• Total Life sales $1.7 billion, up 19%
• Lifetime annuity sales $289 million, up 18%
• Offshore reinsurance annuity sales $281 million, up 17%

Challenger Limited (ASX:CGF) has reported its third quarter AUM, annuity sales and net flows. Total Life sales increased 19% to $1.7 billion, driven by strong annuity sales and Index Plus sales. Annuity sales increased by 10% to $1.1 billion, with domestic annuity sales growing 7% to $806 million and including strong growth in lifetime annuity sales that were up 18% to $289 million. Offshore reinsurance annuity sales increased 17% to $281 million. Fixed term annuity sales grew 2% to $517 million. Challenger Index Plus sales increased by 41% to $629 million. Challenger Life remains strongly capitalised with a PCA ratio of 1.51 times. The company made significant progress in the third quarter establishing partnerships with superannuation funds, including the expansion of its relationship with BT to deliver an integrated suite of retirement income solutions on BT's Panorama platform. Funds Management FUM was $104.5 billion, a decrease of $11.7 billion or 10% for the quarter, driven by net outflows of $8.0 billion, $3.4 billion of negative investment market movements and client distributions.

Challenger has tightened its FY26 normalised basic EPS guidance to a range of between 66 and 70 cents per share.