Singapore's Great Eastern Q4 net profit falls 19 pct

SINGAPORE Feb 14 (Reuters) - Great Eastern Holdings Ltd, the insurance arm of Singapore's Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, posted on Tuesday a 19 percent fall in fourth quarter net profit, hurt by weak financial markets.

Great Eastern earned S$68.9 million ($54.9 million) in the three months ended December, down from S$85.1 million a year ago.

For the full year, net profit fell 24 percent to S$385.7 million.

"The decrease in 2011 (profit) was caused by unrealised mark-to-market losses as the investment climate deteriorated severely in second half 2011, a period which saw credit and swap spreads widening and equity prices declining," Great Eastern said in a statement.

Great Eastern accounted for about 15 percent of OCBC's earnings in the first nine months of last year.

OCBC, Singapore's number two lender, will report its results on Feb 20. ($1 = 1.2559 Singapore dollars) (Reporting by Kevin Lim; Editing by Richard Pullin)