Provided by Dow Jones By P.R. Venkat AIA Group's value of new business fell 33% last year as Covid-19 weighed on the insurer's operations, but growth has started to pick up in the first two month of the current year as pandemic restrictions ease. New-business value declined to $2.77 billion, and its new-business margin fell 10.5 percentage points to 52.6%, AIA said Friday. "Sales momentum returned as restrictions were eased and we have delivered year-on-year VONB growth (Value of new business) in the first two months of 2021. The group's financial position remains very strong," AIA Group Chief Executive Lee Yuan Siong said. AIA has increased the final dividend for 2020 to 100.30 Hong Kong cents per share (12.93 US cents), an increase of 7.5%.