Financial services holding company Power Financial Corp. raised its dividend by 7.5% yesterday as the insurance and financial-services conglomerate reported a 7.7% rise in first-quarter profit.

Power Financial, which controls Great-West Lifeco Inc., IGM Financial Inc. and other holdings, said its revenue was down almost 10% to $6.30 billion from $6.99 billion, as premium income fell to $3.70 billion from $4.53 billion, while investment and fee income rose slightly.

Payouts to policy-holders and beneficiaries, meanwhile, fell 17% to just over $4 billion, reducing total expenses to $5.41 billion from $6.18 billion.

Net earnings of $408 million were worth 55¢ a share, compared with $379 million, or 52¢ a share, in the year-ago quarter.

Along with the earnings release, Power Financial said it is increasing its quarterly common-stock dividend to 25¢ a share from 23.25¢.

As reported earlier, Great-West Lifeco, whose operations include Canada Life and London Life, earned $446 million on the quarter, up from $419 million a year ago. IGM Financial, the country’s largest mutual-fund operator, earned $185.3 million, up from $160.7 million.

Power Financial’s interest in Geneva-based Pargesa Holding SA, which has investments in enterprises ranging from the Bertelsmann German media group to French-based cement producer Lafarge, contributed $10 million to first-quarter earnings, down from $11 million.