus Nagel

Warren Lee

Steve Smith

 
134

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AT TOWER

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AT TOWER

135

Corporations Act 2001 (Australia)

Tower is not subject to Chapters 6, 6A, 6B or 6C of 
the Corporations Act 2001 (Australia) dealing with the 
acquisition of shares (such as substantial holdings and 
takeovers).

The Annual Report is signed on behalf of the Board by

Michael Stiassny 
Chair 

Graham Stuart 
Director

Tower subsidiary company directors 

Trading Halt

In March 2022, Tower Limited implemented a capital 
return by way of Court approved scheme of arrangement, 
under which NZ$30.6m was returned to shareholders with 
1 ordinary share for every 10 ordinary shares held on the 
record date being cancelled. In order to facilitate the share 
cancellation, a trading halt on NZX and ASX was necessary 
during the Ex-Date and Record Date for the scheme 
(being 7 March 2022 and 8 March 2022 respectively). As 
such, NZX applied a trading halt as an operational matter 
to facilitate the corporate action, and ASX agreed to grant 
a trading halt at Tower’s request.  

Limits on acquisition of securities under  
New Zealand law

Tower undertook to the ASX, at the time it granted 
Tower a full listing in July 2002, to include the following 
information in its annual report. Except for the limitations 
detailed below, Tower securities are freely transferable 
under New Zealand law.

The New Zealand Takeovers’ Code prohibits a person 
(including associates) from increasing their shareholding 
to more than 20% of the voting rights in Tower except in 
accordance with the Takeovers Code. The exceptions 
include a full or partial takeover offer in accordance with 
the Takeovers Code, a scheme of arrangement (under 
the Companies Act 1993), an acquisition or an allotment 
approved by an ordinary resolution of shareholders, a 
creeping acquisition (in defined circumstances) and a 
compulsory acquisition once a shareholder owns or 
controls 90% or more of the voting rights in Tower.

The New Zealand Overseas Investment Act 2005 and 
related regulations determine certain investments 
in New Zealand by overseas persons. Generally, the 
Overseas Investment Office’s consent is required if an 
‘overseas person’ acquires Tower shares or an interest in 
Tower shares of 25% or more of the shares on issue or, 
if the overseas person already holds 25% or more, the 
acquisition increases that holding.

The New Zealand Commerce Act 1986 is likely to prevent 
a person from acquiring Tower shares if the acquisition 
would, or would be likely to, substantially lessen 
competition in a market.

Directors of Tower’s subsidiary companies during the 
year to 30 September 2022 were:

TOWER SUBSIDIARY COMPANY DIRECTORS 

Tower Services Limited 

The National Insurance 
Company of New Zealand 
Limited

Blair Turnbull, Paul Johnston and 
Angus Shelton  

Blair Turnbull, Paul Johnston and 
Angus Shelton

National Insurance Company 
(Holdings) Pte Limited

Blair Turnbull, Isikeli Tikoduadua, Paul 
Johnston, Ronald Mudaliar

Southern Pacific Insurance 
Company (Fiji) Limited

Tower Insurance (Fiji) Limited

Blair Turnbull, Isikeli Tikoduadua, 
Peter Muggleston and Barry 
Whiteside, Paul Johnston

Blair Turnbull, Isikeli Tikoduadua, Paul 
Johnston, Peter Muggleston, and 
Barry Whiteside

Tower Insurance (Cook Islands) 
Limited

Blair Turnbull, Paul Johnston, and 
Peter Muggleston 

Tower Insurance (PNG) Limited 
(ceased to be a subsidiary on 
28 October 2022)

Blair Turnbull, Paul Johnston, Peter 
Muggleston, Ronald Mudaliar, and 
Ernie Gangloff

National Pacific Insurance 
Limited

National Pacific Insurance 
(Tonga) Limited

Rodney Reid, Peter Muggleston, 
Heseti Vaai, Jeffrey Wright, Blair 
Turnbull, Paul Johnston and Ronald 
Mudaliar 

Jeffrey Wright, Peter Muggleston, 
Blair Turnbull, Paul Johnston and 
Ronald Mudaliar  

Tower Insurance (Vanuatu) 
Limited

Blair Turnbull, Paul Johnston, Peter 
Muggleston and Stephen Grant Ives

National Pacific Insurance 
(American Samoa)

Rodney Reid, Jeffrey Wright, Blair 
Turnbull, Ronald Mudaliar, Paul 
Johnston, Veilawa Rereiwasaliwa

OTHER MATTERS

Donations

During the financial year ended 30 September 2022, 
donations made by Tower Limited and its subsidiaries 
totalled $4,703.94.

Credit rating

In April 2022, global rating organisation A.M. Best 
Company affirmed Tower Limited’s financial strength  
rating of A- (Excellent). 

Waivers

Tower Limited did not rely on, or make any applications 
for, waivers from the NZX Listing Rules or the ASX Listing 

Rules in the financial year ending on 30 September 2022.

136

GRI CONTENT INDEX

GRI CONTENT INDEX

137

GRI CONTENT INDEX

138

GRI CONTENT INDEX

GRI CONTENT INDEX

139

GRI Content Index

Statement of use:

Tower has reported the information cited 
in this GRI content index for the period 1 
October 2021 to 30 September 2022, in 
accordance with the GRI Standards.

GRI 1 used:

GRI 1: Foundation 2021

DISCLOSURE

LOCATION/INFORMATION

DISCLOSURE

LOCATION/INFORMATION

GRI 2: GENERAL DISCLOSURES 2021

2-1 

Organisational details

Pg 142 Tower Directory 

2-2 

2-3 

Entities included in the organisation’s  
sustainability reporting

Pg 142 Tower Directory 

Reporting period,  
frequency and contact  
point

Tower reports sustainability information annually. This report covers the period 1 October 2021 
– 30 September 2022. This report was published on 16 December, 2022. Questions about this 
report can be directed to Emily.Davies@tower.co.nz

2-18

Evaluation of the performance of the 
highest governance body

See Corporate Governance Statement in this link: https://www.tower.co.nz/investor-centre/
corporate-governance/policies/

2-19

Remuneration policies

See Corporate Governance Statement in this link: https://www.tower.co.nz/investor-centre/
corporate-governance/policies/

2-20

Process to determine remuneration

See Director and Executive Remuneration Policy and Remuneration and Appointments 
Committee Terms of Reference in this link:  
https://www.tower.co.nz/investor-centre/corporate-governance/policies/

2-21 

Annual total compensation ratio

Not disclosed: information on annual compensation ratio is not reported externally.

2-4 

Restatements of information

This is Tower’s first report in accordance with the GRI Standard

2-22 

Statement on sustainable 
development strategy

Pg 62

2-5 

External assurance

External assurance approach is covered in our Corporate Governance Statement which can be 
found in this link: https://www.tower.co.nz/investor-centre/corporate-governance/policies/
We have not sought external assurance on our sustainability information.

2-6 

Activities, value chain and other 
business relationships

https://www.tower.co.nz/about-us/

2-7 

Employees

Tower has 780 employees across New Zealand and the Pacific, 59% of whom are women, and 
41% are men. The numbers of permanent, temporary, full, and part-time employees broken down 
by gender and region is currently not available.

2-8

Workers who are not employees

As at 30 September 2022, Tower had 50 contingent workers who are predominantly independent 
contractors on either direct or agency contracts engaged in technology or project-based work. 
There were no significant fluctuations in this number during the reporting period.

2-9

Governance structure  
and composition

Our Governance structure and composition, along with a list of committees of the highest 
governance body can be found here: https://www.tower.co.nz/investor-centre/corporate-
governance/the-board/

Nomination and selection of the 
highest governance body

Chair of the highest  
governance body

Role of the highest governance  
body in overseeing the management 
of impacts

https://www.tower.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/TOWER-Constitution.pdf 

Pg 64

Pg 62

Role of the highest governance body 
in sustainability reporting

Pg 62

2-15

Conflicts of interest

See Code of Ethics Policy in this link: https://www.tower.co.nz/investor-centre/corporate-
governance/policies/

2-16

Communication of critical concerns

See Corporate Governance Statement in this link: https://www.tower.co.nz/investor-centre/
corporate-governance/policies/
Communication of critical concerns regarding ESG topics is to be developed in FY23. 

2-17

Collective knowledge of the highest 
governance body

See Corporate Governance Statement in this link: https://www.tower.co.nz/investor-centre/
corporate-governance/policies/ 
Actions to advance the collective knowledge, skills, and experience of the highest governance 
body on sustainable development to be undertaken in FY23.

2-10

2-11

2-12

2-13

2-14

2-23 

Policy commitments

Relevant policies currently in place can be found here: https://www.tower.co.nz/investor-centre/
corporate-governance/policies/

2-24

Embedding policy commitments

See Corporate Governance Statement in this link: https://www.tower.co.nz/investor-centre/
corporate-governance/policies/

2-25

Processes to remediate  
negative impacts

https://www.tower.co.nz/contact-us/complaints-and-compliments/ 

Remediation process for our material impacts is covered under the relevant topics.

2-26 

Mechanisms for seeking advice and 
raising concerns

See Code of Ethics Policy in this link: https://www.tower.co.nz/investor-centre/corporate-
governance/policies/
Staff are encouraged to raise concerns with their manager, or a senior leader. Tower’s whistle 
blower service provides a confidential avenue to report any serious concerns.

2-27

Compliance with laws  
and regulations

In FY22 Tower recorded no significant instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. 
Accordingly there are no fines to report.

2-28

Membership associations

Tower is a member of Insurance Council of New Zealand and is especially active in ICNZ’s Climate 
Change committee. Other memberships are detailed throughout tower.co.nz 

2-29

Approach to stakeholder  
engagement

Tower takes a collaborative approach to stakeholder engagement. In 2022 Tower developed a 
new company purpose and values with stakeholders at the heart (pg 54) Similarly, our Southern 
Star drives outcomes for customers and our people, this is: "To deliver beautifully simple 
experiences for our people and customers." Our ESG strategy was developed in consultation with 
a range of stakeholders and considers our impacts on various stakeholder groups.

2-30

Collective bargaining agreements

None

3-1

3-2

3-3

Process to determine material topics

Pg 62

List of material topics

Pg 63

Management of material topics

Affordable and accessible insurance Pg 24
Transparent and fair insurance Pg 16
Managing the impacts of climate change Pg 30-35 
Carbon emissions Pg 36-37 
Product development and innovation Pg 20
Diversity and inclusion Pg 54-57
Employee wellbeing Pg 56
Corporate governance Pg 62 and 122-135
Data protection – not currently available
Corporate community citizenship – not currently available  
Environmental footprint – not currently available
Responsible investment – not currently available

Delegation of responsibility for 
managing impacts

The board delegates day-to-day management of the company to the CEO and does not currently 
provide for any additional specific delegation of ESG impacts.

GRI 3: MATERIAL TOPICS 2021

140

GRI CONTENT INDEX

GRI CONTENT INDEX

141

DISCLOSURE

LOCATION/INFORMATION

DISCLOSURE

LOCATION/INFORMATION

GRI 305: EMISSIONS 2016

305-1 

Direct (Scope 1) GHG emissions

Pg 37 
Scope 1 emissions include distributed natural gas in New Zealand and vehicle fleet fuel in  
New Zealand and the Pacific.

305-2

Energy indirect (Scope 2)  
GHG emissions

Pg 37 
Scope 2 emissions include electricity consumption from all business premises.

305-3

Other indirect (Scope 3)  
GHG emissions

Pg 37 
Scope 3 emissions include transmission & distribution losses for electricity & gas, air travel, hotel 
stays, rental cars, taxi travel, working from home, paper purchased (NZ only), waste to landfill (NZ 
only) and water (NZ and some Pacific locations).

305-5 

Reduction of GHG emissions

Pg 37

403-3 

Occupational health services

403-4  Worker participation, consultation, 

and communication on occupational 
health and safety

2016 GRI 401: EMPLOYMENT 2016

401-1  

New employee hires and employee 
turnover

In FY22 Tower hired 307 staff to address growth and attrition. These comprised permanent, fixed 
term and casual new hires. New hires by Gender: Female: 145, Male: 106, Gender Diverse: 3, Non 
Binary: 2, Not disclosed: 51. New hires by region: New Zealand: 271, Pacific: 36 Number and rate of 
new employees by age is currently unavailable.

Over the period employee numbers increased by 82 full-time equivalent staff from 708 in FY21 to 
790 in FY22, due to increased business growth and regulatory compliance requirements. 
Employee attrition was 29.9% in FY22, reflecting the year’s challenging employment market in 
New Zealand. 

403-5  Worker training on occupational 

health and safety

403-6 

Promotion of worker health

Tower workers have access to Employee Assistance Programme counselling sessions provided 
offsite by external trained counsellors. These sessions are arranged by workers independently 
and any information discussed is strictly confidential between EAP and Tower employees. If 
employees choose to get health checks, these are done directly with General Practitioners and 
results are kept confidential between the worker and General Practitioner.

As per the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, Tower has the default ratio of 1 Health and Safety 
Representative per every 19 workers. These representatives engage and consult with workers 
regularly and report any concerns to the Health and Safety Advisor or/and at the Health and 
Safety meeting. Tower’s H&S Management system is reviewed by the Health and Safety Advisor 
annually to ensure risks are kept up to date.

Tower has several Health and Safety committees that meet monthly and are chaired by Health 
and Safety committee members on a rotation basis. The Health and Safety Representatives are 
chosen to represent different divisions of the business and are voted into the committee by the 
Health and Safety Advisor and existing members. Committee members are allocated specific 
time each month to undertake their responsibilities. Their responsibilities include, but are not 
limited to, office inspections, disseminating H&S updates from the meetings to relative teams, 
ensuring H&S is on the agenda at all team meetings and promotion of a wide range of health, 
safety and wellbeing education and activities.

Tower offers training to workers who volunteer to be First Aiders, Fire Wardens, Mental Health 
First Aiders, and Domestic Violence First Responders. In addition to this Defensive Driver training 
every two years is mandatory for all workers where their primary employment involves driving. 
Asbestos awareness training is mandatory for Building Assessors. Training is provided free of 
charge and workers are given paid leave to undertake all of the above training.  

Tower supports its employees that have non-work-related accidents through workstation 
assessments to ensure they have the necessary equipment to undertake their job. Where a 
return-to-work plan is required, Tower will work alongside ACC to facilitate a satisfactory solution 
for the employee. Health checks in the Pacific are done through a local General Practitioner, and 
the results are confidential and not shared with Tower.   

Tower offers employees access to several health promotion services including Employee 
Assistance Programme (online and in person); discounted Flu vaccinations and MoleMap skin 
checks (onsite or through vouchers) and access to trained Mental Health First Aiders (online and 
in-person).

Tower promotes prevention off communicable diseases in the Pacific through education on 
symptoms, prevention and treatment. Our Rainbow network supports education on AIDS 
awareness and prevention.

GRI 405: DIVERSITY AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY 2016

405-1 

Diversity of governance bodies  
and employees

Pg 122-135

405-2  

Ratio of basic salary and  
remuneration of women to men

Pg 57

GRI 418: CUSTOMER PRIVACY 2016

418-1 

Substantiated complaints  
concerning breaches of  
customer privacy and losses  
of customer data.

Tower has not disclosed the number of complaints related to customer data privacy as this is 
subject to confidentiality constraints.

401-2 

Benefits provided to full-time 
employees that are not provided to 
temporary or part-time employees

Benefits are offered to both full-time and part-time permanent employees. Tower benefits 
include Group Insurances, parental leave, ability to buy additional leave, birthday leave, Tower 
insurance discounts, health insurance discounts, partner discounts, eyesight testing, and study 
assistance.

401-3 

Parental leave

Tower offers Primary Paid Carer Leave & paid Parental Leave for staff who have worked with  
us for 6 months or more. For the first 12 weeks, Tower will top up the IRD payment to the 
equivalent of the employee's usual weekly take-home pay. Tower also offers paid keeping in 
touch days, flexible working for six weeks upon return from parental leave, and we will pay a one-
off lump sum payment to IRD of 3% of base salary as a contribution (pro-rated for time  
on unpaid leave).

Additionally, any Annual Leave taken on the employee's return from parental leave will be paid at 
their usual rate. This is more generous than the current Holidays Act legislation and means take-
home pay is not affected when the employee takes paid annual leave.

For staff whose spouses or partners are the primary caregivers we offer two weeks' paid partner 
leave. In FY22: 27 employees took parental leave (all female) versus 31 in FY21 (30 female, 1 
gender not disclosed); 12 employees returned to work from parental leave during FY22 (all 
female); of these 9 are still employed 12 months after return to work (all female).

GRI 403: OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY 2018

403-1 

Occupational health and safety 
management system 

See Health and Safety Policy in this link:  
https://www.tower.co.nz/investor-centre/corporate-governance/policies/

403-2 

Hazard identification, risk 
assessment, and incident  
investigation

Tower’s H&S Management System has an incident register where incidents are reported. 
When reporting, it is mandatory that all incidents are rated using the Hierarchy of Control and 
each incident must have a corrective action added and be reviewed on an annual basis. Once 
entered into the register, incidents are then reviewed by the Health and Safety Advisor who will 
investigate any incidents with an inherent high rating.

Workers are encouraged to report hazards and hazardous situations through the H&S system.
Tower’s H&S Policy is in line with New Zealand’s Health and Safety at Work Act 2015. All workers 
have access to the Health and Safety Policy on Tower’s intranet.

142

TOWER DIRECTORY   

REGISTRAR

143

TOWER DIRECTORY
Enquiries

For customer enquiries, call Tower on 0800 808 808  
or visit www.tower.co.nz

For investor enquiries: 
Telephone: +64 9 369 2000

Email: investor.relations@tower.co.nz

Website: www.tower.co.nz

Board of Directors

Michael Stiassny (Chair) 
Warren Lee (until 30 November 2022)
Steve Smith (until 2 February 2022)
Graham Stuart 
Wendy Thorpe
Marcus Nagel 
Geraldine McBride (from 1 October 2022)

Chief Executive Officer

Blair Turnbull

Company Secretary

Hannah Snelling (until March 2022)
Tania Pearson (from March 2022)

Executive Leadership Team

Blair Turnbull 
Paul Johnston 
Jonathan Beale 
James Brownell (acting) 
Michelle Finch 
Andrew Hambleton 
Michelle James (until March 2023) 
Anna Kooperberg 
Greg Moore 
Ronald Mudaliar 
Peter Muggleston (until March 2022) 
Tania Pearson 
Paula ter Brake (until August 2022) 
Steven Wilson

Registered Office

New Zealand 
Level 5, 136 Fanshawe Street, Auckland

PO Box 90347
Auckland

Telephone: +64 9 369 2000
Facsimile: +64 9 369 2245

Australia
C/– PricewaterhouseCoopers Nominees (N.S.W) Pty Ltd 
PricewaterhouseCoopers Darling Park Tower 2
Level 1
201 Sussex Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia

Auditor

PricewaterhouseCoopers

Lawyers

MinterEllisonRuddWatts

Banker

Westpac New Zealand Limited

Company numbers for FY22
Tower Limited
(Incorporated in New Zealand)
NZ Incorporation 143050 
NZBN 9429040323299 
ARBN 645 941 028

Stock exchanges

The Company’s ordinary shares are listed on the  
NZSX and the ASX. On Wednesday 18 May 2016, Tower’s 
ASX admission category changed to “ASX Foreign 
Exempt Listing”.

Registrar

New Zealand

Computershare Investor Services Limited 
Level 2, 159 Hurstmere Road,
Takapuna, Auckland 
Private Bag 92119
Auckland 1142
Freephone within New Zealand: 0800 222 065
Telephone New Zealand: +64 9 488 8777

Australia

Computershare Investor Services Pty Limited 
Yarra Falls, 452 Johnston Street
Abbotsford VIC 3067
GPO Box 3329
Melbourne Vic 3000
Freephone within Australia: 1800 501 366
Telephone Australia: +61 3 9415 4083
Email: enquiry@computershare.co.nz 
Website: www.computershare.com/nz

You can also manage your holdings electronically  
by using Computershare’s secure website  
www.investorcentre.com/nz

This website enables holders to view balances, change 
addresses, view payment and tax information and update 
payment instructions and report options.

Tower recommends shareholders elect to have any 
payments direct credited to their nominated bank 
account in New Zealand or Australia to minimise the risk 
of fraud and misplacement of cheques.

We also encourage shareholders to receive investor 
communications electronically as it keeps costs down, 
delivery of our communications to you is faster and it 
is better for the environment. All you need to do is log 
in to www.investorcentre.com/nz and update your 
‘Communication Preference’ to enable us to send all your 
investor correspondence electronically where possible.

Please quote your CSN number or shareholder number 
when contacting Computershare.